How to encourage DD to retain knowledge over summer?

[mumtoateen]

DD(15) has expressed a desire to be helped with retaining knowledge over summer, as she often finds herself going into the new school year and taking time to remember. She's going into year 11, so it's her GCSE year and she needs to remember this stuff. Any ideas other than past papers? Which she has said she's okay with doing but doesn't want to really as it's summer

What about doing mindmaps?
Or going on Khan Academy and picking out the topics she wants practice in?
Or GCSE revision guides and workbooks?
One thing I would say is don't waste the time only reading over text books; very little goes in unless you do something with the information.
There are quite a few good science or history documentaries put out by the BBC, which though perhaps are not specific to the syllabus add a bit of interest to the subject.

I think having a break this summer is going to be good for my DD1, same age. She didn't get much of a break at Feb half term, Easter, or Summer half term, and really needs it now. I think y11 could be a long hard slog and recharging batteries now is important.

Could you set aside the last week of the hold to start getting up to speed again? Maybe only in the key subjects or ones she finds hardest? e.g. In the past I have done maths with DD1 as she forgets that extremely quickly!

Could she set herself a schedule - 20 mins each day to revise a particular topic (BBC bite size, Khan Academy and other online resources could make this a lot more enjoyable). Revisiting the topic at least once would be a good idea, depending on how much she wanted to cover.

A little bit every day is far better than cramming a lot in a shorter length of time. Even if she spent up to an hour a day, that leaves a lot of free time in the holidays!

Wish my DC were as self motivated to keep their knowledge keen.

DS (Yr 8) is aiming for 45 mins a day of BBC, Khan, CGP Revision books. The code for the wifi router is mysteriously lost until this is done...

My DS is (somewhat reluctantly) doing some revision over the summer plus work on his Art portfolio, he is about to go into Yr11 too. He is doing mindmaps for all 3 sciences (his stronger subjects) to help him revise later and his school gave him a workbook to complete for Spanish (his weakest!). He also needs to do some reading (recommended by his Learning Support teacher and what I would call reading for pleasure but, as he is dyslexic, he does not concur) and some on-line maths. His other subjects are IT (he's doing his mindmaps on his laptop to improve his knowledge of PowerPoint etc) and DT for which he may do a bit of reading of his notes but they are in good order already. My DH would have him working half a day everyday but, luckily for DS, I am the one at home and I just ask him to do some science or maths, a page of Spanish and some Art (which he loves anyway) each day... less than 2 hours especially if he doesn't waste time moaning!! He has already had a good break (including family holiday away) and we are going to do some fun stuff too with friends! Plus some days we will have trips out instead where he can do photography for his Art... anything to drag him away from the technology Sorry rather waffly... basically he needs to do some work so that he doesn't lose ground in his learning (particularly in Spanish and Maths) and so that he has good revision notes on the work he has already covered so revision is less awful next year... he may find it a pain but he is starting to understand the purpose!

Maybe she could start making revision cards? Get some coloured pens and some index cards and case. As she reads each topic she could summarise the key points on each card. Glossaries of key words are also useful. If she folds A4 paper down the middle she could make herself some Q and A sheets so she can self test. If she enjoys IT she could make some revision powerpoints etc and share them on the schools VLE 'virtual learning environment' (the teachers may need to help her post them).

Here are a few good options for languages:

t.co/lHBWywqMJ5

Duolingo is very good

Reading.

Making flash cards.

Short bursts of revision - 15 to 20 mins. (30 mins. max.)

Explaining a topic verbally to you or anyone else in the family who´s got 10 minutes to listen (also you can ask her questions about the topic) - or record herself doing it. This is really useful - explaining something to someone who HASN´T studied it draws attention to gaps in memory, knowledge, understanding very quickly and obviously. It´s also quite fun!