June is here. Thankfully, we’ve made it through another school year. Like many other parents, we’re looking forward to a break from early rising, the driveline before and after school, and the endless amounts of homework, projects, and presentations. I think we have been more excited than our children about the break from school that we’re all about to have. However, just as we were preparing ourselves for a few months of complete rest and relaxation, the Director of our children’s academic enrichment program asked to meet with us to discuss avoiding the “Summer Slide”.
The “Summer Slide”, also known as summer learning loss, is the phenomenon of many students starting the academic year with achievement levels lower than where they were at the beginning of summer break. It is estimated that on average, students’ achievement scores declined over summer vacation by one month’s worth of school-year learning. After all of your child’s hard work this year (and yours!), surely you don’t want any setbacks!
So we’d like to share with you 4 simple strategies to avoid the Summer Slide.
1. Read, Read, Read! Just a few minutes of reading a day will help keep their skills sharp during these months of leisure. Allow them to choose books that interest them… sports, music, princesses, or anything that they will enjoy.
2. Incorporate learning into their summer activities. Perhaps they can help prepare meals and be responsible for measuring out the ingredients. Or maybe they can help research fun facts about the family vacation destination. So much learning can be incorporated into day-to-day activities. Be creative and have fun!
3. Make time for academic work each day. Just a few minutes a day is sufficient, if done consistently. Try to encourage them to do a few math problems each day or a few minutes of writing in a summer journal. Small acts done consistently over time can have a huge impact.
4. Make their screen time count! Check out some age-appropriate online-enrichment programs that will engage them with reading, math, science, or tech skills.