Stop Summer Learning Loss
by Joseph RooneyThe good news is that summer is almost here. The bad news is that almost a quarter of everything your child has learned in school this year could be lost over the summer. Happily, this learning loss is completely preventable.
According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, as much as 22 per cent of everything learned in the preceding school year can be lost over the long summer vacation. Those lazy summer days swimming in the lake, lying on the beach or just goofing around with friends can cost kids an average of 2.6 months of grade equivalency in mathematical computation alone. Summer learning loss, while not permanent, means that the first six to eight weeks of a new school year may have to be spent reviewing the previous year’s work. Since the whole school year is 36 weeks, that’s a lot of time to spend on review. Like bodies, brains can get out of condition—just as winter bodies have to be toned for summer exposure, so, too, do kids’ brains if we want to keep them in shape for autumn use.
So how do you prevent summer learning loss? Start by adjusting how you view the vacation time. And, yes it really is vacation time. It really is a break from school, a time to relax, kick back and focus on those vital social aspects of growing up. It is also a time of transition. Your child will soon be moving on to a new grade, or perhaps from elementary to middle school, or from middle to high school, or high school to college. Whatever transition your child is making, she will be facing new demands and pressures, and certainly an increased requirement for independence in work habits, so the brain must not be allowed to get flabby if it is going to be ready for the new autumn session. Start easing your child into that transition right now.
Make the most of the final weeks of school• Reinforce your child’s existing knowledge by reviewing the year: ask him to show you what he has learned, or work through some homework problems together
• Schedule a last meeting or discussion with her current teacher to identify strengths and define challenges that your child has experienced
• Despite the distractions of end-of-session activities, help him stay motivated about these last few weeks of school
• Chat about school with her every day.
Know what the next grade level will bring
• Speak to your child’s current teacher or her next year’s teacher about the upcoming curriculum
• Ask about new subjects or changed priorities—typically a Grade 4 student will begin to “read to learn” rather than “learn to read,” so if your third grader has had problems with reading, the summer would be a good time to do something to improve those vital skills.
• If your child is changing schools, take full advantage of open or orientation days at the new school. If there aren’t any, call the principal and ask if a visit would be possible.
When July arrives what can you do to keep your child mentally limber without being a wet blanket? Try shaping the fun. Build in elements you know to be valuable to their overall growth. Suggest activities that will challenge your kids creatively, intellectually or physically. Help them identify something that appeals to them but which they had no time to try during school, or which may not have looked too “cool” to their peers, or which was completely out of their normal range of experience. You never know where it might lead. They might just discover a real “passion.” My own god-daughter went to Circus camp a couple of years ago, now she’s a competitive gymnast—who knew?
Like all good training regimes there are certain things you should do and things you should avoid. Here are a few suggestions to help keep your child’s brain in shape through the summer while not interfering with that very important social growth and free time that are such an essential part of the long vacation experience.
Things They Can Do With Friends
• Play outdoors: it’s good for their health and for your sanity.
• Learn a new skill: guitar, yes; drums, why not?
• Take up a new hobby: painting, beading, photography are all calming, creative activities which are absorbing and help develop both hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills.
• Get involved in a local sports program
• Join a day camp
• Keep a scrapbook/diary of summer activities. Be sure that you make time to look at what your child produces
For more ideas, check out some of these websites:
www.bcpassport.camwww.bookadventure.orgwww.vpl.bc.cawww.educate.co www.educate.com (download Family Learning Fun. It’s free.)
Things They Can Do With You
• An interest-based or school-inspired research project. If they need help finding information, take them to the library. Talk to a librarian—they know books and are information experts.
• Family reading: you read a page, he reads a page, you read a page, she reads a page. It is a fun way to revisit “old friends” from your own childhood, and see them through your children’s eyes
• Give e-mail and Facebook a rest and instead, write real letters to grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, politicians, pop stars…
• Take day trips to places of historical, artistic or scientific interest. Have kids research opening hours, travel schedules, entrance fees, directions, special offers, current exhibits. Better yet, let them plan the day.
Whatever you choose to do, make it fun and let the children take some initiative and responsibility for making it happen. The summer vacation is a good time for making sure learning happens, so seize the opportunities and stop summer learning loss.
Joseph Rooney taught high school English for 20 years and is now the owner/operator of Sylvan Learning Centre in Victoria. He can be reached at 477-3212.
