Summer vacation is a fun time for students; a time filled with sports, camps, and family vacation. It is the time when we all throw off the tight daily schedules of school, activities, homework, and sports. It is also a time for extra time in front of the T.V. and computer screens.
We may not realize that how important it is to keep our children academically stimulated during this long break. At the same time we don’t want to take away the fun of summer.
“Summer Slide” is the loss of academic skills, mainly in the areas of reading and math, due to lack of academic stimulus during the summer break. Students enter the next school year not prepared well enough.
Before I go on to provide you the tips for helping your children with their academic growth and preparation for the next school year, I wanted to share with you some facts on the summer academic loss:
- According to research, summer learning loss, especially in reading and math, reaches almost 40% for some students
- According to the US Department of Education, average learning loss for students in math is equivalent to 2.6 months of school time; an average student, each summer, loses 25% in reading skills
- Most of the loss is noticed in the Elementary School students
- Students also tend to gain weight during the summer break.
This summer, we can help our children become physically strong and academically smarter through social and interactive activities. Thus helping our children get ready for the next academic session.
According to experts, parents should use summer months to spend time with their children. We need to turn off the television and instead visit museums, parks, and libraries. Parents should find ways to continue to learn as families.
Here are a few tips:
- Keep some time, every day, for reading and analytical activities.
- Play together outdoors and indoors. For example, playing puzzles, board games, and fun quizzes help build relations and also help learn.
- Some of the well known, fun and learning tools include playing Chess, solving the Rubik’s cube, and playing musical instruments.
- Explore your city, visit historical sites, museums, art galleries, and libraries. Before visiting these sites, take time to learn about them and share with your children.
- Build skills in small doses, for example doing multiplication tables each time you are driving to a fun place. Similarly building vocabulary by picking a word from the daily newspaper.
- While in car, play with road signs for numbers, colors and shapes. Ask older children to estimate and calculate the travel time to a destination, and directions.
- This also is a time to imbibe soft skills, help them organize and manage time effectively. Ask them to arrange a picnic or a tour for the family. Similarly help them track their daily activities and goals on a calendar.
- Help them build their writing skills, it could be writing about their trips, fun activities or encouraging them to write an article for a local newspaper, community newsletter, or an educative email to a cousin.
The Study Circle website (www.studycircle.ca ) lists a number of resources for parents and students
Wish you all a happy and healthy summer!
