Well, that was a fun school year. Now what? Will you extend summer to hit those areas of struggle? Will you take a well-deserved break and maybe a vacation somewhere safe? Maybe you school year-round and only take a short pause for summer. I suggest taking a good look at academic supplements for summertime.
You might call me a supplements superfan! Afterall, they can do anything you want! In need of more practice? Would you like to add critical thinking? Maybe you need alternative or parallel instruction on a particularly tough concept? Or perhaps you need help adapting material to meet a certain learning style? We at RRC have even created an entire catalog of supplements called Enrichment and Resource with a handy worksheet to assess how to enhance your child’s learning.
I recently got a call from a parent for multiplication summer supplements for an 8 year old. I shared a workbook with songs, handheld manipulatives, a multi-player math game, and some flashcards. None of them were pricey and the parent could easily choose two or three. You can do this too if your child has a skill to improve and you need ideas!
The end of a school year is the perfect time for looking back at what worked and what did not. You are part of this, too. Was something too time consuming or too challenging for you to teach? There are so many questions to consider. Here is a little handout you can print to help you visualize how things went. These pages cover math, ELA, science and social studies, with questionnaires to get you thinking.
The goal is to determine what sort of supplements might be a good addition to your curriculum. After a crazy year, there may be areas where you just need a little something for the kiddos to work on, not a curriculum, but a supplement. You might choose to reinforce math facts, practice word problems, review grammar, do some creative writing, work at reading comprehension or refine handwriting. You’ll be pleased that most of these can be done without much or any help from you, so you still get your break as well. If you are unclear how a supplement is different from a curriculum, here is a helpful video to clarify.
Summer is the perfect time to rest, revisit, and restore. Enjoy this time to gather your thoughts and plan ahead for what has to be a smoother school year for all of us. ~ Sara
