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Keep your child’s academic skills sharp this summer by planning several brain stimulating activities each day. No need to be a certified teacher or become a drill sergeant with daily drills. Simply plan fun math, science and language arts activity each day to keep your child engaged and learning all summer long. Important skills can easily be reinforced each day by counting steps, counting money, measuring ingredients for cookies or Jell-O, setting a timer for cooking activities, finding numbers on phones, clocks and speed limit signs. Make sorting fun by matching socks. Discover shapes with a 50 piece puzzle which can be left out for a few weeks as everyone participates and adds pieces as they pass by. Prepare play-doh with your kids and watch siblings smile as they measure and mix. Summertime is a wonderful time to introduce chapter books, as your child becomes invested in the story and looks forward to the next part of each adventure. Children can become bored over the long summer months. Boredom leads to meltdowns and frequent temper tantrums. Be an intentional teacher and give your child a brain boost this summer! Read more in my syndicated column “Work is child’s play when learning is fun”.
Diana Boggia has a masters degree in education with licensure in preschool, elementary and special education. She taught children with multiple disabilities for 15 years and has been working with parents (families) with behavioral concerns for more than 23 years. She develops individualized strategies to build self esteem and diminish negative, attention-seeking behaviors for each child to be successful in achieving remarkable results. Throughout her work with parents Diana has developed a program that includes hands-on materials encompassing limit-setting, developing structure with schedules, teaching time management, increasing listening skills and parenting with incentives, rather than threats. These successful strategies have changed the dynamics of many families who were struggling with their child’s behaviors.
