20 Ways Tech Can Keep Your Kids Engaged and Learning This Summer
May 26, 2020
Originally published in the by Julie Jargon聽
What does summer even mean without camp? Online resources from school districts, nonprofits and tech startups can help keep children鈥檚 minds sharp
Many parents are viewing summer with a mix of relief and dread: relief that home schooling is coming to an end, and dread that what likely follows is three months of鈥othing.
Summer has always been a time when academics have slipped, but it鈥檚 usually a small price to pay for outdoor activities and socializing. Now, with many camps, community pools and recreation centers closed due to the coronavirus pandemic鈥攏ot to mention libraries, the cornerstone of summertime literacy efforts鈥攑arents and educators worry the downtime will be wasted on YouTube and videogames, leaving students further behind than ever.
Students will return to school in fall 2020 with only an estimated聽, and gains will be even smaller in math, according to the nonprofit education-services firm NWEA.
鈥淭his summer, the gap is going to be huge for all students but even more so for students who lack technology,鈥� said Daniel Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association. 鈥淭here鈥檚 interest in many districts to continue online education over the summer, but it will run into the issue of whether all students will have the technology and whether they will participate.鈥�
罢丑别听. But even for families that have been able to access remote-learning programs,聽.
Some school districts are getting creative about closing the tech gap and preparing for summer. In Cleveland, where an estimated 40% of families don鈥檛 have access to high-speed internet, schools delivered more than 4,000 wireless hot spots and more than 15,000 laptops and iPads to families when instruction moved online in March. The district plans to let families keep those devices over the summer.
Some parents opted out of online school when聽聽proved too difficult. Others, like my husband and I, have stuck it out through gritted teeth, if only for the daily structure online school provides鈥攁nd the alternative it offers to lower-quality screen time.
For parents looking to curb the summertime slide and who have access to technology鈥攏ot to mention the time required to keep kids on task and engaged鈥攖here are numerous options, many free or discounted. I consulted education and literacy experts and did my own research to come up with this list. There鈥檚 something here for every age group,聽.
Virtual Camp
: This online education company offers free weekly virtual 鈥渟ummer camps,鈥� typically five one-hour sessions where kids can try things like brushing up on art skills or learning to speak Mandarin.
: This online camp offers instruction in science, technology and nature, with a sliding-scale tuition model, meaning families can pay the full price or opt to use a discount code if they can鈥檛 afford the $15-an-hour rate.
: This national program offers virtual camps that range from coding and app development to fashion design.
iD Tech:听聽range from 3-D modeling to making your own Roblox and Minecraft games.
: Designed for ages 5 to 11, with a different theme each week, this virtual camp offers home science experiments, arts and crafts, theater games and meditation.
Camp Supernow is offering virtual summer camps with weekly themes in such areas as science, arts and crafts and theater.
PHOTO:听CAMP SUPERNOW
: Live online classes teach kids 8 to 18 how to code for virtual-reality games, online multiplayer games and computer-vision apps.
: This monthly subscription-based service ships boxes filled with hands-on engineering, art and science projects for kids (and adults) of all ages. For summer, it is set to launch free five-day sessions of themed DIY activities and videos that can be done with or without a subscription to its crates.
Literacy
Storyline Online: This children鈥檚 literacy website streams videos of celebrities reading children鈥檚 books. 成人快播, a nonprofit literacy program, has organized several of the book readings by grade level.
: A subscription-based service offering a large online library of books across age groups and reading levels, including books in Spanish.
: Google developed a new Android app with speech recognition technology that can detect when a child is struggling or reading correctly.
Google developed an Android app, Read Along by Google, that uses speech recognition technology to detect when a child is struggling to read certain words.
笔贬翱罢翱:听骋翱翱骋尝贰
: Families who have a Facebook Portal videochat system can connect with far-flung friends and relatives, or with someone sitting in the same room, to read stories together through an augmented-reality program featuring animation and virtual masks for the characters in the story.
Bright by Text: 成人快播, the nonprofit literacy program, has partnered with the nonprofit Bright by Text to deliver text messages to parents in English or Spanish with free reading activities and tips on how to boost kids鈥� literacy skills. Tips include touching each word with your finger as you read and pausing on each page to discuss the story.
:听鈥檚聽audiobook division is offering free instant streaming of children鈥檚 stories across six languages.
:听,聽maker of the iPhone and iPad, curated a list of educational apps from the App Store and of children鈥檚 audio books from iTunes.
Math and more
: A free website with math questions and games tailored to kids鈥� individual skill levels. The site also has聽.
: Online multiplayer games with math-related quests for ages 8 to 13 are available from Adventure Academy鈥檚 subscription service. There also are games teaching science, social studies and language arts.
Adventure Academy offers online multiplayer games with math-related quests to make math fun for kids ages 8 to 13.
PHOTO:听AGE OF LEARNING
: Lego Education has activities by grade level through grade 8 to help teach kids math and science concepts.
: This nonprofit has several math and movement activities that can be done inside or in the backyard to help keep young kids active while learning basic math. There are also tips for how the activities can be adapted for older children and those with special needs.
Share Your Thoughts
What do you plan to do to keep your kids busy and engaged this summer? Join the conversation below.
: This network of early-education scholars based at Stanford University shows families how they can incorporate math lessons for young children into everyday activities such as baking and cleaning.
: This subscription-based online learning site has interactive math lessons for all grade levels, from basic addition and subtraction up to statistics and probability, as well as lessons in language arts, social studies, science and life skills.
鈥擣or more WSJ Technology analysis, reviews, advice and headlines,聽.
Write to聽Julie Jargon at聽julie.jargon@wsj.com
