Summer Rebound

Summer Rebound

                                                                                          By: Mr. L

August, the dreaded end of the summer. Even though we have September's Labor Day to look forward to; the summer is winding down this month... what's your back-to-school plan? These few weeks before school begin is what we like to call here at Mr. L's Tutoring and Enrichment: The Summer Rebound. The mindset shift that we all need to make as our air conditioners still work on full blast. What do you prepare for the school year? What does the Summer Rebound look like for your household? Here are a few tips to slowly get into the routine for the school year.

Mini Lessons and QUIZ

Small sudden lessons about family, concepts you understand from work, daily experiences, can be used to help introduce something to your child; then quick short quizzes on “what you just heard” allows a parent to notice if your child is missing large portions of information. Doing small quizzes like this can help with information retrieval. For opportunities to be frequent, you can have discussions around a larger topic, and present them Monday-Friday. 

• For Example: Science for 3^rd grade. Earth and Space sciences:

Monday: Introduce kids to the pneumonic: My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nachos.

Tuesday: Make the kids come up with their own pneumonic using the same letters.

Wednesday: Inquire what each planet must be like and connect that to its distance from the sun. Thursday: Teach that there are 4 Gas giant and 4 inner rocky planets.

Friday: Summarize all they had learned about planets in a 3-paragraph speech informing students one grade below.      

This active engagement with material can help with information retrieval after repeated application. “Retrieval practice produces greater long-term retention than studying alone. This finding suggests that testing, which is commonly conceptualized as an assessment tool, can be used as a learning tool as well” (Roediger & Butler, 2011) These mini lessons can hold other information, like your family tree; biology facts, and math fluency facts. Direct engagement with this information and pairing it with a caretaker will make your kids aware of knowledges place in your priorities. What we care for, we make time for.

Inspire a Debate

“Clarity, relevance, consistency, appropriate form variety. And adequate information are important elements for effective writing and the proper use of logic helps students achieve them.” (Teaching Writing with Logic, Robert Boyd) Nowhere is this more evident than in verbal debates. Starting silly debates with kids can help them organize their thoughts in a safe environment, where real feelings can start to emerge. (Teaching emotional regulation during these debates can be a double whammy) Being able to stay focused on talking points while the risk of amygdala hijack looms large, each statement testing the waters for nerves and boundaries.

Kids have opinions, and parents are the first to hear those wacky, sometimes surprisingly insightful, perspectives; so when kids are given a chance to speak their opinion and meet healthy resistance, this can allow kids to start to structure their response while sticking to facts. What I mean to say is that, now that your child has experienced push back or rejection of their idea/point of view are they changing the way they deliver their message? Could you teach them how to decipher when a point is best laid to rest? Can you guide them in scanning their bodies and interpret the connection between statements made and how your body reacts to them?

Adults in America have seen their share amount of unhealthy interactions between people who do not agree with each other. It’s time to give your child the skills to know when to disengage when they’re met with an unruly debate partner. Being composed, aware of your emotions, while maintaining tone and delivery is a lot for an adult to do. Why not start practicing as a child? Give your kids the opportunity to align arguments with values of the listeners. Explain to them that these debates are not only among two people but include the audience and leave the decision up to them. Stack information and sources that the listeners (your audience) would find appealing or persuasive, the debate is about swaying the audience, not your opponent.

CREATE THEIR OWN PHYSICAL GOALS

Summer is full of downtime and play, parks are usually being utilized during the nice summer nights, and gyms give high school students free access during these summer months. To help keep the active lifestyle, have your kids set a goal in the gym. Whether that be a cardio goal, attendance goal, physical weightlifting goal; this sets the stage for “where am I now and where do I want to be in 1 month.”

Instead of verbally making these attestations, have your child write it into a notebook, poster, or post it on the fridge somewhere that is visible to all. Follow up on their progress, discuss their strategy to get to their goals and their location on the timeline. This perspective, access, planning, thoughtfulness allows your child to start developing an internal locus of control. A sense and connection between the outcomes that they encounter in relationship to the work they are putting in. Show them that progress is made from small steps taken consistently; over time, results don’t show up overnight. Instead of just passively hearing these things, your child will have the opportunity to actively engage goals, fine tune and analyze strategies, dealing with loss of motivation and their backup plan.

When it’s all said and done, the summer rebound is about preparing to change tracks; to adjust how kids engage with abstract information. As parents it can be helpful to start thinking about these aspects and how they will adjust to the change in schedule, social access and afterschool activities. Here at Mr. L’s Tutoring the second half of August is usually the busiest with parents trying to get tutoring set up to prepare for the upcoming school year; we offer small online classes for students to prepare for the educational frameworks each grade is given by the state of Massachusetts. Reach out via email if you’re interested! These three tips can help you focus on your child’s thinking, feeling, and consistency of physical discipline. Apply and provide me feedback on how it went for you. Leave your comments below!

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