Enrich your child’s summer with the 4C’s

While your children may be excited about their upcoming summer freedom, some of you might be worried about them forgetting all that they have learned during the school year. Loss of academic skills during summer months is what is sometimes referred to as "summer slide." Studies demonstrate that children can lose almost a couple of months of grade-level equivalency in math and reading over the summer vacation.

A great way to enrich your young ones is by pursuing activities that help promote the four Cs: Collaboration, Communication, Critical thinking and Creativity. Technology and media can be used to help children in building these skills, and summers are a perfect time for this type of exploration.

Boost communication:

Help children express their emotions and opinions and connect with others with the help of podcasts, video talks, and storytelling. You can encourage your child to start Vlogging (creating video blogs) and subscribing to like-minded Vloggers. Vlogging offers an amazing exposure to homeschooling children as they get a chance to interact with people from around the world. There are also several storytelling boards online that can be used by children to create their own stories. This is a great way for them to express their emotions and feelings.

Collaboration:

Parents and children can work together and take up the role of producers as they create multimedia productions. You can create simple HTML websites or power-point projects together with each of you having your own designated role. This will help in building team working skills.

Critical thinking:

Encourage ingenuity, strategy, and sharing of ideas with the help of several open-ended digital-creation apps or tools. For instance, Minecraft is a sandbox of creation and adventure that gets children to dig deep.

Creativity:

Whether you use technology or old school methods, there are so many different ways to encourage creativity in homeschool children. Do a lot of DIY projects together. Also give children the space to become musicians, artists, or designers by using digital sketchbooks, online music work stations, and much more. 
For more information about math curriculum, science curriculum visit #LearningHouse Canada