My Daily Journal

Just because school's out doesn't mean that your child's brain has to go on vacation. This leads to an intense brain drain in kids that parents must avoid, says many studies.

Indeed, a study conducted by the University of Missouri showed that when students return to school after summer breaks, they've lost one to three months of learning, with math and spelling skills declining the most.

Still, you shouldn't stress about finding–and financing–the perfect summer class for your kid. “Any activity can be a learning activity,” Draper advises. Counting the silverware at dinnertime, guessing how many baskets Shaquille O'Neal will make during his next game or reading the comics in the newspaper, for example, all could help keep your children's minds active. “If a child's brain is stimulated, a child's brain is growing,” Draper says. Try some of the following ideas this summer, and your kids may never know they're being schooled!

GET COOKING: Whether you sign your child up for a class or teach her right at home, cooking allows children to read, work with fractions and measurements, and learn about chemistry while they are busy mixing and stirring. Try The Everything Kids' Cookbook by Sandra K. Nissenberg (Adams Media Corp.) or A Good Soup Attracts Chairs: A First African Cookbook for American Kids by Fran Osseo-Asare (Pelican), and produce the meals with your child from start to finish.

Questions to ask your child while you cook might include: Why do we put salt in a cake? If the recipe calls for one egg and we're doubling the recipe, how many eggs do we need? Since it's summer, consider cool seasonal recipes, such as homemade ice cream or frozen fruit pops, to beat the heat.

START A BOOK CLUB: What better way to get your kids excited about reading than to let them pick the title and even plan a gathering around it. For younger children, consider a themed party that Mom or Dad supervise where kids come dressed as their favorite book character. For tweens and older, give them free rein to pick their books and plan their gathering, encouraging them to talk about the story on a deeper level.

Check out kidsreads.com for ideas on how to start and run your child's book club. Or have your child join the Summer Reading Is Out of This World Challenge (May 1-August 11), hosted by Reading Is Fundamental, Inc., in which they must log in a certain number of reading hours in order to win a prize. Visit rif.org/readingplanet for contest details and additional activities.

HIT THE ROAD: If you're going on a family road trip, consider visiting some historical locations like Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia or the Birmingham Civil Rights District in Alabama. Or plan to stop in at some historical sites along the way to your destination. For example, Disney World is a few miles from Eatonville, Florida, the nation's oldest incorporated African-American municipality and the hometown of famed author Zora Neale Hurston.

During your travels, help your child map and track your route by estimating, then calculating the miles you'll traverse. Challenge the children to research your final destination, gathering interesting facts, pictures and tidbits of African-American history.

ENCOURAGE WRITING: Buy your little one a large notebook and have her write in it every day. Allow her to decorate the cover with stickers or photos. Suggest that she write down three things she did that day or three tasks of which she was proud. Then at the end of every week, sit down with your child and share what she's written. Besides helping with penmanship, getting your kids in the writing habit will aid them academically. Check out educationunlimited.com for academic camps in writing, music and other activities for kids in grades 4-12.

GET BACK TO NATURE: If summer camp isn't in your budget, kids can still learn about the great outdoors in the neighborhood. Take a guided nature walk in the park or a stroll down the street and observe plant life. Or collect bugs, worms and other living things. Back home, research what the bugs like to eat and make a habitat for it. Or look up indigenous wildlife in your area and try to find examples of it. Turn your walk into a treasure hunt. To find a national park near you, visit nps.gov.

BE ART-SMART: Reading, writing and arithmetic aren't the only subjects kids should engage in to keep their brains in motion. They also need a healthy dose of the arts, be it visual, musical or theatrical. So get your young one involved in a drama group or music or art class. Check your local parks for free concerts and performances of plays, or take the youngsters to an art and natural history museum. Even if your kids claim disinterest, get them to tell you why. Ask them questions about what they're seeing and hearing to make sure they understand the art form. For a list of exciting and enriching summer activities that can be done at home, visit education-world.com.

Your child shouldn't take a vacation from learning just because the school bell is silent for a couple of months. We're not talking rigid theory and lecture here. After two full semesters in the classroom, your kids deserve some downtime. It's possible, though, to sneak some fun educational stuff into their summer activities.

Ever notice how kids love to hear stories about themselves–about the day they were born, or what their first words were? That's because at around age 2, they begin their struggle to define themselves in relation to the world, says Dr. Marilyn Cardine, president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Few things are more important to that struggle than knowing as much as they can about those who came before them. So pull out the old family photo album. Page by page, tell the story of important events (your wedding day, for example) as well as the seemingly mundane (”I had an attitude in this picture because Grandma wouldn't let me … “). Expect shrieks of laughter and lots of ribbing over your hairstyle and the clothes you wore back then. You can use this sharing as a learning tool.

* Invite your child to write a stow about the history of the family. Perhaps he can interview one of your elders for the project.

* Focus on one particular time in Black history–the Jim Crow South, for instance–and help your child understand how her family endured.

* Continue the oral tradition by helping her retell the stow of a family event to a younger sibling or, better, an elder.

* Help your child create a scrapbook of his own recent history–the just-completed school year, perhaps.

DAY-TRIPPING

Museums to the Max–You'll rarely hear the words “Let's go to the museum!” roll off a youngster's tongue. But that's probably because they haven't been exposed to them. Many preschoolers are attracted to the bold colors and recognizable shapes of contemporary art. Exhibits that encourage storytelling are likely to appeal to 4-to-8-year-olds. And kids at any age will mimic their parents' interest in the arts. So start early. Children's museums–where everything is downsized and designed to be explored by tiny hands–are a good initiation. That makes the average $6 coyer charge–roughly the same as the price of a fast-food meal–well worth the cost of admission. And don't forget to check out freebies, like the ones at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston: It offers free kiddie classes that teach everything from world music to African mask making.

Book 'em–Think your child's too boisterous to enjoy an afternoon at the library? Think again. Virtually all local branches have year-round programming that actually encourages children to roar, scream and jump, all in the name of acting out their favorite stories. In the summertime such programs go into high gear. Many libraries even have day-camp-like activities that allow kids to get bookish all season long. Even if your nearest library doesn't offer an extensive program, make it a regular stop on your summer itinerary, no matter what age your young one. Toddlers love colorful board and picture books. If you have an older child, target one of his favorite subjects every time you visit. One day you might check out all the interesting stuff on dinosaurs; the next, look for books about horses. Got a reluctant reader? Find books with movie or cartoon tie-ins; it's a start.

Animal Magnetism–Nearly all children love animals, but many parents find that the novelty of the zoo experience may begin to wane at around age 10. Keep it interesting by keeping it new. Don't just passively walk by the primates waiting for monkey high jinks. Make it a fun learning opportunity and get your youngster involved. At a fairly young age a child can start to identify the vertebrates and invertebrates. Quiz kids on what each animal eats, its native habitat and so on.

HIT THE ROAD— HARD

Make this year's getaway more than water slides and action rides. An organization called learningvacations.com offers a database of hundreds of educational and adventure vacations designed with kids in mind.

Even a trip to the family reunion can pack a learning wallop. Encourage your budding filmmaker to videotape and narrate the events. During festivities, plan a visit to some of the city's cultural landmarks.

But no matter where your travels take you, it is a scientific fact that your child, maddeningly, will repeat “Are we there yet?” every ten minutes at the least. You can fight the road-weary blues, but it takes a little thought.

* Work it out. Whatever your child's age, you never want to leave home without paper, crayons and markers. They can doodle, but they can also learn. For example, the sign says your destination is 120 miles away. Ask “If Mommy's driving 60 miles per hour, how long before we get there?”

* Stop. Unless you enjoy cruel and unusual punishment, make plans to stop a few times along the way. When you sit down to a meal, don't expect the impatience to wane. While they're waiting for the food to arrive, kids can get planetwise with a game of “gastronomy.” Using things like coffee-cup lids and ketchup and sugar packets, they can re-create the solar system. If the coffee-cup lid is the sun, sugar packets can function as Earth and Venus and other planets, the ketchup packet as the moon and so on.

* Write it down. Encourage your child to record her adventures by starting a travel journal. She can write about the places she saw, the people she met, the cool things you did as a family and more.

THE FUN WORLD OF PLAYACTING

The land of make-believe is every youngster's utopia. Not only do they love games of pretend but playing also helps improve their ability to think and solve problems. “Children, especially young ones, learn best through open play,” says child psychiatrist Dr. Marilyn Benoit. Playing pretend with your children will encourage them to stretch their imagination and help you get to know them better. The best part about pretending is you can do it anywhere, anytime. Benoit says it's fine to initiate games of pretend, but be sure to follow your child's lead. Some ideas:

* Stuck in traffic? Instead of cursing the driver ahead of you, engage your youngster in a game of “What if … ?” You might say “What if we had a rocket ship … ?”

* Follow the leader. For once the little guy gets to be your boss. Your child will gain confidence and boost his imaginative powers in this old-fashioned game. But you have to play by the rules: Whatever silly antic he does, you have to copy.

A roundup of fun books for our kids

AGES 3-5

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr., and John Archambault. Illustrated by Lois Ehlert (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers). Without even knowing it, kids will be learning the alphabet in this island-inspired rhyming story.

Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers). Chuckle along with the impish little girl at the center of this tale as she branches out to discover her world while her parents beg her to behave. Grown-ups and children alike will also fall in love with Nelson's true-to-life illustrations.

AGES 6-8

George Crum and the Saratoga Chip by Gaylia Taylor. Illustrated by Frank Morrison (lee & low). George Crum, a biracial boy who grew up in the mid-1830's, had to overcome being picked on by children at school as well as a community that didn't see him as equal. He developed an interest in cooking, which eventually brought all different people together for a potato dish that would change culinary history.

Read and Rise by Sandra L. Pinkney (Scholastic). The flagship book for the Read and Rise Literacy campaign, it inspires children to learn how reading opens up doors to endless possibilities in life. The foreword is written by Maya Angelou, and the book is filled with images of our children engaged in learning.

AGES 9-12

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. Illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering (Candlewick Press). Here's a good old-fashioned fairy tale and Newberry Award winner. Even though the main hero is a mouse who falls in love with a real princess, there's enough adventure, drama and happily-ever-afters to keep young readers flipping those pages.

Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs: Lost in the Tunnel of Time, #2 by Sharon M. Draper (Aladdin). One of four rifles in a series aimed at African-American boys, the story of 10-year-old Ziggy and his crew of friends who learn about the Underground Railroad when they're “trapped in time” is sure to get kids hooked.–

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