10 Strategies to Help Post-Kindergartners during the Summer Time

            Children are a bundle of energy at all times. If not properly channeled they will end up using that energy for destructive purposes. Else we will be left with the other scenario where they will laze around in front of the television or gaming boxes all day and while away the summer. So there is always a need for fun, interesting and educational activities to engage their agile minds and bodies.

            Here are a few ideas, in fact 10 strategies to help post-kindergartners during the summer time, that are very popular with my children and their friends, who have all just graduated from Kindergarten. All these ideas help in improving the child’s motor sensory reactions and they learn a lot through play. Learning through play is one of the best ways to educate children.

1.       Day out to the local Library – Find out if your library has any special book club or reading sessions. Children will enjoy browsing through the books and ask them to tell you their favorite story in their own words. It encourages imagination.

2.      Flashcards – Make your own ones with your child depending upon their subject of interest. It can be a very enriching experience.

3.      Clay models – Gives children a chance to work with their hands and you can even provide small tools like ice cream sticks to shape and mould the clay.

4.      Collages – Go for a walk in the park or any area nearby and have the children collect things that they find on the way in a small basket. Once back home, arrange them with some glue onto thick paper sheets and make a collage about the “Walk in the Park”.

5.      Alphabet soup – I say “Why stop at soup?” Have your child name a letter of the alphabet and see how many fruits and vegetables you can come up with it. Then use that fruit or vegetable in a meal. Fun way to get children to eat fruits and vegetables. Make the child note the fruit or vegetable they ate with a particular letter and encourage them to finish the entire alphabet series in this way.

6.      Shopping – Make a day of shopping for groceries. Make lists and spell out in bold letters or cut out pictures of it for non-readers of what you need to buy. Have the children find those items in the store and reward them well.

7.      Banking- Play the shopping game at home and teach children math the fun way. Give them fake cash and have them pay for and learn to take the exchange change.

8.     Expression time – Get round shaped paper plates and make children make faces on them to expression different emotions. You can then make paper strips with different colored paper and make hair with it.

9.      Reading time - Sit the children together and have them pick their favorite books and make them read it aloud. This will increase their confidence level or have them read to a younger brother or sister.

10.  Fun day –After all summer time is fun time. Spend a day lazing out by the pool or on a beach building sandcastles, swimming and eating ice cream.

These 10 strategies to help post-kindergartners during the summer time is sure to bring some relief to elders and help children use their energy in constructive fun.

Post-Kindergarten is a whole new world for these little children, so let’s help them the best we can and let them have the summer of a lifetime.