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With the summer holidays upon us, we’ve listed our top tips to keep your child's mind active over the break! While a well-deserved rest is important, the summer holidays are a great time to solidify knowledge and prepare for the next academic year.
Keep reading to learn more about activities that aim to boost academic ability while enhancing wellbeing!
1. Read – and read some more!
The summer holidays are a great time to encourage children to read. Regular reading has plenty of advantages, including:
Improving concentration
Building language skills
Developing creativity and imagination
Supporting cognitive development
Supporting mental health and wellbeing
Reading over the summer is also excellent preparation for entrance exams. Reading exposes children to new vocabulary, helps them increase their reading speed, and improves their ability to recognise new words. These skills are particularly valuable in verbal reasoning and reading comprehension tests.
New adventures on every page
Explore new worlds this summer with FREE reading lists from Atom Learning. Designed by the teachers at Atom, these age-appropriate reads will support and challenge children in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6.
2. Stay active
It's easy to slip into the habit of moving less during the holidays, but regular movement is important for children. Exercise helps to keep the body and mind healthy and can have a positive impact on performance at school.
Any movement counts! Here are some ideas to get you started:
Daily walks to your local park or playground
Check out sports clubs, yoga lessons and martial arts in your area
Take a family bike ride
Organise a dance party at home
Play outdoor games, such as tag and hide-and-seek
Take swimming lessons at your local leisure centre
3. Summer lessons
Preparing for grammar 11+ or independent entrance exams? Keep your child's mind active over the summer, learn exam technique, and feel exam-ready with Atom's online live lessons. Enjoy interactive classes with Atom's engaging teachers from the comfort of your own home. Best of all, our classes are completely free!
Live Lessons
Download your timetable and book your child's place today!
4. Relax with yoga or mindfulness
Encouraging children to develop relaxation techniques is a great skill to develop over the holidays. Embracing a few minutes of mindfulness each day can help keep some structure during long, lazy days. Meanwhile, older children will benefit from developing a mindfulness toolkit to stay calm during exams.
Adding yoga or meditation into daily routines can help to enhance your child's wellbeing. Digital mindfulness apps such as Headspace and Calm have plenty of beginner sessions suitable for children.
5. Get creative
Encourage your child to engage in activities such as painting or drawing where they can express themselves on canvas or paper. If they have a camera, show them how to experiment with photography – whether it's capturing the beauty of nature or documenting their summer memories. Toys and games like building blocks, LEGO sets and dress-up costumes are also great tools to promote imaginative play.
6. Prepare for exams (the fun way!)
Preparing for the 11+ or other entrance exams? Get your child’s roadmap to success with Atom Home. Atom has everything you need to get prepared, in one package.
Atom Home is an online programme that helps you and your child navigate entrance exams with confidence. Step by step and week by week, you get a clear plan of activities tailored to your top-choice schools. Watch your child build knowledge across the exam curriculum. See their skills skyrocket as they practise mock tests that mirror the real thing.
As well as setting your child up for exam success, Atom Home lets them enjoy the journey. Interactive challenges and rewards keep your child excited to reach the top! Flexible learning fits around your family life, so your child can make strides whenever and wherever suits them. And with clear progress tracking and admissions advice, you’ll never feel left behind.
Try Atom for free
Get started with Atom today and unlock:
Learning plans tailored to your target schools
Over 90,000 fun practice questions
Hundreds of online and paper practice tests
Progress tracking (including how your child compares to other applicants to the same schools!)
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