Copyright © 2015, 2019, 2020 by Mitchell R Grunes
Most children don't want to spend the summer studying - unless they are very eager to get into a good college. But if your child sometimes has trouble with math and science classes, they can benefit from covering the material informally over the summer, without the pressure of tests and grades. When the student is exposed to the subject again in the fall, it will come more easily. Depending upon your child's learning style, I can use shorter and better written books (100-200 pages instead of 1000-1500) than the ones local school systems use, and/or skip the endlessly repetitive web sites and videos.
There are two classes for which informal summer study is especially useful, because the student must think in completely new ways: Calculus, and Physics.
Calculus is more than an extension of algebra. Instead of solving for specific numbers, you solve for an entire function at once, based on its properties, like slopes and areas under the curve. You memorize many formulas to do that, and also learn new different solution techniques.
Physics is Calculus applied to the real world - even 11th grade Physics, which doesn't require the student to take Calculus first. There are additional formulas and properties to remember, which specify the laws of Physics, just as there were formulas for the other science classes your child has studied. But hardest of all, you learn to analyze complex problems in novel ways to come up with the equations you need to solve, which makes Physics more challenging than high school Biology and Chemistry.
Let me help your child work on these types of problem over the summer, so they will have an easier time of it in the fall.