It’s that time of year when kids are dreaming about sleeping in, hanging out with friends all day, and binging on Netflix and Xbox without having to think about homework, extracurriculars, and school. Meanwhile, this is the time of year when many parents start worrying about what their kids will do all summer and if they’ll lose the study habits they gained during the school year.
If this sounds like your family and you want to keep the momentum of the school year going through the summer (and ensure a smoother start to the next school year), we can help through summer executive function coaching.
Since the stakes are lower in the summer, students have more time to focus on building independence and increasing confidence without the demands of a busy schedule or the pressure of a large academic workload.
What executive function skills do students work on over the summer?
Our experienced executive function coaches work with students on a variety of EF skill-building strategies over the summer including:
🕦 Time Management
✍️ Notetaking
📁 Organization
📚 Planning
📅 Calendaring
How does summer executive function coaching work?
We start by hand-selecting an experienced executive function coach for your child based on where they are and what areas they need to focus on.
If your child has summer homework, a reading list, or projects they need to finish by the fall, we’ll help them devise a plan to get started and stay on track throughout the summer. This includes goal setting, organization, and consistency. They’ll also learn how to “chunk” their work by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable pieces so they don’t end up having a stressful end to their summer.
If your child’s teacher doesn’t send them home with summer work, no worries! We will help them build their EF skills by assigning them a book of their choice or creating a custom summer project based on their interests.
By using a book as a guide, your child’s executive function coach will teach them how to think ahead and plan out each chapter in their calendar around their other summer activities. They’ll also learn different strategies for taking useful notes and how to hold themselves accountable for each goal in their summer timeline.
“What I’ve found over the years is the best results happen when kids learn skills in a way that’s related to something they’re truly interested in,” explained Educational Connections Founder Ann Dolin. “For example, when they generalize it to something they would have to do in real life, like reading a book or scheduling out their summer camps and activities, it’s a lot more productive.”
As a supplement, each student will get a copy of the Learning to Learn workbook, which is an amazing resource to reinforce study skills, note-taking strategies, organization, and more.
Educational Connections Tutor Jan Rowe says science projects are also great for helping students build executive function skills over the summer.
“It allows planning, hands-on work, and presentation skills,” explained Rowe.
Some of her favorite summer projects to do with her students include paper roller coasters, cooking experiments, and having kids design a food truck or restaurant.
For younger elementary students, who don’t use calendars yet, our coaches can also weave executive function and problem-solving skills with language arts, reading, and math. This ensures your child will stay focused on their studies and on track for the fall. Your student will also learn strategies for how to get “unstuck” while completing their work and how to become more independent and organized for the start of the next school year.
Scheduling summer executive function coaching sessions
Your child can tackle these executive function skills in as few as eight hours during the summer. Your virtual sessions can be scheduled weekly around your summer plans and travel to ensure your child is staying on track no matter where this summer takes you.
As an added bonus, if you book your Summer Package by June 15th, we will add one complimentary session.
Summer lessons that carry into the next school year
By securing an EF Coach this summer, your child will have time to develop a great working relationship with their coach in advance of the upcoming school year. Together, they will create a game plan for the fall and develop an organizational system that will carry them through the next grade.
The skills your child learns over the summer with their executive function coach will help them start the next school year with greater confidence. They’ll feel better prepared and organized before their workload and school stress starts piling up again.