Stay Off the Summer Slide
Originally Published May 2014
Most kids love the sliding board. You go up. You come down and get a tickle in your belly. And summer brings more time for enjoying that slide. But there is one slide that we want to avoid this summer. It’s the “summer slide” or a decline of academic skills and/or the focus on learning. Summer is a great time for students and parents to relax and rest from the pace of the school year. But it is not a time for learning and practice to stop. So how do you help your child keep skills sharp without fighting about review? You make learning fun. (Psst! It should always be fun).
There are many ways to incorporate review into your child’s day without it being obvious. I would like to provide just a few tips here. If you have others, please share them on your social media sites.
If your child loves to read and does so for pleasure, awesome! But make sure to challenge him/her to try new genres. Getting your child to try a new genre can be like sneaking in vegetables, so be creative. Buy a subscription or a few issues of a magazine on a topic of interest. For every three books your child chooses, you get to suggest one. Also, if you are traveling this summer, have your child read about your destination or spots of interest along the way. If you travel by car, have your child pick up some brochures at the rest area and read them. Then have your child summarize the information for the family. They will have to read informational text (a challenge genre for many students), summarize by identifying main ideas and important details, and retell to the family. It’s like hiding carrots in the pasta sauce!
What about math? Make it real world. Many students have trouble with fractions and measurement. How do you practice that without a sheet of problems? Let them bake or cook. Have your child bake a double or half batch of a favorite cookie or other dish. They will have to use fractions, add, divide, multiply, and consider ratios. Doing any redecorating? Have your child determine how much paint or carpet you need. Think about the ways you use math in your daily home life, and then have your child get started on the work too.
If you have an older child, I encourage you to read the same books they may have for summer reading. You can talk about the book, the characters, the meaning. It’s like a family book club. You can also help your teen to plan when to read the books. Trust me, many an honors student is reading three books in August because they put it off. If your child works, have them set up a checking account and begin budgeting and saving their earnings. Ask them to set a goal for something they want to purchase and plan how much they have to work to earn it. Be sure they understand their paycheck and the percentages that they pay in taxes. Again, make it real!
These are just a few tips. I look forward to hearing your ideas, too. And have a wonderful summer!
