by Rachel Wells
School is out for summer, and it’s time for both teachers and students to relax before preparing for next year. After nine months of hard work, everyone surely deserves the time off, but unfortunately for many students, summer break can lead to the dreaded “summer slide”.
What is the summer slide?
The summer slide is just another term for summer learning loss.
- It’s kids forgetting what 10+2 is, or how to multiply double digits.
- It’s kids forgetting the difference between to, too, and two, or which way to write “b” and “d”.
- It’s kids not reading as fluently or at the same level as they were at the end of the previous year.
Summer learning loss doesn’t affect every child equally, and while some may catch back up with just a few weeks of refresher activities in the fall, other students who may already be struggling in a specific subject area can end up as much as three months behind their peers when they return to school.
While it can be hard to keep up an academic routine in a season filled with fun distractions, it only takes 20-30 minutes a day to keep the summer slide at bay. And providing your child with educational opportunities will help them return to school strong and ready to continue learning when August rolls around.
Check out these fun ways to keep the learning going over summer break:
- Attend a summer camp.
- Pick up some practice workbooks – two pages a day can make a big difference!
- Participate in a library reading challenge.
- Download some educational apps or computer games (remember to only play for 20-30 minutes!)
- Play board games together that require your child to read or do math.
- Have your child practice handling money at the store, or while picking up a sweet treat from an ice cream truck.
- Cook together and have your child measure out the ingredients.
- Have your child keep a journal of their summer adventures. Encourage them to add drawings, real photos, and write about their fun adventures.
- Read for 20 minutes a day!!
- Head to a local museum.
- Paint/write outside with water. Simply fill a bucket with water, and have your child use a paintbrush to practice writing words, sentences, or math facts on blacktop.
- Write a book together.
- Create a comic strip.
- Write and mail a letter to a friend.
- Read signs together when you drive.
- Do a large puzzle together.
- Focus on a skill you didn’t have time for during the school year – help your child learn their phone number or address, how to tie their shoes, write in cursive, ride a bike without training wheels, type on the computer, or learn some basic coding.
Try your best to do something of educational value each day, and remember that any time spent learning is valuable!
