May 20, 2001

The Summer Parent

School will be out but learning is always in

Bob Chase
President, NEA

Summertime-yes, "the livin' is easy" and "fish are jumpin'"-but that is not the whole story. Not if you are a parent.

What a parent does with his or her child after school lets out has a huge impact on how that child does when school reopens.

Teachers can tell the difference immediately. Some children return to the classroom after summer vacation primed to learn. After a quick refresher, they are ready for lift off. Other children, however, return to the classroom as if awakened from a long, amnesia-inducing sleep. It takes an intensive review effort just to get them back up to where they were when school ended.

It is parents, the child's first teachers, who make that difference.

Research shows that parents who read aloud and regularly to a child play a decisive role in their child becoming an avid, rather than a reluctant, reader.

Parents who play fun mental games with children, especially games that encourage children to figure out spatial relationships and patterns, lay the foundation for a child's enjoying math.

And parents who encourage their child's artistic expression-in music, drawing and painting, or drama-not only nourish the child's spirit, but also help the child to do well academically.

But a word of caution. For summer to be intellectually stimulating, it need not be, and indeed must not be, regimented. It is a child's right to be a child, and to enjoy the pleasures of a childhood summer. That can't happen if every hour of your child's day is scheduled.

While no one wants his or her child slumped in front of the TV for hours on end, neither do you want to make it a summer of stress. Children get enough of that in today's test-crazed schools.

With a little imagination and a lot of common sense, parents can steer a middle course between these two extremes-the TV-hypnotized child and what psychologist David Elkind calls "the hurried child."

Let me offer some suggestions for parents.

Use That Library Card. The free public library is a great American institution. Go with your child to the library. Make it a weekly outing together, and top it off with a visit to the local ice cream parlor.

Read Aloud. Read aloud for at least a half-hour every day to your child. Snuggle up in a cozy spot and read. As your child grows older, and you move into chapter books, your child might, for a time, still prefer Goosebumps to Charlotte's Web or The Narnia Chronicles. Don't fret. Reading something is better than reading nothing.

The Book Search Game. Summer is a time of yard sales-or what we call in New England "tag sales"-and used books are plentiful and often cheap. Make it a game: If your child can find a book worth reading for $2 or less, you will buy it. I never ever heard an adult complain-"Oh, I grew up in a house filled with books-it was awful." Quite the contrary in fact-people invariably say what a pleasure it was. Summer cottages full of books evoke similarly warm memories.

Mind Teasers. Toy stores these days offer a variety of fun brain games for children of different ages-everything from the Rush Hour Traffic Jam Puzzle to 'Smath and Slimey Chemistry. And for children of middle school age, there is the free Figure This!Math Challenges for Families (1-877-GO-SOLVE).

A recent poll by Public Agenda showed that 71 percent of parents want to become more involved in their children's education. Well, summer's a great time to take the plunge. And the sound you hear will be your child's next teacher applauding.

Bob Chase

President, National Education Association

1201 16th Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20036

(202) 822-7200