DATE: Friday, July 25, 1997                 TAG: 9707240346

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Education 

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   96 lines

KEEPING KIDS SHARP

Leba Augone is on summer vacation from being a Spanish teacher in the Bronx. So what is she doing in a teacher supply store in Virginia Beach?

Her 6-year-old daughter doesn't stop learning just because school ended in June.

``Instead of taking her to Chuck E. Cheese, I take her to a book store, or someplace like this,'' said Augone. ``It's important to take some time out and reinforce the skills, even when you're just walking or driving around.''

Augone, who was visiting relatives here, wishes her high school students didn't take a complete vacation from their Spanish over the summer. Each year she has to devote the first two weeks of class to review material her students should already know.

``When summer comes, everyone wants to relax - I do, too. But take a little time to refresh yourself, 10 to 15 minutes a day,'' said Augone. ``But nobody does it.''

In fact, many students and their parents are doing it - keeping academic skills sharp over summer vacation.

``Parents are very, very interested in their children's educational progress,'' said Dolores Kirby, co-owner of Kirby's Teachers and Office Supplies in Chesapeake. ``Much more so now than ever before.''

Perhaps the most obvious way to learn a subject over the summer is through a formal summer school program - and thousands of Hampton Roads children are enrolled in such programs this summer. But short of actual summer school, there's still plenty parents can do to help their children stay sharp.

``First, register your child in all those free activities at the public library. When you're ordering those Happy Meals, have them handle the money,'' said Carolyn Copeland, summer school coordinator at Great Bridge Primary in Chesapeake and a second-grade teacher. ``. . . Ask them to do creative writing on Hercules (after seeing the movie). We spend more and more money on our children, but there are things we can do that do not cost so much that really teaches them.''

Their desire to learn how to teach their children is making parents as common a sight in area teacher supply stores as teachers themselves.

``When they go on vacations, that's when they come in to buy things to bring with them. It's very gratifying to see that,'' said Kirby, adding with a laugh, ``I can just see the kids in the car, playing with math manipulatives as they merrily go cross-country.''

Whether a parent's goals are to review material from the past year, get a jump on the next year or just let children explore new areas, Kirby and others said the summer is as good a time as any - maybe better. Parents, they say, are in a better position to give their children the kind of one-on-one instruction teachers can't, and they can do it in a more relaxed environment.

``Let them use their minds and build upon what they already learned in the classroom,'' said Tish White, manager of TAPS (Teachers and Parents Store) and a former kindergarten teacher. ``I see summer as being more of a hands-on, creative, have-fun time.''

White recommended such things as puzzles, which reinforce counting and other skills; educational games: work books; science experiments; field trips; and just plain old-fashioned reading when parents are at a loss as to how to ``teach.'' For very young children, such things as swimming lessons and jumping rope not only improve their physical fitness but improve their reading readiness by developing eye-hand coordination.

For older children, it may just be a matter of devoting a half-hour in the morning and reviewing work they did in the past year, said Kathy Hanna, a Chesapeake parent of two, Michael, 17, and Elizabeth, 14. While both students have always liked to read, math didn't come as easily, so come July or August it was time to get out the math notes and worksheets from the previous year.

``To me, with math the brain shouldn't rest too long. Let's face it, math builds on one year to the next,'' said Hanna. She recommended that parents save notes from classes where the teacher was very good.

``Your next child may not get that teacher, but they can still use those resources,'' she said.

Helping students stay sharp is not just a matter of working on weaknesses but building on strengths as well, said White.

``Especially in the summer, work to build their self-esteem so they can go back to school able to say, `I am good at this,' '' she said.

But, White warns, it takes time to learn a child's interests and learning styles. There are no shortcuts.

``My first question to a parent is, `How does your child learn?' '' White said. Usually, she added, ``They don't know, they have no idea.''

Those parents who find out may reap the rewards of not just a better academically prepared student, but a better understanding of the child.

``What a good thing, the bonding that results from that,'' said Kirby.

Plus there's the gratitude of teachers like Mary Beth Holewinski.

``You don't want summer vacation to be a reward for going to school,'' said Holewinski, a seventh grade history teacher at St. Gregory's in Virginia Beach. ``Don't say, `School's over. We're going to drop everything academic now.' That creates a real negative attitude toward school.''

And students, take note.

``You can tell if they've kept up with their reading. You can tell if they've done nothing,'' Holewinski said. ILLUSTRATION: TIPS FOR PARENTS

GRAPHIC

[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]

JANET SHAUGHNESSY

The Virginian-Pilot

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