Teacher for a week

We decided to have each child be "teacher for the week." That child would pick the topic of the week (such as studying rocks, stars, dinosaurs, local history, etc.) and would be responsible for teaching the rest of the family during our after-lunch study time. Each day the "teacher" would give a lecture, or plan an activity, maybe make up a word game, or we would go on a field trip or to the library.

There would be a total of five days spent on each selected topic. Because each child had different interests, we all learned about a great variety of topics. And, as we all know from teaching in the Church, the teacher always learns more than the class members. — Connie McKee, Sandy, Utah

Took institute

Being a student at the university, I found it hard to keep up with nine papers. I'd find myself studying into the school holidays. Summer vacation was usually a time for me to relax but along with the relaxation came paranoia and the loss of understanding, academically.

We all tend to switch to holiday mode. One thing that certainly helped during the summer vacation was institute. Because some people needed to do catch-up work, institute continued throughout the summer vacation for those people. Although I didn't need to catch up, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go along.

I was amazed to find that ancient stories in the scriptures related to me and my studies. Music and literature could be read throughout the Old Testament. Shades of political and world issues were seen in the New Testament and the importance of education was stated in Doctrine and Covenants. Not to mention I passed nine papers. — C. Craig, New Zealand

Educational channels

There are many options available for continuing study habits into the summer. Depending on a family's resources and the availability of some items, we have compiled the following suggestions:

• Utilize some of the good television programs on the Discovery Channel or other educational channels.

• Make use of fun activity workbooks, which are available in stores, depending on the ages of your children.

• Take advantage of the many wonderful learning programs available for home computers.

• Take classes. Many communities offer organized classes with quite a variety of topics that are usually comparatively inexpensive.

• Organize a "new-word-a-day" or a "100-books-read" summer.

Encourage young people to keep up with regular daily practice, if they play a musical instrument. Urge them to write a journal entry daily. This could be done on a computer to also work on typing skills. Writing letters is also good. Study of the outdoors is always fun. Maybe a reward system could be in place as a means to motivate the children.

Ideas for older children could include getting a summer job that utilizes math skills, like cashiering. Involve the children in family finances. Finally, teach them how to do family history/genealogy research and temple submission of names. — Logan High School seminary, Logan, Utah (Brother Miller's 3rd hour class)

Study together

To help young people stay up-to-date on studies during summer vacations, encourage them to participate in summer reading programs at local libraries; rent videos of movies based on good literature. If your children are attending summer school, how about registering for an adult education class at your local college or university?

If children see that Mom or Dad has homework to do, it will encourage them in doing theirs. You could set up study dates together and have fun while learning something new yourself. — Dorothy Hicks, Denver, Colo.