Summer Sessions: Second Grade into Third Grade

Aaahhhh, summer. It’s finally here! Now what are you supposed to do with bored children? How worried should you be about the Summer Slide? As a longtime educator and private tutor, I’ve got some advice for you, targeted to your child’s grade level and educational needs. For specific advice, contact me at wtfunction@gmail.com.

School expectations are starting to pick up and so should your summer plans. Third grade typically includes writing exams that can block your child’s school progress. That makes this summer crucial for writing skills. However, stress-free learning is very important and games always trump worksheets. Ask your child to tell you all about their day, in the order things happened. Ask for details about the sights and sounds and emotions of their day. Have them draw the events of their day in pictures. Then, they can write out the story of their week every Friday.

This activity will help your child understand the steps of writing: planning (or pre-writing), rough draft writing, editing, and publishing. Talking about the day (or week) mimics the planning stage. Discussing sensory details helps them organize their thoughts. Drawing pictures can help them write a rough draft of sorts without feeling the stress of performing. Writing out a story to go along with the pictures acts as a form of editing– the pictures help organize the story and the order of events. Finally, publish! Tape the story to the fridge, post it on a corkboard, display it proudly. At the end of the summer, put all the stories into a notebook or folder as a keepsake.

For math, basic facts must be memorized before third grade begins. Your child should be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide up to 12. Beyond the 12’s is helpful, but not necessary. As always, games of any kind are better than activities that bore or frustrate your child. For science, play is best. Everything we do is an experiment, and you can foster a scientific mind by asking simple questions, such as “What do you think will happen?” “How are you going to know?” and “How can you prove that?” The best gift you can give your child is your attention. If your attention includes an interest in what they’re learning and how they’re thinking, you’ll have a happy scholar.