BACK TO SCHOOL
Local educators offer tips to help kids get ready for the school year
The ripples from COVID-19’s disruption are still being felt in education today. Schools continue making up for learning losses from the time students spent away from in-person instruction and while summer break serves as a respite from studying during some of Yuma’s hottest weather, Yuma’s education professionals encourage parents and guardians to help keep their kids ready to go back to school this fall.
To help prevent summer brain drain, Mendoza, Mohawk Valley School District Superintendent Shanna Johnson and Somerton School District Assistant Superintendent Kim Seh offered a few tips.
KEEP THEM READING…
Mendoza, Johnson and Seh encourage parents to keep kids engaged, especially when reading’s involved.
One way to keep them engaged is by finding reading material on topics your kids love.
She noted that the Yuma County Public Library District offers a lot of free activities throughout the county, including East County.
“Mohawk Valley will not be doing summer school but the Yuma County Library that is housed at our school will be open Tuesday, Wednesday [and] Thursdays and will offer a variety of programs,” commented Shanna Johnson.
At home, Johnson suggests parents set aside time daily to read to their kids or have them read on their own.
“... with reading especially, we even ask our parents to make sure that if their child isn’t reading, they’re being read to,” Mendoza added. “We have a very high ESL (English as a Second Language) population. So sometimes the misconception is, ‘I can’t read to them because it’s in Spanish.’ And actually, yes, we do want them to be able to read to them even in Spanish.”
… AND CREATING
Seh noted that the fun that comes from exploring a book can extend to exploration of all kinds.
Mendoza noted that the City of Yuma offers plenty of arts and crafts activities in the summer but families can also rely on YouTube. One thing Salida Del Sol students particularly enjoy making with YouTube’s help is slime.
One creative activity she recalls kids enjoying was from a family night for Earth Day that involved recycling products. Families cut gallon milk jugs in half, made balls out of foil and then tossed the ball back and forth catching it with the jug halves.
PLAY GAMES, SPEND TIME TOGETHER
Recycling products at home to play creative games is also useful for spending time together. Mendoza shared that games can be very good for “disguised learning.”
“There’s also a lot of games now that are learning games but disguise learning so that (kids) don’t realize they’re learning because they’re playing a game and they’re getting to the next level,” she said. “So we have several programs that we use here that our kids really like because they think they’re playing a game but they’re learning their math facts or they’re doing fractions or they’re coding and they enjoy that because it’s game-based.”
A quick internet search on learning games for kids yields plenty of results for parents to sift through.
Board games can be similarly useful. They can encourage kids to think strategically, count money and points, recall words or trivia and identify patterns. And they also bring family together.
“We’re so busy a lot of times, you know? We don’t all sit down for dinner at the same time,” Mendoza said. “We’ve hosted some family nights this year that have just been really nice for our families where they’ve just sat and played board games because we don’t always have that time. So even just playing a board game together, using some recycled products to create a game.
“If you don’t have a game at home, there are places, coffee shops that have games. Like I know North End coffee shop and Coffee Bean, they have games that you can sit and play. Puzzles is another good one with all of that critical thinking. But what’s nice is when you’re sitting down to solve that puzzle, some conversations are happening. And we’re so good about texting and social media that we don’t always have those face-to-face conversations. It’s just that
time set aside for those conversations and just to have fun and play and enjoy family.”
Although plenty of games are available digitally, Mendoza and Johnson caution parents to limit kids’ screen time.
“I think that it is very important that parents monitor and limit their children’s screen time,” Johnson said. “Any interactive activity is so important to building social skills and problem solving skills. This can be as simple as planning meals together, reading recipes and creating grocery lists. Have your child go through the entire process with you.”
GET ACTIVE
In addition to substituting screen time with home activities, Johnson encourages kids get active.
“Physical exercise is also so important,” she said. “Our summers are very long and hot – we must be creative about keeping children moving during the summer. Swimming and creative means of exercise inside can help keep students active. An active body helps build an active mind.”
Seh suggests families take their kids for fun outdoors swimming or rafting. Going fishing might not be as active of an outing but she recommends it for the time spent in nature, too.
“Spending time outside is very healthy for body and mind development,” she said. “Always be careful of the heat and take precautions to be safe.”
Mendoza recommends exploring sports that kids might enjoy too.
“In our school especially, soccer is a huge thing,” she said. “Our kids love, love, love soccer. They can’t get enough of it! They love soccer, they love playing board games, we have some teachers that have opened up their classrooms for students to just come and play board games when they don’t want to go outside.”
As Johnson noted, it may take some creativity to be active indoors but it’s possible. Games like Twister, Hopscotch or Duck, Duck, Goose can be played inside. And toys like jump ropes and hula hoops can be used indoors, too, given enough space and a safe environment.
TEACH ‘EM TO COOK
Another highly suggested activity is cooking. At Salida Del Sol, Mendoza commented that the two most popular classes in the 21st Century Learning program are soccer and Crock Pot Cooking.
“(The kids are) always so excited when they try a new recipe,” she said. “They also, at the end of the year, created their own recipe so then they had like a smorgasbord of ‘Come and try my new creation.’ But there was also a lot of learning involved in that, with the measuring and what goes well together. What is the cost? Is this affordable for a family? Is this affordable within our budget? You can talk about budgeting.
“But yes, definitely cooking together even if it’s a Crock Pot because that’s a little easier and especially our kids can do it. We don’t have to worry about them touching a hot plate or getting burned.”
TALK MONEY (AND TIME)
Mendoza recommends teaching your child about budgets when creating a recipe together but one especially important skill to teach is counting money. Along with reading, she identified it as one of the biggest things to teach at home.
“We always encourage parents to let kids count the change that they have in their purse,” she said. “The problem is, a lot of times we’re a cashless society. We have debit cards, we have ApplePay, we don’t always have loose change. So counting money anytime they get a chance.”
Another waning skill she’s noticed is telling time with analog clocks.
“We’ve lost how to tell time with the analog clock because everything is digital,” she said. “So really, those are the things that we’ve noticed in the last three years, I would say, that students don’t have that they typically would have had.
“Usually they’re able to count money, recognize what a penny, a nickel, a dime, a quarter is, and how much is that worth. But because, again, we do a lot of things online, we pay with the debit card, we’re not counting out our pennies to pay in line, they don’t have that exposure to it.”
She suggests practicing with whatever change might be available in families’ car and cup holders. Getting cash back at a store and paying with cash can also extend opportunities for kids to practice counting change.
For older kids, Mendoza recommends helping them learn to budget. Especially when they’re doing chores or earning money, they can learn about the costs of items they might want to save up for and about tax percentages they’ll need to include when figuring out how much they need to save.
TRAVEL, EVEN AT HOME
“Our families don’t always have a lot of resources to take vacations but what we share with them are virtual tours that they can take of like, the Statue of Liberty,” Mendoza said. “You can actually go up the Statue of Liberty virtually so we encourage virtual tours. We know a lot of times, zoos have live cameras when they’re expecting the birth of, like, a baby panda.
“Those type of things, we encourage because if they don’t have the resources to get out of town to do that, now with technology we have the capability to experience some of that virtually.”
Seeking out virtual opportunities and finding films or books about places around the world can help children travel from the comfort of home.
When traveling somewhere, however, Mendoza says that playing games like I Spy can be useful while riding in a car and keep kids engaged. Going to a museum or a quick trip to the beach can also be very educational should your family have the means to do so.
AT THE END OF THE DAY…
At the end of the day, keeping kids busy with a variety of fun and educational activities can really help boost their skills and confidence for the coming school year. Mendoza, Johnson and Seh emphasized prioritizing family time and making the most of everyday activities.
“Throughout all these activities, encourage your child to read and use the skills learned at school during the year,” Seh concluded. “The most important is to spend quality time together as much as you can to encourage and support your child’s growth.”