Prevent the Summer Slide: 4 Things to Do This Summer to Keep Up the Momentum
As the school year comes to a close and summer break approaches, it’s important to think about ways to keep students engaged in learning during their time off. According to research, students can lose between 25-30% of their school year learning during the summer months, a phenomenon known as the “summer slide.” Fortunately, there are several strategies that parents and caregivers can use to prevent the summer slide and keep students motivated and engaged in learning. Here are four things to do this summer to keep up the momentum.
#1: Do Summer Reading to Prevent the Summer Slide
Reading is one of the most effective ways to prevent the summer slide. Encourage your child to read for pleasure by visiting the library, selecting books that interest them, and setting aside time each day for independent reading. Consider starting a family book club or reading aloud together as a way to make reading a shared experience.
#2: Create a Routine
During the school year, students thrive on routine and structure. Help your child maintain a sense of structure during the summer months by creating a daily schedule that includes time for reading, physical activity, and creative play or exploration. This can help them stay focused and motivated and prevent them from slipping into a summer slump.
#3: Let Them Be “Bored”
While it’s important to keep students engaged in learning, it’s also important to allow for unstructured time and downtime. Boredom creates an environment for kids to think critically and creatively. Times when kids are “bored” are the times when they can make choices to fill their time.
Encourage your child to explore their interests and pursue hobbies and creative endeavors, even if they may not seem directly related to academic learning. Allowing for unstructured time can spark creativity and curiosity, and may even lead to new academic interests. This will help them “learn how to learn” so they can carry this skill into the school year and beyond.
#4: Skip the Worksheets and Build Cognitive Skills Instead
While some parents may be tempted to use worksheets and workbooks to keep their child’s skills sharp over the summer, these types of activities may not be the most effective way to prevent the summer slide for lots of kids. Instead, focus on building cognitive skills through hands-on activities and games. For example, encourage your child to play board games that involve strategic thinking, or challenge them to build a bridge or tower using only toothpicks and marshmallows.
If you want to get your child a leg-up for the next school year, one of the best things you can do is to strengthen the skills their brain uses to interact with the world. Brain training targets the skills your brain uses to think, focus, learn, and remember to make all learning come more easily and naturally. Instead of spending the summer reinforcing content, a long-term vision of making learning and memory stronger in the first place can be SO beneficial!
