Summer School With a Youth Movement : Learning: Simi Valley combines computers, parental involvement. In Thousand Oaks, the focus is on motivated kids.

Lauren Kelly doesn’t have to be at school this summer to make up missed lessons or receive extra help. The Thousand Oaks 10-year-old says she likes to be there to keep her mind stimulated.

If not for the Spanish, science, computer and art classes she takes half days during July at Conejo Valley Adult School, Lauren said, “I’d probably be at home watching TV.”

On the other hand, Mathew and Patrick Smith aren’t even aware that their summer school program for struggling students in Simi Valley is work, their mother said.

They just like the computers, Karen Smith said of the first- and second-grader seated at machines on either side of her.

“They don’t think of it as school,” Smith said. “Anything to do with computers is fun and exciting for them.”

For the first time, officials in the two east county districts this year are offering programs for their youngest students that go beyond traditional summer school.

In Simi Valley, school officials are combining computers and parental involvement to help improve the basic skills of struggling fifth-graders.

Some younger students who began in the program when it first started after school in April also were allowed to enroll, officials said.

In contrast, the Thousand Oaks program focuses on highly motivated children in the third through sixth grades seeking to escape the boredom of endless summer with enrichment courses. The program pays for itself through fees of $125 per student, officials said.

In addition to pencils and workbooks, students in the Simi Valley program must bring their parents to work side by side with them in the lab.

“It’s been proven time and again that nothing raises a student’s scores more quickly than parent involvement,” said Marietta Spotts, coordinator of the district-funded program. “When a parent sits by a child for an hour or more, it says they’re very special and that increases their motivation 100%.”

In the program, computers challenge the students with problems in math, reading and spelling. If the child misses a question twice, a lesson appears on the screen before the questions begin again.

Parents must reserve the computer time in one-hour blocks and accompany the child, Spotts said. Because of the time involved, especially during daytime hours, no one thought more than a couple of dozen students would show interest in the program, said Susan Parks, Simi Valley Unified School District assistant superintendent.

Nearly 100 signed up and have been attending with their parents, or in some cases, with their grandparents or a responsible older sibling since the program started two weeks ago.

“It just shows that parents will make their kids a priority when there’s a compelling reason,” Parks said.

In Thousand Oaks, Conejo Valley Unified School District officials were similarly pleased with the turnout for the first-year program that offers course work beyond the three R’s, they said.

Enrollment was limited to 60, although “we could have filled it up a second time,” spokeswoman Twila Cook said. The popular program could be expanded next year, said David Woodruff, the adult school principal.

“We looked out and saw a need for a summer program oriented more toward the gifted student,” Woodruff said. “At the same time, this is our slow time at the adult school, so the facilities were available.”

The students rotate between four classes, from learning a computer keyboard to practicing beginning Spanish, drawing and painting, and testing scientific theories. The school is a hit, several children said.

“The only problem is it’s too short,” said Andy Cohen, 9, who starts the fifth grade at Westlake Hills Elementary School in the fall.

“On a scale of one to 10, I’d give this place a nine point 10,” said Adam Kramer, 8, who will be a fourth-grader at Meadows Elementary School.