Or, 13 more ways to make learning part of your summer.

N: Nature. Take a nature hike, stopping along the path to look at plants and animals. This is a great place to practice description skills. Engage children to think actively about what they encounter by asking questions, “why do you think that tree is dead?” “What kind of animal might have left that footprint?”

O: Oxford Learning. Oxford Learning Camps and programs are an easy way to maintain learning momentum over the summer. Our programs help students catch up in trouble areas, keep up with their classmates, and get a head start on next year’s subjects.

P: Puzzles. Like board games puzzles are great downtime activities that keep the brain challenged. Whether playing Sudoku, Crosswords, search-a-words, or traditional puzzles, this is a fun way to challenge your mind and learn skills such as persistence and problem solving.

Q: Quiet time. Make a time every day to have some peace and quiet. Engage in some active thinking, a little daydreaming, or just spend some down time simply being together. It’s a great way to let the brain make important connections.

R: Read. If there is one summer activity that is equal parts fun and education, it is reading. It doesn’t take science and research to know that reading keeps the mind active all summer long. It also helps develop vocabulary, and increases reading comprehension, which both pay off in the classroom.

S: Scrapbook. Turn summer memories into a hobby that encourages children to engage their brain by writing and drawing about the day’s activities. Cut pictures from magazines and newspapers and gather items such as feathers, or seashells to paste onto the pages for a colourful way to document summer fun. (This is different from “scrapbooking,” but that can be fun too!)

T: Travel. You don’t have to leave your city to experience the spirit of wanderlust. Visit your local tourist bureau and become a tourist in your own backyard. Head to the other side of town to visit a park that you’ve never been do. This is also a great opportunity for children to learn about the city they live in—major street names, directions, and local history.

U: University. For teens heading off to university in the fall, summer is the best time to prepare for what comes next. It’s also a time for summer jobs and, as the last summer of high school, it’s a major life milestone—it’s important to take advantage of this opportunity.

V: Vocabulary. Vocabulary is linked to school success—the greater a child’s vocabulary, the greater the reading comprehension skills are. The best way to develop vocabulary? Reading. Write down new words and definitions in the summer scrapbook.

W: Write. Despite the prevalence of keyboards, penmanship and handwriting are still very important! Personal handwriting style is always developing, so it’s critical to maintain skills. Journaling and writing in a scrapbook are a great ways to improve penmanship over the summer.

X: X Marks the Spot. Organize a fun scavenger hunt or a pirate-theme day and have a little bit of silly fun. Make crafts and invite neighbourhood friends. It doesn’t have to be a holiday or a birthday to celebrate the summer! It’s a great way to break up summer boredom.

Y: Yard Sale. Summer is the perfect time to hold a yard sale. It’s also a great opportunity to teach kids lessons about organization. Kids can help gather up clothing, books, and toys that they no longer use, and sort what they’ve gathered into categories. They can also help with money and counting.

Z: Go to the Zoo. Zoos are a great opportunity to learn something new about the animals we share the planet with. Spend some time before hand researching a favourite animal either online or at the library.

Read Part 1: A-M

Between sports, friends, and homework a teen’s life can be pretty chaotic. In most cases, it’s because of disorganization!

Let’s face it, even though we may be afraid to admit it, when it comes organization, WE NEED HELP!

Here are a few ways that I’ve used to deal with my organization issues:

1. Create a planner. I created a planner that told me to do my homework and study as soon as I got home so that I would be able to free up the rest of my evening for friends or so that I could have time to relax.

2. Get help. If you have a test or examination coming up on something that you just don’t understand invite a friend over to help you.

3. Reward system. When your life becomes less hectic and more organized, your grades get better, so this is a good time to talk to your parents about more freedoms.

4. Improve your learning skills. If you master learning skills (how to study, how to do homework, taking notes, etc.) it becomes easier to study. Plus, you become more organized in how you go about schoolwork.

I hope these tips help you as much as they have helped me over the years!

About me: I go to South Secondary School in London, ON and I have two younger siblings. I have always been a movie guy. Whenever my friends call or text me to go for a walk or to meet up at the school my only response is “Nope. Movie or bust!” Needless to say I usually get my way! But movies aren’t the only thing I enjoy. In the summer I love to bike with my friends down to the Thames River and ride along the trails. The sights and the entire ride are always beautiful. I know, right? How often do you come across a teenage guy who uses the word beautiful when not talking about that hottie across the hall? But there’s more weirdness than that! I also like to bake and listen to old music. OMG! You’ve just entered the Twilight Zone! Anyway, hopefully you’ll enjoy my new posts! Remember to leave feedback and comments at the bottom! – Dylan.

As soon as children learn how to talk, they start asking questions. This is a good thing, despite how exhausting it can be for parents.

Young kids’ minds are sparkplugs of curiosity—continually seeking and absorbing new information. In terms of cognitive development, the years between the ages of three and six are an immensely busy time. Children’s brains are growing at an incredible rate, continually forming new neural connections. As the brain develops, so does its ability to process information.

As neural connections form, children begin to better understand their worlds—the more they understand, the more they want to know. As the brain becomes more and more capable of forming neural connections, the more connections that it wants to make. That’s why the questions never seem to stop. The questions keep coming because the more that the brain understands, the more it wants to know, and the more that it is capable of knowing.

The more questions kids ask, the happier the brain is—the more it develops and strengthens neural connections.

Why? How come? When? Where? Young children are thirsty for knowledge. They want to understand their worlds and know everything that they can about everything. When they encounter something new, they aren’t okay merely with filing it away for later use. They want to touch it, know it, and name it—to understand it.

This period in a child’s development is a unique opportunity to challenge the developing brain to become an actively learning brain. Parents can, and should, challenge their children to think logically about answers to their questions, and to come up with answers on their own.

The ever-questioning minds of young children are the foundation for tomorrow’s active thinkers, which is important, as active thinking and learning is a trait common to the most successful students.

This week’s Secret Agent Josephine post explores what life is like with a four-year old who is smack dab in the middle of the questions phase. Enjoy!

click on the image to see a larger size

They stare blankly at video games for hours on end, barely moving.
They speak in unintelligible sound bites.
They walk around heads down, clutching small devices in their hands.
They have odd thumb pains.

It’s undeniable—kids (and some parents too) are becoming Internet zombies.

With article after article after article telling us that too much technology usage can be bad for us, it becomes increasingly clear that all technology users—from ages three to 103—need to develop some sort of personal guidelines to regulate their online time.

And, with evidence pointing to the fact that younger brains are potentially more susceptible to the effects of technology, it becomes more important that families with school-aged children develop strategies to slow up—if not prevent—their children from turning into single-minded Internet zombies.

Internet Zombie

Here are Oxford Learning’s Top 5 Tips To Develop Healthy Internet Habits in Your Home, for zombies both young and old.

1. Set Some Zombie Ground Rules. Without rules, zombies are prone to run amok. They need guidelines and structure in order to be the best that they can be. This, of course, is true for children. It’s true for everybody. So, when it comes to screen time—be it TV, computer, phone, etc.—setting limits on usage can help kids avoid the problems associated with media usage, such focus issues, dropping grades, and stress.

2. Institute a Zombie-Generated Blackout. What does your family do when the power goes out and wifi is down? The answer is simple: find other things to do. So why not institute a regular family-wide Internet blackout and find activities to do as a family? You can even make it a true blackout and shut the lights off. Play board games by candlelight, or walk the dog together. Make this an activity that your family does that everyone looks forward too. (Plus, with the lights out, you’ll save a little bit of coin on the hydro bill, which never hurts.)

3. Zombie See, Zombie Do. Practice what you preach. If your family decides to have an Internet blackout, Dad shouldn’t be surreptitiously checking his blackberry for the latest World Cup standings. It’s all or nothing. If kids are heavy media users, it’s likely that their role models are heavy media users as well. If it’s good for some to regulate their online time, it’s good for all.

4. Mmmmm…Brains. Don’t just let kids zone out when online—encourage them to think actively about how and why they are using media. Is the laptop used for research for school? Are cell phones mainly to connect with peers? Are video games and iPods for entertainment? Parents can and should set the example by explaining how they use media and what the purpose is. If kids are online for a large portion of the day, it makes sense for them to think actively about what they are doing and why. There is no such thing as being too young to develop media awareness.

5. Zombie Hobbies. Even zombies need outside activities. Whether it is soccer, baking, cycling, dance class, theatre, reading, gardening, skateboarding… it’s important to make hobbies and “unplugged” activities part of the entire family’s daily routine. Again, it’s necessary to lead by example: when parents take part in hobbies, it becomes a reasonable expectation that kids step away from the screen to engage their other interests. It’s all about balance.

The brain is elastic—it can change and grow. This is not breaking news. In fact, it’s the scientific foundation on which Oxford Learning’s instruction model is based. Poor learning skills can be unlearned, and new and improved learning abilities can replace them.

This is known as neuroplasticity. Generally, it’s a good thing.

However, a recent article in the New York Times showed how, thanks to our rampant use of technology, scientists are now concerned that neuroplasticity can work against us to create bad learning habits.

According to the article, our brains can become addicted to the fast-paced, instantaneous give-and-take of the high-speed, connected, online world . This can become a problem where learning is concerned. It can cause issues in the parts of the brain that deal with deep thought, introspection, and reasoning.

The article calls this “fractured thinking.” It also warns that multitasking, which comes part and parcel with Internet use, can lead to difficulties in filtering out irrelevant information.

As you can imagine, this can be problematic in an educational setting.

The article also touches on many other issues that arise from heavy computer usage, such as disconnection from family, compulsive behaviours, and loss of empathy.

Whether graduating from kindergarten to grade one, middle school to high school, or high school to higher education, graduation is a rite of passage. It’s one of life’s important milestones, and it’s a reason to celebrate.

Traditionally, graduation is thought of as an opportunity to celebrate achievements from the past year. However, in terms of education, graduation is much more than a chance to wear fancy clothes and party with friends and family.

Graduation is a time for preparation. It’s a time to consider what comes next. Another word for graduation is commencement, which means to begin. So that means that graduation is not really an ending; it’s a beginning.

Graduation is about saying goodbye to the past and welcoming the next phase in life.
It’s also an opportunity to erase mistakes of past years, to overcome obstacles, and to step forward with a renewed sense of possibility.

So how do you help your child—no matter what age—prepare for what comes next?

Review the past—use the approaching graduation to take note of what has been learned over the previous years. Ask students about highlights from particular grades. Encourage them to think actively about why a particular moment/subject/lesson left a lasting impression. Be sure to review the least favourite experiences as well. The most disliked subjects tend to repeat year after year. In identifying and discussing trouble spots, students develop self-awareness about their learning that helps them take responsibility for their education. Tip: offer reminders to students: remember how much fun you had working on the hot air balloon project? Remember how frustrated geometry homework made you?

Discuss—Now that the graduation celebrations are over, it’s time to start thinking—and talking—about what’s next. For younger kids, it’s good to wonder out loud about what they can expect in the next grade level. Will you like having a locker? What do you think about changing classrooms for every class? For highschoolers heading off to college or university, discuss what might be the most likely learning obstacles. Regardless of age group, always steer conversations toward positive outcomes. The sooner that kids start thinking about what’s next in a positive way, the more likely that they’ll feel positive about the next phase.

Prepare/Research—the more informed that students are about what they can expect, the more likely that they are to feel confident. Take some time to research what to expect in September. Maybe next year will be the first time that your child will have to read Shakespeare, or it’s the first time in a new part of the school. Contact schools to find out teacher names, or email for a list of what to expect next year. Teens heading off to college should take a campus tour and take part in any and all freshman groups and programs.

Set goals—Now that you’ve reviewed past accomplishments, researched, and discussed what to expect in the coming year, it’s time to set goals. Goal setting doesn’t have to be a complicated task. Even young children can learn to set goals. Students of all ages should start thinking about what they would like to accomplish next year. Have them make “Next year, I would like to…”statements where they fill in the blanks. EG: Next year I would like to…raise my hand in class more, make a new friend, improve in math, make sure that I ask for help when I need it, etc.

By reviewing, discussing, and planning for next year, you can transform the graduation experience from just being a single day to celebrate and make it a meaningful part of the bigger educational experience.

We’re an advanced species. We have so many useful gadgets to make our lives easier. But it seems to me that schools have not yet accepted this fact.

We still write tests and exams even though we have all the information that we’ll ever need right at our fingertips. With a single push of a button on our phones or iPods, we can figure out the first 20 digits of Pi, what to do if you’re trapped under a building in Haiti, and what happened in 1812. So why do we take tests and exams? Is it to make us take school seriously or is it just to show our commitment to our promising future careers?

About me: I go to South Secondary School in London, ON and I have two younger siblings. I have always been a movie guy. Whenever my friends call or text me to go for a walk or to meet up at the school my only response is “Nope. Movie or bust!” Needless to say I usually get my way! But movies aren’t the only thing I enjoy. In the summer I love to bike with my friends down to the Thames River and ride along the trails. The sights and the entire ride are always beautiful. I know, right? How often do you come across a teenage guy who uses the word beautiful when not talking about that hottie across the hall? But there’s more weirdness than that! I also like to bake and listen to old music. OMG! You’ve just entered the Twilight Zone! Anyway, hopefully you’ll enjoy my new posts! Remember to leave feedback and comments at the bottom! – Dylan.