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The Parent Guide to Summer was written because parents asked for it.

At the original parent idea sharing meetings, parents talked about how nice it would be to have their own summer learning guide.   Researchers tell us parents have the most anxiety in the summer about keeping kids involved in productive activities. ThinkStretch created the Parent Guide to Summer to share with parents what teachers wish they had time to tell parents and to offer parents tried and true summer activities from other parents.

The Parent Guide is in ‘Parent Language’.

It can be a frustrating experience to have a conversation with your child’s teacher and feel like your are not understanding what the teacher is trying to tell you.  We all have our “work” language.  And teachers are very comfortable using the vocabulary of their profession.  However, as parents we are not as familiar with “Dibble ratings” or “phonetic structures” or even “reciprocal equations.” The Parent Guide to Summer is written for parents, by a parent.  When I was creating the home activities by reading level, for example, teachers were telling me about the different scales to separate young readers into ability groups.  But I reflected on my parenting experience to think about the reading milestones I saw with my child – the move from board books to picture books, from picture books to short chapter books, the first books with no pictures at all, and the intense non-fiction book. I used that experience to translate all of the key information teachers wanted to share into language and experiences that parents could readily understand.

We created a separate summer learning guide for parents! 

We did not put all of that information for parents into the student workbook – because after a long hot summer, who wants to unstick the bubble gum to check the answer key!

eachers give summer homework – not parents. 

Students know what to do when the teacher gives them homework.  They take it home, complete it, and turn it back into the teacher.  Parents are great parents, and teachers are great teachers.  Life can get confusing when a parent starts assigning summer homework that the teacher did not demand. ThinkStretch links summer learning to school at both ends so parents can be parents and teachers can be teachers.

No more “mean mom” or “bad dad” syndrome with ThinkStretch.

When ThinkStretch is implemented as a school-wide program as designed, every student brings home a ThinkStretch summer workbook.  You are no longer the mean mom or bad dad making your student do summer work when “no one else has to”.  You do not have to come up with any crazy reward or punishment systems to get the work done.  All you have to do is do what you have done all year for homework – set aside time and space to get the work done.  The reward will come from the teacher when your student turns in her work. And you will be the hero for helping your child earn her gold achievement medal!

Why can I teach your child, but not my own? 

I love to hear how well behaved or polite my children have been from other adults. What those adults don’t know is that inside my head I am screaming “Why don’t they act like that around me?”  Many families face a similar conundrum when a parent attempts to teach a child.  While that same parent could easily teach a child from another family, their own child often rebels, fusses, and whines. We are our child’s first teacher, so they are also most comfortable testing the limits with us.

That is why ThinkStretch focuses on skill maintenance in the summer and leaves the instruction of new material for the school year.  

Summer arrives every year before teachers are ready for it. 

We know its coming every year.  Every year we have the best laid plans to finish the curriculum, have time to neatly close out the year, and send home a meaningful packet of activities for students – and every year we slide into summer barely holding onto our sanity. We understand.  That’s why ThinkStretch is a system and not just a workbook.  We provide you with all the flyers, information, parent education and student materials you need – in a simple, easy to use packet with online support.  We strive to provide an accessible, fun summer program for kids, so that your students to return to you next summer confident and ready to learn.

Summer sneaks up on parents too!  

Going from a school year routine to a summer routine is a strain on many families. And just like schools, the end of the school year can catch parents by surprise. Frantic, last-minute summer workbook purchases to try and keep kids learning can lead to confusion, frustration and quitting altogether.  That’s why ThinkStretch makes it simple to bring a complete summer learning program to every family in your school with a few simple steps.  Because families want to learn over the summer, they just need the guidance to do what is best for their student and families.

Summer never comes too soon for kids.  

While summer often sneaks up on parents and teachers, kids are always ready!  That’s why ThinkStretch is the perfect summer review for kids too.  With just the right amount of math skill review and reading to keep their skills fresh, ThinkStretch does not require hours and hours of review every day.  And with cool bonus activities that provide lots of hands-on engagement, kids get to have fun and experiment – and they’ll barely notice the learning part.  Sneaky huh?

Ever notice the margin drawings of Brain and his friends in the ThinkStretch summer workbooks?  Link those drawings together, and you will travel with Brain on a summer road trip, or meet his first pet, or build a fort to beat all forts. In the 4^th grade heading to 5^th grade summer learning book, Brain goes on an overnight camping trip complete with ghost stories and a pizza zombie encounter.  ThinkStretch does this just for the kids, because all work and no play makes Brain a dull guy!

Graphic novels require sophisticated visual thinking to link together disparate images into a narrative. In fancy education speak, graphic novels support metacognitive strategies for reading and writing.  In the speech of a graphic novel lover, children use many different strategies when reading a graphic novel to determine the emotions of the characters, the passage of time, and the core plot elements.  For example, children very quickly learn to identify text styles as an indication of emotion.  With hints from the art style and motion, children identify the passage of time.  By reading the lines of faces and the background visuals, students determine plot and foreshadowed events.

ThinkStretch is committed to providing students with a joyful learning experience.  It is completely unnecessary to have a graphic novel in the margins of a skill review workbook – yet every ThinkStretch summer learning book has one.  ThinkStretch was originally developed using feedback from teams of teachers, parents and kids, all of whom identified elements they believed would make summer learning successful.  The kids told us that they needed it to be fun.  They needed it to be different than school work.  They needed to want to do it.

The Brain and his adventures are our commitment to a joyful learning experience.

What’s the difference between ThinkStretch and everyone else? While other companies only care care if you purchase the workbook, I care if you finish the workbook.

When I was designing the ThinkStretch Summer Learning Program, my goal was to return all of my children’s classmates to school in the fall with all the knowledge that they had gained the previous school year.  I was not creating a business – I was building an enrichment program.  I was not creating a product, I was creating an answer to a problem.

Join me as I explore some of the thoughts, research and great shared ideas that went into creating kid friendly summer workbooks for the ThinkStretch Summer Learning Program.  Because the business happened by accident, creating the ThinkStretch Summer Learning Program as a useful resource for students, families and schools was the founding intention.

Kicking off a summer learning program is easy as 1-2-3-…4 with the ThinkStretch Summer Learning Program Coordinator materials.  In just four easy steps your school can offer a summer learning program that supports every student, teacher and family at your school.

It is one thing to send home a collection of leftover worksheets, a workbook, or a ditto pack as students leave for summer.  It is another thing entirely to offer a Parent Summer Education night, a student summer kickoff, and a Parent Guide to Summer that supports a grade specific activity book for every student.  The ThinkStretch Program Coordinator Materials allow you to do just that with a complete set of program coordinator materials that make the ThinkStretch Summer Learning Program easy to run.

The Program Coordinator materials walk you through the four key steps to launch a summer learning program at your school:

1. Host Parent Education Night
2. Student Kick-Off Assembly
3. Distribute Books
4. Playground Study Sessions (optional)

With simple, easy and complete materials, any teacher, media specialist or involved parent can run ThinkStretch at your school.  The key responsibilities are organizing the parent and student event and distributing the books.  Every event has its own specific To Do list and Tips for Success, making organization and implementation a snap.  As a bonus, Program Coordinators can find ideas shared by other Program Coordinators from across the nation.

ThinkStretch Program Coordinator materials include:

• Presentation for a Parent education night
• Posters, letters and flyers
• Animated DVD for Student Kick off Assembly
• Lesson plans for Summer Playground study sessions
• Simple order forms for books and medals
• Tips for success for every activity

Available online and via snail mail as a part of every full school order, ThinkStretch’s  customizable forms and flyers make communicating with participants a breeze.  The Program Coordinator can use your school-specific details to make sure everyone has the best, most accurate program information.

Every year, program coordinators send us their best ideas for making ThinkStretch successful at their schools.  We share these ideas, improve the coordinator materials, and post additional support online.

Our program coordinator materials offer your school the opportunity to build a partnership between families, students and your school to maintain reading, writing, math and science skills.

[cta text=”Download our Program Coordinator Materials to see how quick and easy it is to set up a Summer Learning Program for a group or your school!” link=”https://thinkstretch.com/program-coordinator-materials-download/” color=”orange”] Download Now [/cta]

ThinkStretch is proud to work with several districts as its preferred parent resource for summer skill maintenance.  If, for some reason, a school district cannot purchase the program for the entire school or through a group kit sale, it can still bring ThinkStretch to students as a recommended summer learning resource. Districts have the option to offer parents the ThinkStretch program directly from their websites and through district newsletters and communications.  Parents purchase the ThinkStretch program online, and ThinkStretch sends a summer learning kit directly to their home.  Each kit contains a Parent Guide to Summer, student activity book, and gold appreciation medal.

Parents have high anxiety around providing meaningful summer activities.  Education researchers have measured parents levels of anxiety around their children throughout the school year and have found that anxiety is at its highest around summer time.  Parents feel the full responsibility for providing meaningful activities for their students outside of school and have very little guidance.  Schools, parents and students benefit when a school offers a recommend summer homework resource.

The Saline Area Schools, in Saline, Michigan, have recommended ThinkStretch as the preferred summer learning resource for students and families for the past two years.  Due to financial constraints and a lack of federal Title I funding, Saline is unable to offer ThinkStretch as a comprehensive program to its students.  However, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Steve Laatsch is committed to encouraging and assisting families to maintain school year skills over the summer months.

ThinkStretch worked with Asst. Supt. Laatsch to develop communications, partnerships with Saline school PTOs, and strong support among parents.   Asst. Supt. Laatsch sends a letter to every elementary school parent in the spring asking them to support their student by using the ThinkStretch summer learning program in their home over the summer.  Parents then purchase the grade levels needed for their children directly from the ThinkStretch website.  Last summer hundreds of Saline parents took advantage of the opportunity to have summer learning delivered directly to their doorstep.

Making ThinkStretch Summer Learning a preferred summer resource is as easy as copy and paste!

Simply copy and paste the code found here onto your school and/or PTO’s website, so that parents can easily access the ThinkStretch order form. To make it easy for your school to implement ThinkStretch, we’ve included a letter to send to families of students, telling them about the program. Simply add a link directing parents to the ThinkStretch portion of your website, where they can find additional details and place their order.

Parents and schools benefit when every child returns to school in the fall confident and prepared to learn!