SLURP! Something happens to kids across America every summer, and you can practically hear the giant SLURPing sound as half of what they learned in school this year washes down the drain. The Brain Drain.

Like anything else in life, there are good and bad sides to the summer vacation and the camp experiences that often accompany it. Summer Camps can be great places where children can exercise their bodies and the seven intelligences ignored by traditional schools: musical, interpersonal, intra-personal, naturalist, kinesthetic, spiritual and spatial.

All too often, however, the activities are mind-numbing instead of mind-expanding. Kids need challenging mental workouts during the summer to keep their brains in shape. Here are some effective activities, and some not-so-effective activities that are great for summer fun.

Here are some tips to help you maintain Brain Fitness for your kids over the summer. It isn't easy. You're going to have to fight off Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean, Spiderman, Harry Potter (the movie, not the book) and every international company aiming their advertising squarely at your kid's eyeballs.

First, the bad.

Video Games - these have a high stimulus payoff but minimal cognitive investment. Most games require manipulation of a handful of controls, which is nowhere near as challenging as organizing ideas for an essay or planning a multi-step science project.

Television and Movies - again, high stimulus payoff but this time zero cognitive investment. Even when the content is educational, the activity is passive. The child may absorb some facts but it is the equivalent of laying down mentally: it won't keep their brain in shape and in fact can lead to brainpower atrophy!

If a child reads with automaticity, then she needs more challenging material to work out her mental muscles.

Pulp Reading - if your child is reading challenged, then by all means encourage any kind of reading. However, if your child is reading on grade level, then pulp media like comic books, manga and sub-literary material do more harm than good! If a child reads with automaticity, then she needs more challenging material to work out her mental muscles. If your child is truly, madly, deeply in love with a particular piece, then have her write a thoughtful essay about the material.

Texting and Instant Messaging - just imagine that your child is getting reward pellets instead of text messages and you'll see why this activity is a stinker. Not

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