School's Out; Learning Begins

                                                                                        Ellen M. Bonner/The Seattle Times

Oh, what do you do in the summertime?  Kids relax, play, imagine, create.  But can they increase their IQ?

I have always believed that I could help my children’s IQ’s grow by increasing their experiences.  It turns out that my belief now has some scientific backing.  There are two types of IQ.  One is crystallized IQ, which is genetic and static.  The other is fluid IQ, which is the “general ability to think abstractly, reason, discern relationships, solve out-of-the-box problems, recognize patterns and evaluate problems by piecing together information that isn’t necessarily formally taught.¹  People who rate high on the trait of openness to new experiences are constantly seeking new information, new activities to engage in, new things to learn—new experiences in general.  New experiences create new synaptic connections which build on each other.  “Novelty also triggers dopamine which not only kicks motivation into high gear, but stimulates neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons) and prepares your brain for learning.” ²  If fluid IQ makes relationships, recognizes patterns, pieces together unrelated information, our children need the information, facts, and different points of view to make those connections.  They need experiences.

During the summer, when my children were young, I planned two outings each week, one educational and one fun.  The kids always enjoyed visits to museums.  One of their favorites was the California Science Center with its fun and informative exhibits.  Through hands-on experiences, they learned about human inventions and innovations, lighting up mock cities, learning how water flows, how motors work, the life processes of living things, making huge soap bubbles, and more.

Another favorite was the San Diego Science Center, especially the display on sound waves that made patterns in huge bowls of water, or plates of sand.  The children’s museums such as Kidspace, where they could act out being a fireman, or newscaster, or other occupations, and La Habra Children’s Museum with art work they could do, costumes for putting on plays, and a mini-carousal.  The Natural History Museum and La Brea Tar Pits fed their fascination for dinosaurs, saber tooth tigers, and mastodons.  

Cynthinee on flickr

The Tar Pits have the added enticement of gooey sticky tar bubbles popping here and there around the grounds.

The Gene Autry Museum, Calico Ghost Town, and the Southwest Indian Museum opened their eyes to Western history, as did visits to historic houses such as Adobe de Palomares,

Rains House, and the home of Will Rogers. 

They traveled back in time at the Orange Empire Railway Museum, where they explored trains and trolleys of the past, even having a ride on one.  There are automobile museums, the Planes of Fame museum in Chino with WWII planes that are operational and fly in air shows, and they could even travel to the stars at planetarium shows from the local colleges.  At Griffith Observatory, if you chose the right times, you can look through the telescopes at the planets.

They saw antiquities at the Getty Villa and art at the new Getty and Norton Simon art museums, as well as special showings at the Los Angeles Art Museum.  The Huntington Library was a favorite.  After the obligatory visit to the old books room (Gutenberg bible, Ben Franklin's diary, etc.) and the art museum featuring Blue Boy and Pinkie, they escaped to the Japanese garden and ran free among the bamboos by the lake.  Descanso Gardens has peacocks, and they loved to feed the ducks at Cal Poly.

They had their hearts and minds opened at the Museum of Tolerance to the effects of bullying and hatred.

Culturally, I took them (sometimes reluctantly) to ballets, operas, band concerts, piano concerts, concerts in the park featuring all types of music, rock and roll, or folk music, or hip hop.  One daughter says, “I remember going to my first opera “Aida” when I was in the fourth grade.  When I mentioned I had attended an opera at school the next day, my teacher was so impressed that I decided opera was a cool thing.  Lol.”  

Steven Pisano on flickr

Another said, “I remember a modern dance performance I didn’t understand, and I discovered a surprising liking for Bluegrass music.”  We went to children’s plays, operettas, Mexican dance shows, and once even to a Kabuki performance.  (My 16-year-old son really liked the over-the top costumes and acting).

One time we went to a concert at the Hollywood bowl.  We took our own picnic and ate on the grass.  My 4-year-old was looking forward to the fireworks at the end of the concert as they played the 1812 Overture, but unfortunately, he fell asleep before it happened.  The older ones enjoyed the concert, but what they really remember was getting trapped in the underpass as people were entering one end faster than they were exiting the other end.  Claustrophobic tensions were rising among everyone until someone started singing “Row, row, row your boat.”  Everyone joined in and the silliness of it released the tension.  We finally exited, but they learned something there too.

For fun, we went to the beach.  We loved the beach and would often spend the day (once we even camped for a week with my sister and her kids).  “I remember driving to the beach and staying late to avoid the rush hour traffic, chasing sand crabs, cooking corn in seawater over the fire-pit, and perfecting the technique of drip sandcastles, and slamming into waves and always ending up with a sunburn because I was too busy playing in the waves or sand than keeping the sun off.  I remember being surprised when we went to rocky beaches with tide pools and their briny life."  

Max Pixel

My husband would drive the hour down after work and we would cook dinner on the beach.  We waited for grunion which never came because we were always too noisy.  We visited tide pools and aquariums, swam in pools and water parks. 

We went on hikes, ate dinners in the mountains, went camping, fishing, and star gazing at Joshua Tree Nat. Park.  We went to amusements parks maybe once a summer, but visited the library often. We went to the zoo and laughed at the gorillas and monkeys, watched the otters play, were awed by the elephants and felt sorry for the lions and tigers as they paced.  We visited Griffith Park and rode the little train, the ponies, and the carousal.  In fact, we visited many parks in the area, some with unique playground equipment like rockets or trains, some with hills and ponds.  One daughter said, “I remember gathering black walnuts from the trees at the park to take home and crack open to eat, so I have a particular fondness for them, and picking lawn daisies or clover blossoms for daisy chains, and climbing on the sea creature sculptures at Ganesha Park and swimming lessons and firework displays there.”  We often went with cousins.  My kids thought everything was better with cousins.

One summer we went on a six-week camping trip around the U.S. across the south, up the east coast, and back through middle America.  One child’s memories: “Our trip around the U.S., from Carlsbad to the sweat shores of the Gulf, to the swamps of Florida, the east coast waves, the cram packed buses of New Jersey to the heat inside the Statue of Liberty, my first taste of fresh blueberries.  And cultural history stops at Plymouth, Jamestown, Williamsburg and Boston and Tom Sawyer’s cave, the Corn Palace and the huge carved faces at Mount Rushmore, the endless prairies and the beauty of Colorado’s Estes Park.”

I once worked with a group of teens that had been hooked on drugs.  I was amazed at how many of them, living in the Los Angeles area, had never been to the beach, had never been to the mountains, had never been to the desert.  They saw life from only the narrow viewpoint of their own neighborhoods.

We had a lot of children and not much money (we were just barely above the free lunch threshold), but we prioritized these activities. We drank powdered milk and dressed in thrift store clothes so we had money for doing things with our kids.  We found many free community performances, and free days at the museums.  We always brought our own picnic; we never bought the overpriced food at the venues.  My daughter who now sings in the Tabernacle Choir wrote, “I appreciate that you tried so hard to find free/cheap things for us to do to increase our exposure to (and therefore appreciation of) cultural activities.  I liked them at the time, too.”

We went to the County Fair each year.  Each of the children made a chocolate cake to enter in the children’s chocolate cake contest.  

Miklo on Wickapedia

With the contest entry came a free pass to the fair.  We didn’t go on the expensive rides but visited the model trains, the county displays, the home arts demonstrations, the school exhibits, the art exhibitions, the garden and flower displays.  My oldest daughter said, “I have so many fond memories of the giant redwood slab, browsing all the craft and art and garden exhibits, and performing with my school class and entering my cakes.  I have my best crepe recipe from the Incredible Egg demonstration there.”  We brought our own food, enjoyed ourselves and only paid for parking.

I don’t know if all these activities actually increased their IQ’s.  They are all really smart.  But I do know that it helps them enjoy more things, appreciate things outside their own viewpoints, and has enhanced their lives.