Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Summer Literacy + Fun = Sigh of Relief




I had read that children's literacy skills often regress during the summer and I thought I would try to counter that by making sure we do reading and writing during the day.  We read every night, but the kids have been wanting to have a lot of video game time this summer and I wanted to try to balance it out a little better.

(Interestingly enough, there was an article in today's Hamilton Spectator that said that only children of lower-educated parents experience the regression of literacy skills.)

Anyway, I was asking (okay, forcing) the kids to write about what they had done on our camping trip or with their friends, etc.  It wasn't exactly fun.  Okay, it wasn't fun at all.  Not for any of us.

Today I was going through the whole scenario when my oldest son came to the rescue in the form of a great idea.  Instead of just writing down random things he suggested writing letters to each other.  He proposed being the 'mail man' who would deliver all the letters.

Everyone got into it, even me.  You'd receive a letter and then you'd respond, and vice versa.  The kids loved it.  They were laughing and giggling.  They were reading the letters and writing letters, and they thought it was a great game all at the same time.

Whew.  Thank goodness for sons with good ideas!

No comments: