Summer Bridge Activities: 1st Grade to 2nd Grade

Rating:
Summary: Summer Bridge Activities - First Grade to Second Grade
Review: I am a teacher. I think that this book is perfect for a child that is in need to work on skills he/she has not mastered yet because it has so many pages! A child who has worked hard and has suceeded first grade does not need so much exercise. Besides pictures are boring and no reading guides are provided. "Summer Smarts" has fewer pages, activities are funny and related to a first grader's experiences. And it provides guided reading at the end of the book. However I would strongly suggest " Summer Bridge" to a child who has struggled during first grade and/or to a child who has not mastered basic skills yet.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing but useful
Review: I bought this for my grandson, who has just finished the first grade, in hopes it would help him keep up the skills he learned and get him a little ahead for next year. I also bought the 4-5 book for his sister and brother.

Having observed what it took to get our oldest grandson through the school system and prepare him to compete for the best colleges (he won a scholarship to West Point), and having raised and educated four children of my own, I'm probably (dare I say it?) more qualified than a teacher to judge what's best in terms of academic materials. (I have also taught at the elementary level as well as in college.)

This material is too repetitive in terms of lessons already learned. It doesn't provide enough new material to be interesting, much less challenging. My first/second grader grandson is a disinterested but average student and he breezed through this book with barely a nod.

To be fair, the book did half of what I'd hoped. It does help him keep the skills he acquired. It doesn't, however, move him ahead. I will have to provide exercises to do that on my own.

The competition for top-notch colleges today is fierce. It will probably only get "fiercer" in the future. I'll be looking for other sources to help my grandchildren excel in their schoolwork.

Rating:
Summary: Solid summer material
Review: I was concerned that my daughter would lose some of her school skills over the summer. This book is designed to be attractive to kids, and easy to use for parents. It's set up so that kids get rewarded for their efforts. First grade concepts are reviewed, and second grade ideas are prepared for. It's easy to use, and well worth the price! I'll be purchasing the 2nd-3rd grade edition this year!

Rating:
Summary: Summer Bridge Activities - First Grade to Second Grade
Review: I would recommend this book to those first graders who still need to learn basic skills. It provides a great deal of practice in any basic skills taught in first grade and those needed to advance to second grade. However it requires about one full hour of work daily, which I think it's too much for a vacationing child who worked hard throughout the school year and obtained good marks.Besides it does not provide worksheets for any book even though there's a list of good reading books on one of the first pages. Another bad point of this workbook is the layout which is rather dull and will not attract the eye of your child. For those average to advanced first graders I would suggest a book like "Summer Smarts" which provides less practice in a more kid-friendly layout.

Rating:
Summary: Sloppy editing, and not challenging enough
Review: While Summer Bridge has been a fairly decent way for my daughter to keep her skills fresh over the summer, it really wasn't challenging enough to hold her interest. She finished each day's work in about 10 minutes, and said she found the material boring. I think it'd be more useful to a child who needed a little remedial work before starting second grade. Much of the material was actually work that she'd done in kindergarten, and it's not as though my daughter's a prodigy; she's on a par with other children in a parochial school.

The other thing that annoyed me was incredibly sloppy editing - sorry, folks, but "gnat" is not spelled "knat", and there were a number of exercises that were misprinted. Since this isn't an inexpensive book, I don't appreciate spending money and finding it full of errors. Also, the instructions for some of the exercises were pretty unclear - there were a couple where I had to check the answers page to be sure of what my daughter needed to do. I'll hesitate before buying the same series next year, even though the concept is a sound one.