During the summer children generally tend to abandon routines. They use less maths skills, and spend less time reading and thinking critically about the things they are learning. In some cases a child can go the whole summer without reading a single book. What is obvious, however, is that in a household where opportunity for learning is respected, so-called summer brain-drain is probably unheard of.
Christine Durham, Australian teacher, writer and speaker on the subject of thinking, believes that this is the time of the year when the gap between ideas, knowledge and experiences most widen. She says the gap between school out and school in is the perfect opportunity for parents to spend time with their children developing and exercising their mental abilities.
‘The trouble is, especially by the end of the holidays, children are bored and parents are desperate to get them back to school,' says Christine. ‘But have you ever noticed the excitement in children's eyes when their minds click and they are starting to see things differently? That's the closing of a gulf between two ‘strands' of thought. If parents can look at this time in a new way, to show the links between similar and different ideas, we can bridge and close that gap - not only between two bits of thought, but also between two periods of time.'
Connecting thoughts is what helps children develop their understanding of different ways of looking at the world. Christine's book Chasing Ideas is all about closing gaps. She writes that ‘Nothing is more important than helping children to think for themselves. It empowers your children, makes them better, brighter thinkers - it whets their curiosity, their powers of observation and their awareness so that they can concentrate, listen, think for themselves and express their ideas clearly.'
How can the gap be closed?
Christine has been a teacher for more than a decade and has run more than 4,000 thinking workshops with children aged three to 15 years old. She really got into the subject following her slow recovery from massive brain injury after a car accident. She says it gave her the opportunity to think about connecting ideas in a new way.
‘I couldn't see properly for a while so started to discover new ways of "seeing" things,' she says. ‘When I went on TV to talk about my first book I would often forget what I'd written. Then I realised I could use my fingers to help me think. Our fingers are handy thinking tools and become a symbol of thinking to discuss ideas in certain ways.'
Christine says her new way of thinking changed the way she taught in class. In one lesson a tin of baked beans led to a discussion over concepts of good and evil. How?
‘I brought in a tin of baked beans and told the class that their lesson was in that tin. They looked at me like "what's this crazy woman on about". Then I asked them what story has beans in it and they said Jack and the Beanstalk. Recounting the story one child said, "Jack killed the Giant". Another asked, "Is it good to kill bad people", and another asked, "Who decides what is bad?" '
Thinking goes hand-in-hand with speaking and listening but sometimes it can be difficult to get children to talk, especially if their vocabulary is limited or they're shy. Sometimes as parents we're not good models either, often too hurried to really listen.
‘Parents need to act enthusiastic, show your children that you are interested in their ideas,' Christine says. ‘Respond to something they've said with: "That reminds me of what you said last week, is that what you meant?" and they will light up. When you enter the world of a child's curiosity it's incredible where you will end up.'
Stimulating their imaginations
Opportunities are hugely important says Christine. She tells of a child in her class who rarely spoke or even produced work to the level of her peers. At the time a doctor got lost in Australia's outback and lived on a Mars bar for a week
‘We were discussing how he survived and one child said it would have been easier for him if he were a street kid used to hardship. Several points were made and then this child put up her hand and said she had one word that would make all those points useless and that is love; he was loved and loved people so he survived. The whole class looked at her in silence and new light.'
Christine says children need opportunities other than in class and through school work to develop their thinking and to express themselves. And if we can show children that we value their ideas it can give them a huge confidence boost.
Importantly, says Christine, ‘If we can get children to use the summer gap to learn how to make connections it will make a huge difference to them when they go back to school, whether summer brain-drain is real or imagined.'
