Summer Enrichment

Those who relished summer vacation in elementary school are likely to find it even more delicious in their middle school years. For many of them, it is the first time in their lives that they will be allowed to venture out without their parents in tow. There is the allure of the mall, the summer blockbuster, and of course around here, the beach. After a year of middle school, such indulgence feels well-deserved.

Of course, any student who has been through even one year of middle school can attest to how drastically the responsibilities pile up from one year to the next — more work, harder work. And as school continues, so does this trend. Students are well-advised to spend some of their vacation keeping their minds active and preparing themselves for what the coming autumn will inevitably bring. Heading into a new school year with a brain that has gone soft from inactivity is, needless to say, not a good idea. Keeping the mind sharp is like any form of exercise — it needn’t be difficult or all-consuming, but it has to be done consistently, and the benefits of it are easily sensed. Such is the attitude we take in our middle school summer enrichment program.

And schoolwork doesn’t entirely recede with the beginning of summer vacation. For many middle school students, there will be summer school and reading assignments for the next year’s English classes. Others will see the prospect of high school geometry staring ominously from the horizon. They needn’t fret, though. With some light summer tutoring, any student can be comfortably prepared for the next grade.

Our middle school summer enrichment program begins after the Fourth of July and continues until the week before fall classes begin. During that time a student can spend, say, ten or twenty sessions with a tutor brushing up with academic exercises, finishing book reports, completing summer school homework — whatever. The great luxury of a summer program is that students are free to fashion it any way they want to.

So when you’ve run the gamut of the movie theater’s playbill and deepened your tan as far as it will go, you may think it’s about time to brush the sand off your feet and prepare for what’s to come (always faster than you think it will). Whenever you reach that point, we’ll be waiting.