Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Summer camp

DS7 has had a great year in first grade. He has been in school continuously since he was four except for a week each for spring, summer and winter break. He has asked to enroll in a summer day camp instead of school this summer. He will spend his week days swimming, hiking, kayaking, working in a garden, doing crafts, playing games, etc. There is also a marine touch tank there. He is very excited. With commuting, it will be about a 12 hour day for him. So I expect his evenings will be for just eating, reading a bit and then going to sleep.

So he's definately doing this camp but I've realized he might be going almost 3 months without doing much math, writing, etc. Will he lose skills? Can this be avoided?
I don't think there must always be forward academic progress. He will likely learn a great many important things at camp. But he has dyslexia/dysgraphia/dyspraxia and I don't want to see him lose any of his hard earned skills.

Thoughts?

Maybe do a diary project every evening for 5-10 min. or so where he writes down the most important bit of his day? Not a long project, but meaningful writing that connects to his experiences.

You'd have to structure it so that it feels rewarding and not burdensome or overwhelming, which may mean indicating a time limit, deciding carefully on how it will be produced (scribing, typing, handwriting), and deciding on a pleasant activity that always follows the writing session.

That camp sounds wonderful!

p.s. If he has someone to write to-- grandparents, etc.-- that can also be helpful.

I'm not sure I'd add anything to a 12-hour day - especially working on skills that don't come easily. It depends on the child of course, but that would have been more than my dysgraphic ds or my dyslexic dd could take at 7, plus I'm guessing that at the end of the 12 hour day you might be tired too

I'd probably try to focus on doing a small bit of work on the weekends. Make it "fun" as much as possible - I like DeeDee's idea of a journal. If the writing on weeknights was too much, maybe he could tell you what he did, you scribe and he writes or keyboards it out on the weekend and adds a picture. Or he draws the picture at night and adds the caption on the weekend.

Reading is the one thing I might try to do each night - but again, it depends on whether or not he's resistant to it. It's also the thing I'd worry about keeping up over the summer more than the writing - but that's based on future skills needed and skills most likely to be lost anyway, if that makes sense. Most dysgraphic kids are going to have to depend on keyboarding or some other AT in place of handwriting, so I wouldn't worry so much about regressing in actual handwriting skills. If your ds needs help with components of written expression, you can practice those on the weekend or with a combo of "light" night scribing and a bit of weekend work to reinforce the skills. The thing I'd worry most about in terms of regressing is reading - I can't tell you how huge the impact of dyslexia has been in my dd's life - your ds may be totally different, but constant dedicated work on reading skills was really important for her, and in spite of the many gains she's made over the years, every single bit of delay she had with reading skills impacted her vocabulary relative to her peers (because she wasn't reading for pleasure like her peers were and still isn't reading for pleasure at the same level/rate), and that's really showing up now that she's in upper elementary. During the week reading *to* him might be the thing to do, a story before bed or when you get home etc.

Will he read out loud to you? If he will, maybe early morning have him read a short story or something out loud?

Whatever happens with the rest, the camp sounds great!!! It sounds like he is going to have a wonderful summer

polarbear

Is reading in the car on the way to/from camp a possibility?

Thanks for the ideas. He loves to read and that part is remediated. For the writing, I might try sending weekly emails to our out of state family and/or a journal to share with his class in the fall.
Thanks!

Oh, the idea of a weekly e-mail is a fun one -- and it would be a nice record of what promises to be an exciting summer experience! I may borrow that idea. :-)

Audio books for the car ride would be fun.

For the dyspraxia, all that outside play is going to work wonders, I am sure. For the dyslexia, do they have "quiet time" after lunch when he can bring a book to read? For the dysgraphia...that's tough, but after a 1 h day outside? Forget it. Focus on the weekends.

Week one of camp was great. He got a swim lesson and free time in the pool with a life jacket every day. He also did rock climbing, archery, gardening, made a tie dye shirt, and went paddling around a cove in a canoe.
We are in the process of moving so we didn't do any writing this weekend. He did read a lot because while packing he found a lot of books he forgot he had.

On the last day his getting off the bus was delayed so his camp friend (a ten year old girl) could give him all the gifts she made him and write down her number and address for a play date.

So even if there is a backslide in some academic areas, I think this camp was a good idea. He is having a lot of fun.