Summer is now upon us and kids will be enjoying a long break away from school. No more early morning starts, pop quizzes or homework assignments! Instead, there will be family vacations to enjoy, playing outside with friends, and hours of kid’s TV shows to catch up on. Absolute bliss for many kids! However, returning to school after such a lot of time off can be a bit of a struggle. That is why it is great to include some educational activities in their summer routine. This will help to prevent summer slide learning loss. From joining activities like a summer reading program or participating in educational summer camps, there are are lots of ways to avoid learning loss.

What Is Summer Slide?

The “summer slide” refers to the learning loss that some students experience over the summer months when they are not engaged in regular educational activities. This phenomenon can affect various subjects, but it is most noticeable in reading and math.

Educational psychologists have studied this phenomena extensively, and have coined the terms ‘summer slide’, ‘summer learning loss’, and ‘summer brain drain’. All of these terms describe the movement backwards in a students’ learning. The result is an uncomfortable feel for many kids at the start of the new school year.  This post will look at ways in which parents can prevent summer learning slide. There are lots of fun ways you can keep your child’s brain ticking over the long summer vacation. Here are some strategies to help prevent the summer slide.

Summer Learning Loss Research

According to the National Summer Learning Association, extensive research has found that children will experience learning loss over the summer period, if they do not regularly engage in learning activities. In fact, researchers estimate that kids lose about two months of their grade level equivalency in math skills over summer.

Summer Slide Statistics

According to Learner.com:

1. Between 70% and 78% of students experience a decline in math skills over the summer across elementary grades.
2. Students may lose up to two months of reading proficiency over the summer, a substantial setback that can accumulate over time.
3. Over half of the reading achievement gap is attributable to unequal access to summer learning opportunities, underscoring the importance of these programs.

For low-income families, preventing the summer slide and lowered achievement test scores can be challenging due to limited resources. However, there are many cost-effective and free strategies that can be utilized to keep children engaged and learning during the summer months. Here are some ideas.

10 Learning Activities To Prevent Summer Slide

For children, the long summer off provides endless opportunities for play. However, usually by the end of the first week, children will quite often complain that they are bored. To help, we have gathered some educational activities for parents to share with kids. These should work for keeping kids busy and preventing any ‘dips’ in their academic attainment over summer. Here is how to avoid summer slide.

Get Crafty

Kids love messy play activities, one, because they get to cover themselves in  glue and glitter and two, because these activities give kids the chance to use their imaginations to express themselves. If you are looking for inspiration for inexpensive craft ideas, Pinterest is brimming with related links.

Fun with Food

Diet is important over the summer months, as your child will be growing and developing over the long break away from school. Make sure that you relay this message to your child and try to involve them in healthy food preparations as much as you can. Let your kids help with reading you the recipe and measuring the ingredients.  If your kids are old enough, try cutting recipes in half or doubling them to let them practice working with fractions.

Go to the Library

Libraries will typically run kids programs over the summer months, which may include readings from volunteers, reading challenges and even costume days, so sign your kids up for these (often free) activities. Furthermore, make sure that your child has plenty of books to read around the house. Encourage your child to read and make an effort to sit down and read to or with your child every single day. Many local libraries offer summer programs with incentives to encourage kids to read. Reading is a very important way to avoid summer slide.

Fun With Math

In the Splish Splash Math activity suitable for children on the younger side of elementary school, kids can learn about volumes and measurements, as well as getting the opportunity to cool off on a hot summer’s day in the garden. You will need various shapes and sizes of containers, a kiddy pool and some water. Get your child to experiment with the containers to find out which holds the most/least amount of water, and ask them various other volume related questions and get them to report back to you. You may also want to fill down time on car rides with math or multiplication challenges to make sure they stay quick thinking.  Experiment with shapes and geometry. You may even want to try a math journal. Integrate math into daily activities like cooking (measuring ingredients), shopping (budgeting and counting change), and home projects.

Older kids can improve math skills over the summer too. The gift of a fancy graphing calculator may help inspire them to explore new mathematical concepts and gain experience with functions such as graphs, charts and spreadsheets. My daughter is going to be a freshman next year and she was in need of a graphing calculator for her math class next year.  Casio agreed to provide us with a sample of the Casio PRIZM fx-CG500 Calculator so that I could share some of its features with you.  It has a large, soft keyboard and convenient drop-down menus. The Casio fx-CG500  includes a high-resolution, color touchscreen LCD display. I chose this specific calculator because it is permitted for use on the AP, SAT I and II, PSAT and NMSQT exams. You can learn more about it at Casio.com

Get Kids into History

Go through your old family photo albums and try and involve your child in learning more about your family tree. Many families talk about the present day’s activities around the dinner table. You could use this as an opportunity to change the topic one day and instead discuss the issues that surrounded your family’s past – WWII for example, or the Great Depression.

Go on a Nature Hike

Get out into nature with your kids by taking them on a hike through the woods. As you go, give them a little lesson in biology by pointing out the names of all the plants and wildlife you encounter on the journey. You may need to take a little guide book with you to help and a journal to record your finds. The fresh air should do you all the world of good.  This activity will help avoid summer slide through physical development, science exposure, and even reading and/or journaling.

Paint Hangman

For an opportunity to improve your kid’s spelling, and to have a lot of fun, this game of paint hangman should be just the ticket. Get some sheets of paper and some paints and think of a word. Next get your child to call out letters. If they do so correctly, fill in the letter on one of the sheets of paper. If they get a letter wrong however, splodge a bit of paint somewhere on their body or on a paper drawing of their body. Just make sure they’re wearing old clothes that you don’t mind getting messy!

Field Trips

Check your local community notice board for free events and museum or gallery exhibitions in your area. If you have exhausted your community’s free or inexpensive events, then you could always explore the local farm or animal shelter. Many places like this will even let you feed or walk the animals.

Do Some Drama

Get your child to dramatize one of their favorite stories. For example, this activity is based around The Three Little Pigs and sees the child building mini pig sties out of Lego, straws and lolly sticks. These kinds of activities boost the child’s memory, speaking and listening skills.

Play with Shadows

Over the long, hot summer there are bound to be some sunny days where you can get your kids out in the garden. It is the perfect time to learn about shadows and the Earth’s orbit.  Create your own homemade paper plate sundial. Make a shadow puppet theatre or simply see what shadowy shapes your child can make using their own bodies.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoy these most effective ways to avoid summer setback. These educational activities are lots of fun, as well as useful to keeping your child learning over the summer. If you have any comments or suggestions on preventing summer learning slide, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.  Which suggestions do you think you will use to avoid summer slide?

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