Does that sound familiar? Has that been your family’s reality for one too many summers?

The solution is clear: enroll your kids in summer enrichment programs.

Summer programs provide you with the sweet relief of no longer hearing “I’m bored. There’s nothing to do,” while also granting your children​ resources to be productive while on a break from school. Read on to learn about the benefits of summer programs for kids.

Social Interaction

Enhancing social skills is an ongoing process, and summer resources to be productive programs are the perfect environment for that skill development. 

Your child can form friendships with kids they had not crossed paths with during the school year.  As these friendships blossom, your son or daughter will become well-rounded and may develop new hobbies and interests.

By meeting new peers, your child will be exposed to a variety of personalities and will learn to respect others.  Throughout these interactions, your child will discover how to appropriately behave in a multitude of social situations.

Continuous Learning

During a summer enrichment program, your child will learn valuable information and develop vital skills, regardless of the program’s topic.

Throughout a summer math program, once your child masters the foundational math skills, he will progress to advanced topics.  He will develop the ability to think critically to approach complex problems.  The skill of critical thinking will extend beyond mathematics to real-life when effective solutions are needed for everyday challenges.

In a summer reading program or writing program, your child will improve comprehension and composition abilities.  The more your child reads, the stronger his fluency and analysis skills.  As he engages in writing, proper sentence structure and rules of English language grammar become familiar.  This knowledge will carry into everyday communication.

Spending several weeks immersed in academic enrichment programs will help your child catch up to grade-level expectations, or exceed them, to start the new school year strong.

Aside from academic programs for kids, there are courses that revolve around the arts, sports, and nature, to name a few, that provide environments for children to learn new skills.  In a hobby-based program, your child will consume in-depth information about the topic at hand.  Plus, he will feed his passion. 

Life Skills

Summer courses provide opportunities for children to continue developing the life skills learned during the school year.

One of those skills is teamwork.  When participating in an enrichment program, kids learn to collaborate with their peers.  This cooperation can include working together towards a shared goal and being respectful of one another for all participants to have a positive experience in the program. 

Another skill is time management.  Imagine that your child’s program is in the morning.  She will need to make efforts to wake up with enough time to get ready for the day.  This may include picking out clothes and packing lunch the previous night.  For a child who has an activity in the afternoon, learning time management helps her plan her day accordingly.  If the program is at 2:00 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, for example, that child must adapt to having limited leisure time on those mornings to allow time for lunch and travel.

Kids can easily fall out of routines during the summer – no wake-up call from an alarm clock, no bus to catch for a ride to school, no homework to complete by an assigned due date.  Enrolling your child in a summer program remedies this lack of consistency.  Organized summer activities will help her with the life skills of maintaining a schedule and fostering positive habits.

Attending summer programs also teaches children about accountability.  For a child who attends an academic summer class, she is responsible for completing assignments on time.  If a child belongs to a music program, she is accountable for bringing her instrument to and from sessions.  A child who participates in a drama club is expected to practice her lines at home in preparation for the cast’s performance.  This accountability builds the power to self-discipline because your child will learn to dedicate time to fulfill obligations.

Another vital life skill includes self-advocacy.  In summer programs, children are often in smaller groups than they are in a typical classroom setting.  This provides a more personalized learning experience and a comfortable environment to self-advocate to seek the support needed to be successful.  If your child is in a program for foundational subjects, she will build confidence by asking teachers for help with content that is a struggle.  For a child in an activity-focused program, she will thrive by making her interests and abilities clear to the program director.

Whether the summer program is education-based or hobby-based, your child will develop and strengthen skills for a lifetime.  

Enroll in a Summer Program

Organized activities in the summer will support your child’s personal growth in a multitude of ways.                

Your child will grow socially by meeting new peers.  Your child will grow as a learner by immersing in content about the topic of focus.  Your child will grow as a member of society by developing life skills that will continuously develop through experiences.