The Summer Routine: The 4 R’s

Four “R’s” of Summer

Summer is a perfect time to put “formal” learning on hold and practice some of the skills that were taught during the year. What better time to add some hands on practice and real life experience? Children need to practice what they have learned in a practical sense, they hold on to these skills longer and develop a better understanding of what they have been taught.

Here is the first of my four “R’s” of summer that can add some fun to your days and will not add stress to your child:

1) Routine​:

Start a summer routine with your children. Just like a schedule for school, work or sports practice, a routine can keep a child on track and organized. Routine also eliminates stress because it gives you an idea of what comes next. With children that have additional learning needs, it helps keep them grounded. Every summer we started the day with expected tasks. Each child had a calendar and we planned what fun things we would do for those short 3 months in front of us. For those that needed to stay on learning tasks it helped them plan and not feel overwhelmed. We tried to mix learning right in with fun summer activities. We planned recreation events based on what the children were interested in or what they wanted to try over the summer. When those activities were added I snuck in ways to cover goals that needed reinforced. For example, if a child needed to practice reading and struggled with spelling, I would make flash cards while they read difficult words or rules and we would make a fun matching game out of it. It is amazing what an extra 10 minutes a day can do to turn something into a routine. Another example was to have the children plan out the activities. Being at home presents challenges but you can access online resources for this. If you can’t use the city map to physically go to the location, take a virtual tour with your child being the tour guide. This presented the perfect opportunity to practice math, time and communications skills without feeling like they were being tested or overwhelmed. This made learning and practice really fun. Think outside the box and make a list of how routines for daily, weekly and monthly tasks can help you and your family.