Keep Kids Engaged: Budget-Friendly Summer Learning Ideas for Parents | Episode 49

Read our blog for more information about summer activities to keep teens learning - https://fallinginlovewithlearning.com/blog/f/budget-friendly-learning-fun-for-tweens-and-teens.

Episode Summary
🎉 Ready to transform your child's summer into a season of fun and learning without breaking the bank? Join host T.D. Flenaugh on this empowering episode of the Falling for Learning podcast, where we dive into budget-friendly summer learning ideas that keep kids engaged. 📚✨

Navigating the path of education can be challenging, especially during the summer months. T.D. shares invaluable insights on how to keep kids learning through community resources, museums, reading programs, and more. Whether it’s enrolling them in a reading challenge or exploring local museums with interactive activities, these tips ensure your children stay curious and informed.

Reflecting on personal experiences and a holistic approach to education and well-being, T.D. emphasizes the importance of consistency and engagement. From discussing the benefits of reading aloud to exploring nature and building projects, this episode is packed with actionable advice for personal growth and empowerment.

Tune in to Falling for Learning for more insightful content! We drop new episodes every Saturday at 5:00 PM. Follow us on YouTube for more tips on how to empower themselves and their children through education and personal development. 🌟

📢 Don't miss out on our parent and educator community of lifelong learners! Subscribe now for tips on keeping your children on track for success. 

#BudgetFriendly #SummerLearning #EducationalGrowth #PersonalEmpowerment #FallingForLearning #KidsEducation #FamilyActivities #HolisticLearning

#SummerLearningTips #LearningPodcast #LearningOnBudget #FreeMuseum #FreeLearning

#VacationBibleSchool #ReadingIncentives #FreeLearning #SummerEducation #SummerGoals

CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Intro
1:04 - How to Keep Your Kids Learning While Having Fun Over the Summer
2:28 - Tip #5: Community Resources
9:29 - Tip #4: Reading Programs
16:40 - What to do if your child doesn’t want to do the work
18:30 - Tip #3 Having a project
21:58 - Tip #2 Free Online Learning Resources
30:19 - Tip #1 Family Activities

Transcript

TD Flenaugh: 0:00

Reading is definitely something that takes a hit. If we're not practicing those reading skills, they are losing their ability to read well, they're out of practice. And it's harder to get back into it. So making sure that they are continuing their reading throughout the summer, having them enroll in a reading challenge. And when I'm saying reading during the summer, I'm not talking about four hours at a time, but consistency is the key. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the falling for learning podcast, please hit the subscribe button. We're here for you. And you want to stick with this channel. If you have teens and tweens where you're a caregiver, right? Maybe a parent might be a caregiver, and you want to know what to do to keep them on track for learning and stay on track for success. Hit that subscribe button. I am so glad that you have joined us today. This episode is about keeping your kids learning while having fun over the summer. And this specifically talks about the teens and the tweens. Today, we have an exciting episode because it's filled with information about how you can ensure that your child is positioned for having a learning advantage. Now, the opposite is over the summer, right. So it is important to understand that we can't sit around all summer and don't do any work. That research shows that some kids lose as much as two great levels, to great levels worth of progress and learning. So instead of giving them the advantage, you're giving your kid a disadvantage. Now I know that funding could be a big issue, especially since they're at the age where they don't necessarily need extra supervision. And you may still have to work. So depending on your family situation, you might have felt like okay, this is time for them to be at home by themselves. And the budget doesn't allow for me to have them in an extra program. And so we have some tips for broke parents as I used to be myself. Now we're going to first start with out of the out of the five ways we're going to start with number five way to get our kids still learning and having a good time is looking into the community resources. And there's a lot of free ones out there. For example, many museums offer free admission. On a daily basis. What they asked for instead is like a donation, for example, our California Science Center asked for a donation. You know, obviously, it can be as low as $0, if you just don't have it 1015 or whatever you like. But the interesting thing about museums like this, they are built for kids, it's full of interactive learning activities. So museums are a great place. You want to think in terms of kid friendly museums, often they already have some type of scavenger hunt or something like that for the kid to go around and find things at the museum, take little notes, get a stamp. And you can also help them beforehand, they could do the research. So which museum are we going to go to be very careful that you're not asking them? Do you want to go to a museum? That's not what we're asking. We want to fill the summer in strategic ways with learning opportunities. So you're not asking them if they want to do something or not, you are going to ask them which museum, you got to choose one. So which one is it. And of course you could choose if they're not going to choose. And a key element and keeping things fun is giving them some choices is not just what you're telling them to do. You're giving them some choices, you're giving them some rewards, some choices of rewards that really do mean something to them, not just to you. And so it is important for you to have them in mind when with whatever you're doing, have conversations with them, communicate with them about it. Give them clear expectations about what you want them to do. And it should not be all just writing and sitting down at the museum, but it should be an interactive museum. And you have to do some Googling and not a lot of you know, free research, Googling and finding some fun activities. If they don't already have like a little scavenger hunt for finding different things at the museum. You can of course, provide that or you could ask them, look through the website and find 10 Things that you'll find or five things, what's reasonable, you may be at the museum for two hours. And so maybe it's not 15 things, maybe it is five things, and then they could just explore the rest of the time. But you want them to be able to tell you and articulate different things about what they've seen, and what they learned. So that's key, keep them learning. So they're not just going to the exhibit and running away, but they're able to tell you three things about it. So that they are practicing that vocabulary, they are building up their knowledge skills, they are doing some logic and some thinking, really important. So when I'm saying museums and science centers think outside the box that also includes aquariums. You know, places like SeaWorld different places like that have different learning activities that can be built in that they get to learn about animals, science, different types of scientific realms in our world, right? So think about it, it could also have something to do with computers or technology. So think about it, about how you can include your child in the learning. If they're very artistic, it can be something that is artistic, it can be a music museum, we have a Grammy Museum, here in Los Angeles. So those are different ways of thinking about what they're interested in, and including them in it. But it's key you're trying to get them to articulate us vocabulary tell you about what they learned, and the history and different facts and information. So it's free, and they could have a lot of fun with it. Another element of keeping it fun for them going to the museums, or these outings, because it's just an umbrella of things. It's not just an Museum. But you also could think about bringing a friend, a cousin or something like that. Again, if you're a very busy parents, it may not be you who was going, but you are asking a family member, a friend or someone to take them to a museum and have these learning activities for them. Of course, that takes coordination and communication and a village right, which we've talked about building and helping them to get those activities into, they're not just staying at home every day doing nothing. And not stimulating themselves and their minds. And they're losing learning that they had over the summer. They could capture their learning through journaling, video blogging, there's many different ways to capture it, doing a video, like doing pictures, and writing a caption under each picture, putting it on social media, but they are displaying their learning and their understanding, again, asking them that you use that key vocabulary and explain what was interesting to them. What they didn't know that they now know what they understand some logic reasoning. So that's how you keep it going for them. And including a child, their age, or a friend or something is going to add that added boost of fun. And of course, they should both be doing the activities together. Not okay, he has to do it, but you don't have to. But we're agreeing to do it together, we have a incentive that they are trying to accomplish as they're going through and they have something that they are creating. And again, it doesn't always have to be written, but it can be spoken. That's a way to display your knowledge. It also could be pictures that they are labeling. So there's different ways to display the knowledge. And you can agree on that and give them choices as well. And it doesn't have to be different museums, the Museum can be the same one, because the first time we're looking at the space exhibit, the next time we're looking at the plant exhibit. And maybe between June and August, a new exhibit comes out and you go visit the new exhibit. So it does you can go to the same place multiple times and find a lot of joy, fun and information out of the same place. We're gonna go on to number two, we're going to think in terms of reading programs that to help our children reading all summer libraries and bookstores and other organizations also provide incentives for the child to learn to be reading. Reading is definitely something that takes a hit. If we're not practicing those reading skills. They are losing their ability to read well. They're out of practice. and it's harder to get back into it. So making sure that they are continuing their reading throughout the summer, having them enroll in a reading challenge. And when I'm saying reading during the summer, I'm not talking about four hours at a time, but consistency is the key. So when we're thinking about the summer activities, like if we're going to eat, to go to museums, or something like that, go once a week. Be consistent about it. Okay, so the libraries offer a lot of wonderful, wonderful resources, they give you book list. And they also have reading incentive programs. They also have people who will read with you or to you, your child, they have a lot of online resources now, too. But a library is a great place to go to. During the summer time, my mom used to have us go to the summer program at the library. Now different libraries offer different things. Now, maybe it is going to be something that is two hours or one hour, maybe it's longer. Again, think about if there's someone who can help take them to that library, or something like that. So think about your village, and who you could work with, again, thinking about consistency, going once a week to the library, checking out books, having a reading time that is every day, 30 minutes, when you get home from work, maybe they're reading or 30 minutes in the morning, you decide on a time and have some consistency. And as they're reading every day, and they're able to explain to you again, displaying their knowledge, drawing pictures of it. And I'm talking about older kids, they could draw pictures of it, they could label pictures, they could create little comic strips of what they've read. So all these things help make sure that they're displaying their knowledge, and they're not pretending to read. Now, sometimes that's an issue pretending to read. So I do have kids read aloud. And you can have them read aloud for 10 minutes, and then do silent for a little bit or you can have them read aloud the whole time. You don't want to make it punitive, please don't find yourself arguing with them. But you do want to keep them consistent with their reading. And so give them that expectation and giving them predictable time when you want them to read. And you'll be there helping to monitor them, even if you are washing dishes, cleaning up cooking, whatever and they are reading to you for a couple of minutes. Give them some time to talk about what they've read about. So they're not just reading, but they're also processing the information by explaining what they've read, why it was important. What was funny, what was exciting, what was boring. What they really thought didn't make any sense, and how the writer wrote something. Now think outside of the box, I'm always gonna say this, it does not have to be a storybook. A lot of times some children are into nonfiction. They want to know more about that basketball player that they have been watching on television. They want to know more about why this machine works the way it does, how have cell phones really expanded. They might be interested in having their own business. So they're going to be reading articles about entrepreneurs. So again, it's not just one thing, and sometimes parents trip kids up because they're like, No, you need to be reading a thicker book, you need to be reading a blah, blah, blah, if they are reading more baby books, in your opinion. And again, it might be your opinion. In fact, you might have a higher Lexile level, there's a lot of comic novels, and the word is escaping me right now. Whatever the novels are with the comics in it, I'll come up with I'll come up with a name later on. That might that still may have a higher Lexile level Lexile is how they measure the how hard a reading text is. or difficult to read the type of vocabulary that are that is in it. So it might be your opinion, but give them some time to read what they want to read. Even if you think it's a baby book or too easy. So compromise with them also allow them say okay, well, I also want us to read a little bit about the election together because I heard you. You know, you showed me something on Tik Tok about the election that I thought was interesting. Can we read this article together? And again, if you're finding some resistance from your kids and getting some of this done, make sure it's you doing it with them, and you're doing it with them in a fun and engaging way. So taking turns, even using voices, some of the things they didn't when they were younger, you could do it in a different way. But do it on their level. Like you can still have fun reading with them. Like you could just use a British accent if you want to just to be silly, but you're reading it, and you're doing it like a reporter. But you know, not the babyish way, but a funny way that is still getting to the work, and giving them lots of compliments, and encouragement. And if they're feeling frustrated, because we know our teens and tweens are dealing with those horror motions, the hormones and emotions and sometimes they're just not intuitive, and say, Okay, well, we could come back and do this later on. But this is something that we need to do. All over the United States, 75% of children don't know how to write well. Add that to the fact that so many people out there are trying to silence the voices of those who have been oppressed, and trying to prevent them from telling their story, who's going to tell your story. If your child doesn't know how to write, well, I have two books to address this issue, the rewrite method and the rewrite method workbook, written to make sure that parents know what to do that educators know what to do to get their children to write better, and just not write better, but love to write, make sure that your next generation could tell their story. And they won't be silenced. Go to falling for learning.com today to purchase your set. You know, you want to have rewards in place when they're doing what they're supposed to do. But be aware that you also may need to have consequences. And I'm saying natural consequences, not you yelling and fussing at them. But naturally, okay, well, we're not going to be able to go to that waterpark now, because you didn't do your reading. Right. So that's why I was saying when you have actual consequent, like fun rewards that they want to do, that they're more likely to do the work. Now, if you end when you make it fun and engaging, not something where you're yelling at them and threatening them, like you better get in there and do that work. Right. But, you know, let's read let's read together. Oh, do you see this new law? That's out? What do you think about this? Would you vote for this because you're going to be voting pretty soon. So having conversations with your child will really help to open them up to continue learning, making it fun, and if they're having a hard time. So we'll come back later on, we'll read I'll give you some time to relax, I don't want you to be upset. This is supposed to be fun and engaging. I want to spend time with you. And you know, take a break. But don't try to force it. Because that's going to lead to them just forgetting get the rest of the summer, right. So you don't want to burn that bridge. You want to keep working with them and know that sometimes they're just not in a good mood, or they're really kind of cranky, but still hold them accountable. Don't argue with them, say okay, well, you're not going to do it right now. And then if that happens a lot, then you're like, Okay, well, we're not going to this, when I go into that, I just want you to read I want you to continue to grow and get better, and not argue with them. Okay, because it may be difficult, but hopefully not if you're doing it with them, and you're having a fun time with them. The next thing having some type of project that they're working on. So the project is something that's real tangible that they're creating. So it is it could be something and I'm gonna take it right to the like the internet world, a virtual world, they could be coding, they could be working on coding and creating a coding project or an app or something like that. They could also be building something real. Again, like I said, tangible concrete, such as, you know, organizing, you know, shelves, building shelves for the garage. And that could be simple as far as you know, buying a shelving kit that they put together IKEA or something like that, right? That's very easy to put together. They could be building it with a family member or something like that. So again, look into your village or learning opportunities, because you may not have a family member that is really wanting to help with the learning in like academic sense of the word, but they might be really happy to help them build something like shelves for garage or something like that. So think inside your village, think outside of the box, you know and think about who can help you. growing things is also very important. planting things and again, think about their choices. Do they Love honeydew melon? Within let's make some honey, Let's grow some honeydew melon, right? Do they love limes? You know, I'm just making up things here. And but again, give them a choice about what they want to grow. And it does not matter if you have a big backyard or front yard or whatever, that you could just get little pots, put it in the windows, put it on your porch or something like that. So there's ways to get this done in big areas and small areas. Again, part of it is learning, measuring the growth reading about what do watermelon need, like we're growing watermelon, does it need watering every day? Does it need watering every other day? How much is it growing every day like we're measuring it, we are maybe drawing a picture taking a picture of its progress throughout, we are, you know creating a book. So we could share that with someone like this is how the watermelon grew from a seed to this depending on your growing season. And whatever, you might just start off with a small plant that you get from the Home Depot or something like that. And then you are tracking its progress from there. And so those are ways to keep it enjoyable and fun. And again, if it's something that they like they like to eat tomatoes, okay, we're growing tomatoes. And then this is how they can be a part of what they're doing, be interested in it, and have fun with it. And again, give them expectations of three times a week, I want you to write down your observations, using the vocabulary looking at this article talking about it together. So those are ways to keep it going. These are basically free or low cost activities. If you've got value, so far, pause and hit that like button, or the subscribe button and the subscribe button. Right. So we appreciate you, we're gonna go on to our number three. So we have talked a lot about outside activities that get kids up and moving tangible projects, resources of the library, but what I want to shift to right now is talking about how they have free online learning resources. So more real, concrete academic activities, you should have like an ending report card or something or been talking to the teacher to know what was a challenge for your child, right. And then you could work on that you could also use resources such as AI XL learning. And there's also Khan Academy, that they have these activities that they do a type A dot diagnostic, and they help a child with working on particular skills for math and reading. And we've talked about science, and also social studies. So you may have to pay for those. But there is a free version of Khan Academy that you could use. So really take a look at those resources that are available. And again, little short bursts of time with consistency. So five days a week, I want you for 30 minutes doing your work on Khan Academy, working on your math, again, you if you have some resistance, do it with them, talk to them about it together, don't just send them off to the corner threatening them that they better do it. But going in and working with them is going to make a big difference in how much they are bought into the progress and the progress and the process and have conversations about what they need to be working on and how they feel and how this is working for them. And again, looking into your village. Is there someone that maybe can tutor them one on one in person in exchange for something else? Or maybe they just need volunteer hours or they like to do it? Think about it as when I was a kid I my mom and my aunt had a tutoring program called tutoring for educational excellence. And we help people read and and we did tutoring and it was free. So you again may need to do some Googling or some searching in your neighborhood go to on that nosy neighbor.com That's what my mom calls it. Nosy neighbor.com Anyway, it may not be nosy neighbor, but whatever neighbors.com I think it is. You can find ask you know, are there resources, free programs so that you can again make sure that your child is doing what they can also want to point out and I just thought about it. The Vacation Bible School. A lot of places have a vacation Bible school. I think it's usually in the evening. But that's awesome. Oh, a learning resource, because they are going to be reading, interacting, and they could really have a good time with that. So check that out. They could go to one vacation bible school or several, I don't know, check it out and see many programs. Many museums also have programs for kids to be learning, like they have a little summer camp or something like that. And often they have scholarships program. So maybe the scholarship program is 100% free, or maybe you pay, you know, 50% of the costs, take a look and see, because there are research resources out there, if you have a little bit more of a budget to spend the programs like the reading program, or the math program through Khan Academy, or some type of learning program that's already set up. Again, being consistent is key, talking about their progress, talking about how they feel, and seeing how they're moving forward. Now, sometimes kids try to cheat that system. So you want to make sure you got to keep your eyes on the prize, too. They might just click through and not even try. And then you don't really see the progress. So you want to make sure they're you're locked in to what they're doing. And talk to them about that, like yeah, you can cheat yourself, because that's what they're doing is cheating themselves, them not taking it seriously and just clicking through, is going to waste their time, and they're not going to get the progress that they deserve. So talk to them about being showing up for themselves, right, that the skills and strategies and resources they're going to need for themselves as they carry themselves forward as adults, as they are maturing, as they are trying to find their purpose and their talents. So take it seriously. And you're only asking for them for 30 minutes. And maybe your kid is way behind. That might be the case. But that does not mean that they're a machine that needs to work nine hours a day, on academics during the summer, the consistency is going to help them make steady progress, and it's going to be digestible, it's going to make sure that they can do 30 minutes for the long term, and not nine hours for one day, nine hours for the next day. And after that they're refusing to work. Okay, keep them down in with short bursts of learning, making sure that you give them some incentives, some fun activities after they've done what you've asked them to do. And again, set it up beforehand, you want to go to the waterpark this weekend, these are the three things I need you to do. And I wouldn't say give them five or eight things that they need to do give them three things they need to do, I need you to track your work on your your project, your building project, or the garage, I need you to read 30 minutes every day. For the next five days. I need you to work on your comic Academy 30 minutes a day, I just quick 30 things. So the rest of the day, they're able to have fun and play and whatever. But there's these three learning activities that I want you to do 30 minutes here, 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there. And then you know, let them enjoy their summer, don't take up the whole summer, all day every day with the seriousness of learning, because the goal is long term learning them to enjoy lifelong learning and the benefits of that. But if we have burnt them out, they are not going to get the benefits of that. So be aware of it. It is very serious. But don't try to push them to you know, be robots that learn on day. Okay, I've made that mistake before. And so I'm telling you, from my experience, don't do what I did. You know, try to keep it fun and light and interesting. And if there's a break that's needed, give them a break, come back later, and give them that space and grace. Not to say I'm not doing it again, but said okay, you need a break right now we're going to come back to it and let them know we're going to come back to it. But right now you go ahead and take a break. And again, even if they're not done, they haven't done very much. 30 minutes, okay, and then you want to reassess, maybe they're not getting that much done in that 30 minutes, because they're not being serious about what they're doing. You may need to actually backup what you're doing and do a lower level of work and help build them up. Or they may not be taking it seriously. And then you need to tell them you know, I'm trying to work with you. This is what we want to do. I don't want to waste your time. I only want you to do 30 minutes, but I need that 30 minutes to be quality. If it's not quality where you're actually getting things done, then we're not going to be able to do these different activities. Do you want to do, and so just be serious with them. Don't argue with them. Just be really real and make sure that you follow up. Pay attention, don't just tell them to do these things, sit down with them and do it, make sure that they're doing it and try to make it as fun as possible. Okay. So I'm going to shift now to the family activities, family activities. Okay, so summer obviously gives family activities more time to spend with family. So one thing again, I brought up earlier, the National Park Service lets fourth graders go to all the national parks for free in some states even extend that to two state parks too. So again, find out if that is possible for your family. And that makes any sense. If you guys are able to do that, that's an opportunity available for you. And then you want to think about how you can set up some summer travel for each other. Again, it could be road trips, you're driving up to that state park or that National Park, and doing a little hike or just staying overnight one night or more. Just figure out how you could have some little fun drops into the summer. And again, adding and learning elements such as a video blog, writing a blog, doing a picture with, you know, captions, they could put on social media, they could write about it, they could have a travel book that they're creating, or the summer. And again, keep it consistent. It could be one once a month, it could be once a week. Once every two weeks, keep it consistent. Thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate you. And we are going to help you keep your kids on track for learning and stay on track for success. Thanks again for supporting the falling for learning podcast. New episodes go live every Saturday at 5pm. You can watch us on youtube.com at falling for learning or listen on all major podcast platforms such as Apple, Google, Audible, Spotify, and much more. For more resources visit falling in love with learning.com We really appreciate you have a wonderful week.