There Are Only 18 Summers in Childhood…

Back To School

Yes, it’s true, most stores are advertising for “Back To School” now, and even we have been guilty of creating “Back To School” posts! #sorrynotsorry

But there is still plenty of summer left, so we thought it would be nice to try to make the most of it.

People tend to exhibit the deterioration of skills after prolonged periods without practice. Think about the last time you took a vacation from work. It probably took a bit to get used to doing your regular tasks again once you returned! Research from the 1950s to the present consistently confirms this idea. Depending on the task, initial level of proficiency, and duration of inactivity, human beings forget skills and knowledge over time.  In terms of summer breaks from school, we call this “Summer Learning Loss” and sometimes call it the Summer Slide.

Most students experience losses in math and literacy skills as a result of summer vacation each school year. Given the multi-step procedural process of many math skills, we always say that math is a muscle that needs to be exercised regularly—just like if you stop working out your muscles will weaken, if you stop doing math your math skills will weaken. For this reason, proficiency in math tends to decrease at a faster rate for students than literacy.

There are devastating impacts of summer learning loss on student achievement to the individual child, as well as to the schools as a whole. Teachers need significant time at the beginning of each school year to mitigate these effects—time that could otherwise be spent on new instruction.

Summer learning loss typically has students performing, on average, approximately one month behind where they left off the previous school year. This is not all doom and gloom though—the links we are sharing cover the skills needed. Even if your child only does a couple of the projects over the remaining month of summer, they will be flexing their brain muscles.

Whether you read through the links with your children, read them yourself, or have them read them on their own, the most important thing is to “Just Do It!” I guarantee that out of all the ideas listed here, you WILL find at least one or two, or even TEN that you like! We dare you to give it your best, even if that means doing just ONE activity!

• 10 Weeks of Summer Reading Adventures for You and Your Kids
• Fun Summer Science Projects
• 50 Fun Activities for Teens
• 9 ESL Summer Activities
• 25 Activities to Keep Kids’ Brains Active in Summer
• 13 Fun Learning Activities: Overall Activities for All Ages

Make sure to contact us to let us know which activities worked best for you. We’d love to hear from you!

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