As a researcher focused on online and blended learning, I often field questions from parents asking if online learning can boost their students during the summer. Most often this question comes in the form of “well then, what are your own kids doing online?” Although I generally write about online learning from a conceptual or policy perspective, I depart here in an attempt to offer a concrete and practical glimpse at how to implement a summertime online learning program on the micro and most important level — at home.
The Internet potentially solves several problems for parents who want to get their kids ahead. For one, it allows for one-to-one customization. Last summer, I tried to shore my kids’ academic skills by assigning them daily worksheets. But because of their varied levels and attention spans, they all seemed to need my help at once, and I felt crazed. Hiring a private tutor for each child was too expensive, but I wished I could. By the third week of summer, the kids lost interest in worksheets and we all gave up.
This summer, I have a new strategy. I created a large poster for the kitchen wall and divided it into three columns, one for each child. At the top of each column is a wheel that spins to point to one of three stations: math, literacy and offline. Each morning after breakfast, the kids look at their wheels to find their first station assignments. The baby is in charge of providing the chaos factor, not to mention ringing the bell every 20 to 30 minutes to call for station rotation.
The math station is a laptop with a child-sized mouse in the living room, where the kids have the choice of doing Dreambox Learning, Khan Academy or Sokikom. The literacy station is a laptop with a child-sized mouse in the kitchen, where the kids are currently working on improving their typing skills with Read, Write, Type! Later in the summer, I will add other options to this station, perhaps Learning Today or Headsprout.
The third station is offline and the place where I spend most of my time, except for occasional trouble-shooting with the laptops. With the offline child, I do something like teach him or her how to do a household chore, write a letter or story with a pencil using the Handwriting without Tears program, or complete another tangible project like a puzzle or model.
This routine has countless adaptations for various needs. One friend is moving to China with her kids, and they are working on Rosetta Stone, Mandarin. Older kids might enjoy maintaining a blog (see here) or contributing to Wikipedia. My kids love BrainPOP, which I like too as long as they do the quizzes so it becomes more than passive entertainment.
Each day, the kids record on the poster the number of stations they complete, and these tally marks determine their allowance, which they have learned to divide among savings, spending and charitable contributions. They can also earn tally marks by reading, being read to or free writing for half an hour each day.
At the end of the station rotations, we invariably head outside for some much-needed fresh air and physical activity.
The rise of high-quality online learning options brings affordable opportunities to prevent summer learning loss and give kids a boost for the next year. I have found that with the help of the Internet, I can create a high-powered learning environment in my own home without nearly as much effort or craziness on my part and with even better individualized outcomes for my children.
Heather Clayton Staker is a mother of four. She is also a senior research fellow at Innosight Institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on education and innovation.