Keep Kids Off the Summer Slide: Smart Ways to Spend the Summer
The “summer slide” may sound like fun, but it’s definitely something you’ll want to keep your kids far away from this summer! During the summer, kids lose an average 2.6 months of grade-level equivalency in math computation skills and 25 percent of their reading skills. That explains why teachers usually spend four to six weeks re-teaching materials in the fall. So what’s a parent to do?
Fight Back Against the Summer Slide with These Tips & Games
In many ways, the brain is like a muscle and the old adage “use it or lose it” certainly holds true. Mental exercise can keep the brain strong, just as physical exercise can keep the body strong. So, here are some ways to keep your kids from “losing it” this summer. These exercises keep the brain energized while building cognitive skills, the underlying mental abilities needed to learn.
20 Questions:
Think of a person or thing and give your child 20 chances to narrow down what it is by asking yes or no questions. To help them improve their logic and reasoning, teach them to strategize by using questions that will significantly narrow down the categories, such as “Are they alive?” or “Do we have one at home?”
What it helps: Logic and reasoning and memory
Speed Cards:
Take a regular deck of cards and time your child as they separate it into two piles (red and black) or four piles (spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds).
What it helps: Processing speed, divided attention, selective attention and visual processing
Mental Tic Tac Toe:
Similar to traditional Tic Tac Toe, this game uses a ‘mental’ grid numbered 1 to 9. Players remember where their opponent has already been and call out an unoccupied space. The player who calls an occupied space loses.
What it helps: Attention, logic and reasoning and working memory
Needle in a Haystack:
Take a page from a newspaper and time your child as she circles all occurrences of a specific letter. Focus on increasing both accuracy and speed.
What it helps: Visual processing speed
Poetry:
Have your child choose four words that rhyme and then ask them to use those words to create a poem or a rhyming song.
What it helps: Auditory analysis, verbal rhythm, memory
The Game of Lists:
This activity has endless possibilities. On beat to an activity like jumping rope or swinging, name 15 words that start with “B”, nine types of sports, seven kinds of candy, eight dinosaurs, etc.
What it helps: processing speed, divided attention, working memory and logic and reasoning
Summer Reading:
Simply getting your child to read every day is another powerful way to slow the summer slide. According to Scholastic Parents Online, reading just six books during the summer can keep a struggling reader from regressing. When choosing the six, make sure they’re the right level – not too hard or too easy. If you start to notice any red flags (like these) over the summer months, it can put you in a good place to give your child the support they need to become a confident reader!
You Can Do This!
And don’t assume that your kids will roll their eyes when you suggest ideas to keep their brain skills strong all summer. More than half of students surveyed say they want to be involved in a summer learning program that helps them keep up with schoolwork or prepare them for the next grade. Besides, unlike abdominal crunches, exercise for your brain is actually FUN!
