Summer and Learning

I'm a firm believer that everyone needs the summer vacation. Students, parents, teachers, support staff, and specialists. We all need to reboot. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that I spent a fair amount of time wondering about how much my students retained, and who spent time reading, playing math games, or even drawing pictures. Basically anything that means not watching TV or playing video games. 

I'm not anti-TV. There are some YouTube videos and TV shows that my 2 year old son really enjoys. And Despicable Me. Oh my goodness, Despicable Me.  I do, however, try to put a cap on "screen time", and when I do, I watch the most amazing things happen. He learns!

On walks he sees pine cones, learns names of birds (though most of them are robins), learns the difference between the road and sidewalk, and that when he whines and doesn't hold my hand to cross the street, he gets a time out for not listening. ; )

I made him a sensory bin with rice and threw in some containers, spoons, rocks, and trucks. I saw him fill, dump, find, count, and make a major mess. It was the best. 

I was so proud of his learning!

Through these and other moments, I began to realize that maybe I thought too much about a certain kind of learning...a formal kind of learning.  I realized that I am probably not giving my students enough credit about the things they learn over the summer, and that these are also important for the upcoming year. 

It's also a good way to reflect on the upcoming year and begin to think about how students learn best. Do they learn best sitting in rows, filling out worksheets and being compliant?  Is that how our children learn best?  

I have to say that I didn't give my son a detailed lecture about how to use a spoon to eat soup, have him fill out a work sheet labelling the different parts of a typical dinner, grade him, then move on to the the next unit, "Tidy Up Time-Putting Away Your Toys".  

It may be a dramatic example, but I think the point rings true. 

Let's celebrate the fact that our students are learning over the summer, and try to think of ways to incorporate what they know into what they are going to learn with us this year!