Are you currently a college student with not much planned this summer? While it is nice to enjoy time away from school, the summer offers great opportunities to enhance your academic skills. With more free time on your hands, there are several things you can do to keep your brain sharp.
Activities for summer academic skill enhancement:
- Read: During the school year, you are probably bogged down with required reading assignments, leaving little time to read for pleasure. Reading for pleasure is a great way to improve your academic skills. Reading increases your vocabulary, exposes you to grammar, and keeps your brain active. So head on over to your public library or local bookstore and pick up some books to read this summer! For further insight into improving your reading skills over the summer click here.
- Journal: During the school year, you probably find yourself writing papers on topics that may not be super interesting to you. Journaling a few minutes a day can help enhance your writing skills. You can journal about your day or current events. Here is a good read on improving your writing skills during the summer.
- Take a computer class: Many public libraries offer free computer skills classes. If you want to sharpen your MS Office skills you can sign up for a free classes that are just a few hours long and can help enhance your computer skills (skills most college students need in order to be successful).
- Visit a museum: Museums are great places to learn about an array of topics that can help us not only increase our knowledge of such topics but enhance our critical thinking skills. Visit a local museum and take a guided tour to learn something new and engage in asking questions about what you are learning.
- Take a class for fun or to learn a new skill: While you may not want to take a class at your university during the summer, you can always enroll in a non-credit type of class that keeps your brain active in the learning process. Many community colleges, local businesses or community centers offer non-credit classes in areas such as cooking, art, music, woodworking, photography, etc. These are the type of classes you may not take during the academic year, but the process of taking a class for fun helps keep your brain engaged in the learning process.
The summer is a great time to relax and enjoy time away from school. However, it also offers a wonderful opportunity to engage in activities to help keep our brains active and our academic skills sharp.