What to Do When Summer Gets Boring
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Work on good manners. Use the months of summer to teach elementary and middle school kids how to write thank-you notes, for example. Help Harry create and print appropriate stationery by hand or on the computer. Together, compose a general letter of thanks he can use as a template. Then, make copies, leaving blanks for personalizing each note. Show him how to correctly address, stamp, and mail his letters promptly.
Focus on the small niceties, too. He can learn the proper way and when to open a door for someone elderly or handicapped, or merely another person entering or exiting around him. Or how to answer the phone and write a message down or to be considerate of the time he's on the phone or on the Internet. Teach elementary school Harry table manners, too, like posture, passing plates of food, chewing in public, and the proper use of his knife. Good manners reflect well on the whole family.
Rely on these activities whenever Harry is bored and looking to you for something to do. Use them to bring the family together in entertaining and educational ways. But don't crowd out spontaneity. Engineer some downtime in your summertime, too. If you go where the wind blows and where the creative urges lead, this could turn out to be a summer of adventure and self-discovery not only for Harry.
More on: Summer Learning
From Teacher Says by Evelyn Porreca Vuko. Copyright © 2004. Used by arrangement with Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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8 Printable Thank-You Cards for Teachers
