How to make sure your kids skip the ‘summer slide’

This learning loss, often called a “summer slide,” can be categorized by the loss of academic skills and knowledge over summer break, especially in reading and math, according to ReadBright, an educational consulting service.

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

“You don’t want your child to be behind because then that can have a domino effect throughout the year,” Grace said.

But with a few parental interventions, you can ensure your child won’t be completely lost when they return to school in the fall. You can:

1. Follow your children’s passions

During the school year, kids spend their days learning a nonstop barrage of different topics, some interesting to them and some on the more boring side. In the summer, their learning can be guided by their own interests and passions.

For example, when young children are introduced to new or difficult books at school, any resistance they experience may cause them to disengage. Use the summer as a reset for their reading journey.

“Be intentional with picking out the books and really do research on them,” Grace suggested. “Just create a space where kids are excited to read and they feel good about what they’re reading.”

According to Grace, small changes like adding a reading nook to your home or celebrating weekly trips to pick out books at the library can encourage a passion for reading.

You can also follow your kids’ passions through the nonscreen-based activities they enjoy every day.

If they are into art, let them play outside with sidewalk chalk for an hour, ReadBright product consultant John Bennetts suggested. Legos are another activity that promotes critical thinking and reasoning.

“The beautiful thing about elementary kids is that a lot of learning is done within games and activities, and sometimes they won’t even recognize that they’re learning,” Grace said.

2. Create an ‘unstructured’ routine

The school day is often categorized by a routine of nonstop mental stimulation that some children struggle to follow. One of the main joys of summer is that they are able to break away from these schedules and simply enjoy their time being kids — but don’t throw out routines completely.

“Routines and structures are critical for kids,” Bennetts said. “Oftentimes, kids go from a highly structured environment at school, so I always like to just create some type of daily structure.”

Bennetts suggests parents create a loose schedule of what their kids can do throughout wide-open summer days at home, with everything from reading hours to screentime factored in.

“Maybe it’s a thing of ‘once you read 10 pages, and journal for 10 minutes about what you read, you can get video game time,’” Grace advised.

Depending on their age, she said parents can plan a few reading comprehension questions to talk over during dinner or before bed.

3. Don’t underestimate the power of pen and paper

With the creation of apps and websites that focus on learning, many parents lean on them for their children’s mental stimulation, especially during summer break. According to experts, however, there are significant benefits to a more analog style of learning.

“The actual act of, like, a pencil on paper creates and helps form certain neurological pathways that we just don’t see, even with typing,” Bennetts said.

With reading on a phone or tablet, kids can miss out on the deeper meanings of stories when they are just scrolling as opposed to turning a physical page, he further explained.

Still, there are some great apps that do support students and their learning objectives, but parents should be intentional and use their discretion in choosing them, according to Grace.

“A red flag for me would be if you try to take the tablet away and there’s a lot of pushback from the child,” Grace shared. “If there’s a lot of anxiety, tantrums and stuff like that, the activity could be a little bit overstimulating.”

4. Look to your community for help

Preventing learning loss during the summer is a hard job, but you don’t have to bear it all alone. Parents should first look into community resources, such as the YMCA or a local library for free or low-cost options for summer learning activities.

The ReadBright program also suggests that parents stay in contact with their child’s previous teacher and reach out to their upcoming teacher as soon as the information is made available. Ask teachers what your kids should be prepared for in the coming year and incorporate it into your child’s summer learning.

For parents most concerned with learning loss, especially of children that may have struggled greatly during the previous year, they may want to consider more targeted options, like private tutoring.

The “summer slide” can happen to anybody, and it’s not a parent’s fault that the stimulating classroom environment is almost impossible to create at home. With small choices and directives throughout the summer, you can put your child in the best possible position to start the new school year.