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Summer Vacation – Elementary my Dear Watson
Last but not least Summer Vacation is here for my little guy. After wrapping up Third Grade with a bang my youngest is starting vacation quite nicely. Though he isn’t attending any music camps or festivals he is staying busy with other activities. Elementary School is a good time for kids to start as many little things as possible to see what they might be interested in the future. The Summertime is a great time to see what sticks and what we can afford. So let the fun begin for the Summer of 2017!
Tennis – volleying and serving
My son is the most naturally athletic child of mine. He has an athlete’s body. Skinny but strong. Quick and agile, traits I can honestly say my other two kids don’t have. My wife and I try to see what each child’s strengths and weaknesses are and try to match activities with those abilities.
This summer we enrolled him in Tennis at the local high school. It was a couple of hundred dollars and it runs for about one month. His sister was enrolled in it the last two years but is too busy this year to participate. We weren’t sure how he would like it but it was a good value for the time spent learning. We always like that. Low Money and Quality Instruction equals Good Value. LM + QI = GV
Game Set and Match
The tennis program finished this week and my son is already talking about going next summer. He loved it! He made lots of friends and more importantly we know he’s good at tennis now. The coach that runs the program told my wife how good he was. He basically said that my son must be good at every sport because he is a natural athlete. That to Tiger Parents is music to our ears. You don’t say?! You have our undivided attention, coach!
Tennis, Anyone?
What we got out of those simple words is that he’s good at sports. Will we have him take tennis lessons? I don’t think so. Tennis is very, very expensive. Having my older son participate in swimming was kind of expensive. Participating in a club team can run into the thousands a year. On top of that going to competitions on a regular basis costs money. The equipment that you need to swim costs money. A good pair of swimming jammers can cost $300 to $500 or more.
We’ve looked into tennis as sport for further participation but the costs are just too high. We will keep having him try different sports to see if we can find the right one for him and for us. We will update this if and when we choose something permanently.
Books and Battling
There is a great program that we learned about this summer in a different town not too far from us. The program has elementary and middle school kids battle each other. The kids are broken into smaller groups and given reading assignments each week. One night each week they meet up and talk about the books and “fight” about the books. Questions are asked and debated by each group. It’s a fun way to have kids read books in the summer. My son likes it and we like it because he reads and he is able to debate other kids about the books. This is a great confidence builder for now and the future.
Anything else
Besides those two structured activities, he practices his cello, does Khan Academy and does some workbooks. Sounds like a lot of work? I guess it is but as long as he sees it as something that he has to do like brushing his teeth. He will get used to it as he gets older. Don’t worry, he plays with his friends on play dates. He plays Minecraft and XBOX games every day as well. Just not for hours upon hours.
Any questions or comments are welcomed on our Facebook Page.
Add-on with more resources for you and your kids:
In true Tiger Dad and Tiger Mom fashion here is a program that was developed by Stanford University to really help your children excel academically. Follow the link below.
Advance a Full Grade This Summer at GiftedandTalented.com
Another program that I found useful for kids from elementary to middle school is Thinkster Math. I know Math is the one subject that terrifies kids the most and some parents as well. Read more by following the link below.
Don’t let your child fall behind. Thinkster Math boosts scores & confidence. Learn more today!
Lastly, I found a site that was started by Moms. I’m not sure if they’re Tiger Moms but they’ve built a site that is good. Read about it some more at Testing Mom.
