The Summer Slide
The summer slide, summer slump, or summer learning loss. Whatever you call it, the regression of kid’s skills during the summer months is inevitable.
But it doesn’t have to be.
What is the summer slide?
The summer slide is a loss of math and reading skills during summer break. Basically, when a child isn’t using the skills they’ve worked so hard on throughout the year, they start to regress. Teachers then spend months trying to get kids back up to the grade level they were at before summer vacation began.
Keeping your kids engaged and learning can be done in the summer too. And it doesn’t have to include a bunch of boring workbooks either.
No matter where your summer plans take you there’s an opportunity for your kids to learn. Here are 3 Easy Ways to Avoid the Summer Slide and keep kids entertained at the same time!
3 Easy Ways to Avoid the Summer Slide
1. Read.
Whether you make it an experience and visit the library or read books that you already have at home, reading is a huge part of avoiding the summer slump. Keep kids brains engaged and expand their vocabulary. Experts recommend reading a minimum of 20 minutes per day.
Make things fun by joining in a summer reading program with incentives through schools or your local library. If you’re going on a family road trip, check out family-friendly audiobooks from the library.
2. Teach on the go.
Make all activities learning opportunities. Whether you’re taking a road trip or going on an international trip, there are tons of opportunities for learning with a trip. Teach about the new state or city, the state capital, geography, state bird/motto/animal/etc.
Trips to National and State Parks are a great way to make learning fun. We just got back from Bastrop State Park and the girls had the best time getting out in nature and learning new things.
3. Educational apps.
As much as we tell ourselves as parents that we’re not going to let our kids have devices in summer, it happens. You’re going to be stuck in the car or waiting in a doctor’s office or it’s raining. Everything in moderation. When you do let your kids have their devices, encourage educational apps. You could even offer education app time as incentives if your kids are motivated by that.
The girl’s teachers and their librarian all sent home lists of educational apps that they recommended to avoid the summer slump. Gone are the days of needing computer programs for educational games. Now we can have them wherever we are with our cellphones.
How do you combat the summer slide?