As we head into the summer in the United States in two months, families and children look out for some time away from schoolwork and to some vacation. In India, summer is already here now, and many families are taking time away from the rocky school year. Children should play outdoors during summer and enjoy their time with friends and family barbecuing, playing outdoors, and water sports. They should definitely take time to explore the clear skies and do some hiking, and maybe learn some new activities like cycling and skating. But, at the same time, summer coding courses for kids are very popular for various reasons discussed below.
It is important for children to sign up for some learning activities (not at the cost of the above) during the summers. More and more families are signing up for tutoring for their children during the summer. There are many benefits that tutoring can give students over the summer. Here is a list of some of those benefits of continuing to learn using tutoring services.
- No Distractions: Without the distraction of schoolwork, the summer gives children time to learn about things that interest them. If a child has a love for the outdoors, get them outside learning about nature, animals or geography. If a teen is glued to their video games, challenge them to make their own video game characters and storyline. If you start with a child’s interests, approach it in a fun and casual way, you may be surprised how they embrace learning.If they like to explore coding, put them into coding classes and challenge them to build their own websites, apps, and games.
- Continue the discipline and schedule of learning & curb the ‘Summer Learning Loss’: One of the main reasons families opt for tutoring over the summer is to keep the learning going. Students who take a break over the summer months are prone to something referred to as ‘summer learning loss.’ This is when students can lose up to two months of the progress they made through the school year. However, if students continue with learning, even setting aside one or two days a week, it helps to continue with the momentum of the school year and not skip a beat.
- Close Learning Gaps & Boost Confidence for Next Year: Tutoring is an effective way to build upon foundational skills and empower children to believe they can do anything they put their mind to. Academic success has been directly linked to self-esteem especially in primary learners. With the help of a tutor over the summer, who can create a tailored program incorporating the student’s interests bridging last year and next year’s curriculum, the student will be able to close learning gaps and feel confident for the next grade.
- Build new interests & learn: With remote school being offered again in the fall in many provinces, self-regulatory skills such as: organization, communication, self-motivation, time management, and study skills will be crucial for your child to be a successful online learner. Over the summer gives children the opportunity to learn and practice these skills in different ways. A tutor can show students how to create and manage their own schedules, create To-Do lists, and use timers to stay focused and get tasks done.
Summer Coding Courses for Kids
UnicMinds offers a range of summer coding courses for kids with short duration (15 day) introductory courses and at the same time the regular beginner to advanced courses are also available. Young children eager to learn coding can start with the basic programming courses like Scratch Level 1 and Level 2, Space Programming and Arduino. Children who have some prior exposure can work on their basics to become better at programming by taking various projects in text-based programming such as Python, Java, and C++. Specific courses at such as Space Programming, UnicMinds Young Coders Program, Computer Networks & Ethical Hacking, AI & ML, and Arduino could be of special interest for students during the summers as they may not get the opportunity to study these topics in detail during the rest of the year.
Students tend to be more relaxed during their summer courses and hence they also tend to learn deeper any subject that they’re working on in the summer. Often it does happen in some children that you start seeing a sudden newly developed interest in a specific topic or they become more tuned into academics after summer as they now built the necessary foundation and confidence during the summer. You will sometimes see a drastic change in performance of the student after the summer.
For example, while a child couldn’t understand the difference between heap memory and stack memory during his earlier learning days, he or she can now specifically take time to dig deeper into the concept of heap vs. stack memory. Children could deep dive and spend a lot of time learning one topic that internally enables a lot of self-confidence and trust in oneself.
So, while you and your kids enjoy the summer break, enroll in the best learning for kids!
About the Author: Paul Gordon is a curriculum designer at UnicMinds, and is a Raspberry Pi Certified Educator.
Department of Education, United States, Tutor Jobs, Character Development in Children
