Adding Chinese Learning into Summer Schedule – Make Summer Holidays Enjoyable and Meaningful

For most children around the world, summer has already started. In some countries, summer vacation is about 6 weeks; in others, it is 2-month long. What a blessing for many of us to have such a long free time! However, having it wide open can be a bummer. We need to have some sort of plan in order to make the summer holidays meaningful. For children who want to learn Chinese, it is great to have a summer Chinese learning plan.

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF SUMMER VACATION

Summer is a fantastic time to slow down, to enjoy and to relax. Here are some ideas we can engage our kids, enrich their experience and learn something new:

1. Travel

[Tweet ““The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” — Saint Augustine”]

Travelling is another form of education with life experiences. Summer holidays are definitely good time for travelling.

If you can take your kids to China this summer, it would be great. A trip to China is eye-opening for many people. It is not only good for the language learning, but also helps kids experience Chinese history, culture and society.

[Tweet “A trip to China is eye-opening for many people. It is not only good for the language learning, but also helps kids experience Chinese history, culture and society.”]

If you cannot take your kids to China, taking them to a museum which include world history, arts or technology. This type of trips can also help expose the children to other cultures.

Actually, any trip to new places is great for kids. And the length of the trip does not matter: it can be 3-week long trip or only an afternoon visit to a city. As long as it is a family trip and the destination is outside the the residence area, it can be a great experience for children.

2. Learn Something New

Maybe you always want your child to learn swimming, but have never got the time? Summer is a great time to do so.  There are summer camps/clubs on various subjects such as language camp, sports camp, arts camp, slime making camp etc. Any of these can be great choice for the kids.

If you would like your child to learn Chinese, it would be great if you can enroll your child to a local Chinese camp or school. If there is no such a camp nearby, you can either organize a gathering together with other kids in your neighbourhood, or search online for other alternatives. There are some online courses or one-to-one lessons available for your child to take.

3. Catch up on Reading

Summer is the best time to read whatever books you’ve been too busy to read. You can get a book list and ask your child to choose some.

If you want to include Chinese learning in reading, get as many Chinese books as possible: picture books, fictionss, graphic novels, non-fictions, leveled-readings etc. Introduce and expose children to a variety of Chinese books and that will help develop an interest in reading.

HOW TO SET A SUMMER CHINESE LEARNING PLAN

Step 1: Plot out the summer vacation on a week-by-week basis

There are several weeks during summer vacation. You many take one or two weeks off for a family vacation. mark it down on your calendar. You may want to keep the last week before school starts as “back to school prep week”. Are there any visitors coming? A family reunion with grandparents? Filling in your plan for each week into a calendar can give you an overview of your summer schedule. This usually brings a sense of control.

If you would like to spend a concentrated period of time on Chinese learning, setting the time and mark it down on a calendar enable you to see it and therefore more likely to make it happen.

Step 2: Set summer Chinese learning goals

Summer vacation is majorly a period of time to relax and recharge, so take it easy on yourselves when setting goals. For example, if you would like your child to get a good foundation on Chinese characters, you can help him/her do it, but in a relaxed way. Instead of sending your child to a summer school, following an online course like our Chinese Vocabulary building course at own pace is much more manageable and relaxing.

If you set a goal like reading Chinese books, you can be more specific such as reading 3 Chinese books,  completing a leveled Chinese reading level or reading for 10 minutes everyday.

Step 3: Plan the day-to-day activities

Once you have a week-to-week plan and summer Chinese learning goals, you can plan the day-to-day activities. Do not overwhelm your child with too many learning activities on one day. Make a focus on one and/or two learning activities and plan some fun activities too.

Hope you have a relaxing and meaningful summer vacation! Use calendars to help you plan your summer schedule and add Chinese learning into it! You can use the calendar we created to get started.

You May Also Be Interested:

• Chinese4kids Membership – a portal for busy Chinese teachers and parents
• Chinese learning flashcards Hive – a flashcards library that with regular additions of new quality Chinese learning flashcards
• Chinese learning worksheets collection – Also a part of Chinese4kids membership, this collection is for teachers and parents who want to have access to engaging worksheets and activity sheets created for kids learning Mandarin Chinese as an additional language
• Speak Chinese with Kids Course