By Louise Mathews
School has been out for about two weeks, and I bet almost all parents have heard “I’m bored!” at least once already this summer.
I have a hard time relating with bored children as I grew up in a household where my mother was certain to find a vile task for us to do if we foolishly announced that boredom had set in.
Short of telling kids to clean the commode and mop the bathroom floor, I have a few suggestions to make. Some of the things you can do with your children over the summer might actually help them when they return to school in (gasp!) August.
First, families can make sitting still and paying attention to something other than video games interesting or at least necessary to their continued existence. Several years ago, Technical College of the Lowcountry held a faculty in-service day with neuroscientist Dr. Janet Zadina who illuminated how the human brain works when learning occurs. She stated that she could walk into any first-grade classroom, and within 10 minutes she would know which students would not graduate from high school based on their ability to sit still and pay attention.
This statement haunted me throughout the past year I volunteered in a first-grade classroom. In the first weeks of school, 6-year-old children typically have the attention span of gnats. Throughout the year, I noted that almost all of the children developed the capacity to sit down, be quiet, and pay attention when asked to do so. A few did not. This concerned me, as I am sure it did their teacher because the brain cannot learn unless a person – child or adult – first pays attention.
Helping a child sit still and pay attention may be as simple as having a family dinner hour. My generation had advantages many children today do not enjoy. In our neighborhood, all children went home for supper around 5:30 p.m. Most sat at a table with the family. We could not leave the table until excused. This meant we had to a) eat, and b) converse when asked to speak, as in “what did you do today?” Dinner time didn’t always happen calmly, particularly if two or more of us were engaged in an argument, which was quickly terminated by a rap on the table with a wooden spoon.
We also learned to sit still and be quiet at church. I find it sad that so many families do not have a church. Other than missing spiritual growth, they do not experience the social benefit of the “village raising the child.” We learned at an early age that making noise in church could result in being “given something to cry about.” In these gentler, kinder times, churches often have a cry room to which those who cannot hush their youthful complaints are removed. Still, as time goes by, with repetition, even the loudest members of the baby choir learn to quietly sit relatively still.
Secondly, children can play games with parents and other children. Board games are an excellent learning tool for the easily bored. There is a reason why Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Clue, Monopoly, Go Fish and Concentration are still around. They reinforce reading, counting, critical thinking, and life skills such as how to keep going even after you have to start over because you landed on the longest chute in the game. In our house, Concentration, played with a deck of regular cards, was often set up on the coffee table with several children trying to remember exactly where they saw a jack or a seven in order to match the one they had just picked up. It exercises the brain in a way that many video games cannot.
Games also teach children how to play fair with others. Kids are really good at spotting cheating and calling out each other. Parents or older siblings sometimes need to referee until younger children can handle this task themselves.
When my mother didn’t have an age-appropriate task to dole out, her response to kid boredom was “Read a book!”
I was a very fortunate child; we were surrounded by books in the living room (fine editions Dad collected before marriage), kids’ books in the sunroom, chapter books in the bedrooms, and novels in the attic. We went to the library at least once every two weeks. We also had a variety of comic books found at yard sales or bought with allowance or traded with neighbor kids once ours were read.
In my early community college career, I worked with a family literacy program and visited students’ homes. I vividly remember the shock I experienced the first time I walked into a house in which there was absolutely nothing to read.
Reading engages the brain in ways that watching videos does not. Reading improves focus and concentration. It helps children develop skills in visualization, imagination, connecting ideas, and improving information retention.
Parents and grandparents can take children to the library. They can let them choose something of interest as long as it is not too old for them. At home, if a child doesn’t pick up the book within a few days, a family member can offer to read it with him or her. Children crave adult attention, and a parent’s interest in their book may renew their curiosity.
Readers of this essay may already be doing these activities. They may know of many more projects to do with children to help them “stop the summer slide” in their learning. Numerous websites such as raisecuriouskids.com or magrid.education/summer-learning-activities also feature abundant ways parents and grandparents can help their children stay on track with learning.
If, like me, you are retired and could benefit from spending a few hours each week sharing your knowledge with children while experiencing their joy and love, contact the United Way of the Lowcountry. They have a program and a classroom just for you.
Louise Mathews retired from a career in community colleges and before that, theater. A 13-year come-here in Beaufort, she has been a dingbatter in North Carolina and an upstater from New York.