Summer Bridging Activities - Use It, or Lose It! Start with Letter Writing
Practice the Skills, Exercise the Mind
Ask any athlete or musician. If they take a vacation and don’t practice for a couple of weeks, they lose their sharpness. Then, they have to practice for weeks to get back to the level where they can play as they did before. For the same reason children lose their school skills in the summer vacation months. That’s especially true of reading and writing and other basic skills. If kids don’t read and write regularly over the summer, they start the new school year far behind where they were at the end of the previous year.
The loss of skill over the summer is such a serious problem that educators have a term for preventing it. They call it Bridging. Instead of letting kids slide into a ravine of inactivity, build a bridge of activities that will link the work of one year with the next.
In this blog, you will find specific examples of how you can develop bridge activities for your children – fun activities that also serve the purpose of maintaining their skills. Here are a few easy ones to get your children started:
Make a weekly trip to the library for at least one book.
Write a weekly letter to a relative or friend.
Keep a weekly expense record on spending the allowance or grocery money.
Most people think first of reading because reading is central to all learning. But this summer, why don’t you make writing the focal point of a bridging activity? Through writing, your children can bring all the other important skills into play. They have to write about something, don’t they? When they write a letter to Grandma, they can write about the book they are reading or what they are learning about frogs at camp.
Get grandparents into the act.
Ask your children to write a weekly letter to their grandparents. Grandparents have a natural interest and pride in their grandchildren. Most of them will respond to letters from grandchildren--either in writing or with a telephone call. For your children, the letters to grandparents can act as a means for summarizing their weekly activities and what they are learning week-by-week. Prompt grandparents to ask for letters, and of course, to respond to them.
For younger children, set up a pattern that they can follow so they know how to get started. You may wish to set this pattern for your children:
Dear Grandma,
This is the most interesting thing I did this week.
I learned these things.
What did you learn this week?
Love, Sammy
This pattern not only focuses attention on learning, but it also requests a similar response from Grandma or Grandpa. The same pattern could be used in writing to a friend or any relative.
Writing opens the door to spelling, vocabulary, and grammar.
Children may realize they aren't sure how to spell a word or express a thought properly when they begin writing. If your child asks you for a little help on how to spell or how to express an idea in correct grammar, give her the help she asks for. If, on the other hand, she is enjoying the process of writing her letters and seems happy with the result, don’t focus the letter-writing on those elements. Remember, the goal is for your child to look forward to communicating with others through writing!