Customer Reviews

Summer Smarts: Activities and Skills to Prepare Your Child for Second Grade

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is perfect for a smart child waiting for second grade. It provides a chance to review basic skills needed in second grade without being boring or tiring. Other books of the same kind tend either to be too easy or to have too many exercises. A child who has worked hard needs some rest! This book also suggests titles for summer reading, which is great because summer reading are the ones that teach a child how nice it is to stop and read a book, and it also provides worksheets for four books. I would recommend this book to any student whose grades are C or above. For those children who are behind schedule, however, I would propose "Summer Bridge Activities" because it provides many more exercises.

As a former second grade teacher, I found this book an excellent preparation for second graders. There are many concepts and skills that are normally taught in late first grade or in second grade. The pages are well presented and have a fun element to them. The book would be appropriate to use throughout the second grade year as some of the sections may be somewhat difficult for before the school year starts. I bought it for a child who will start second grade this year and he loved it. His comment was that it was "pretty easy".

This is a really cute workbook, filled with sweet illustrations and a diverse selection of excersises. The book starts with a section on "who am I" and continues with math excersises, easy science projects, geography quizes and language arts questionaires sprinkled randomly throughout the book. One of my favorite things about "Summer Smarts" is the reading selection. There are three main books to read through the summer with questions for your child to answer located at the back of the workbook. Other cute books are recomended throughout the workbook.

Having giving the book a glowing review I cannot say that my daughter agrees with me. She really dislikes worksheets in general and getting her to sit and do the excersises in this book has been next to impossible. The recomended reading is wonderful for reading to her, but they are far too difficult for her to read by herself. I purchased this book because she has been struggling in school and I thought this would help her keep from falling further behind this summer. I still recommend the book though, especially if you have the kind of child who enjoys working independantly. Like one of the other reviewers I agree that this book would be best for a child who is already doing well in school and who enjoys this sort of thing.

This book is perfect for what I need it to do. My son doesn't struggle in school at all, but we need something to keep his skills sharp and study habits "well oiled" without creating a huge workload in our busy summers. I have seen some Summer books that are huge and I think that, for us, it is just too much. He doesn't work every day, just on days when we aren't going somewhere, and I pair about 5 worksheets from the book with about 20 minutes of reading and a timed addition/subtraction worksheet. Generally he spends about 45 minutes completing everything, which he doesn't mind too much, especially since it's not every day. The book is not very challenging for him, but it is really to keep his skills sharp so he can more readily move onto new skills once school starts. This year I did purchase both this book and the prep for 3rd grade, in case he got bored or we had more time. Thus far we haven't cracked it open, but the summer isn't over yet! I see me using this series of books every year.

I bought Summer Smarts along with another series called, Summer Bridge Activites. Both books support practice of school skills over the summer. I love how this book looks sort of like a coloring book. My son has enjoyed coloring the pages after he completes them. Unlike the other series I mentioned, this book also encourages critical thinking. My son and I have had great conversations while he was working on his pages. I think this is a great book for kids because it isn't too difficult or frustrating.