I recently interviewed Rachel Rudman, the creator of the Grasshopper Preschool Prep Kits. Rachael is a pediatric occupational therapist with an advanced degree in early intervention, and a published author for teachers’ journals.
In general I don’t view summer as a time to prevent ‘slide’, but a time for a unique type of learning growth.
There are four Grasshopper Kits
She said, “Summer slide in general is an interesting topic. Many teachers will give ‘summer packets’ for children to complete. However, in general teachers anticipate a certain amount of ‘sliding’ to occur over the summer and that is built into the curriculum.
The best thing to do for children of all ages (including preschoolers) is to keep their brains active and provide children with some structured play experiences. Structured play can range from:
- Board games that require strategy
- A simple game of memory
- Card games such as ‘spit’
- Many of the ‘think fun’ brain games
- Chess
- Checkers
The Grasshopper Preschool Prep Kits fit into this category of ‘structured active play’ perfectly. They are all fun with no workbooks, but they are structured and children can learn many skills that will be expected in school such as turn taking, following directions, letter recognition, early writing, and cutting (take a look at my flash video presentation of the top of my ‘products’ page on my website Grasshopper. In general I don’t view summer as a time to prevent ‘slide’, but a time for a unique type of learning growth.
The Key is Structure
Typical kids (without developmental disabilities) will retain their abilities over the summer. I do advise that during the final two weeks of summer parents start to get their children into a more structured routine as far as sleep (bed time and wake up).
There is much to be gained and learned by taking the summer ‘off.’ Imaginative and explorative play can provide children with valuable learning experiences that they can’t learn in a classroom environment.
Regards,
Rachel Rudman MSOTR/L”
Special note: This is the same philosophy that I used in my book/CD The Monster on Top of the Bed. I know that children love to listen to the story in different languages and read it at the same time.
The kits are going to be available this summer at Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide. I hope all you parents of 3-5 year olds will go out and pick one up. Let me know what you think!
Rachel Rudman MSOTR/L
I think that you should take this product to the Shark Tank, http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/, and while you are at it tell them about my books, including The Monster on Top of the Bed,http://www.MonBed.com.