Engaging Hearts & Minds: Turning Summer Slide into Summer Growth

By Kristina O’Connor, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for The Seven Hills School

The summer slide, also known as the summer learning loss, is the tendency for students to lose some of their academic knowledge and skills during the summer. 

Reading and math skills — as with all types of knowledge — are like a muscle. If you stop using it, it is going to weaken. Current research says that students lose roughly a month of learning over the summer, with math and reading being the most commonly affected areas. 

Though the task can seem daunting, there are many simple tips and tricks parents can use to keep their students engaged and curious throughout their months away from school. 

Structure is Your Friend
Routine helps students stay engaged. 

Going from the routine of the school day to little to no structure in the summer can cause a subtle yet disruptive shift in learning. 

Summer camps are a great place to find routine. The familiar structure of the school year remains as students explore nature, theater, music, sports, or any variety of activities that a camp can provide.

But if your kids didn’t get into their first-choice summer camp, not to worry. There are so many options out there. In addition to more traditional YMCA or sports camps, think about program options provided by your local libraries, parks, or museums.

Think about educational trips your student would enjoy as well. And think locally, there are many historical sites and museums in Cincinnati.

Consistency, Not Intensity
Keeping math and reading skills fresh is not about intensity; it is about consistency. 

If you have a bookshelf or area of your home where there are books for your student, consider adding math flashcards or leaving some math books around with the reading material. If a kid sees it, they are more likely to just pick it up. 

Using everyday math in activities like baking, grocery shopping, planning a trip, or having a lemonade stand can have a great impact. It is a quick and easy way to brush up on measurements, temperature, money counting, and fractions. 

Keep kids involved in the planning process. With all of this, even if you take a trip, another part of the consistency element is looping back with your kids and asking them questions to keep them curious. What was something new they learned at the museum? What was their favorite part of the trip? 

So, involve them in the planning process, involve them in taking pictures and writing captions to keep them curious. Print out pictures and have your kids hang them up so you can have conversations about their adventures.

Maybe you explore somewhere new every Wednesday or go to your local Farmers Market every week or visit the library to check out a new book every Thursday. Again, it is about routine and consistency, not rigor.

Keep Kids Curious
Summer is a great time to pursue interests

Parents can build a daily reading habit of student choice — different books, magazines, graphic novels, or anything a student chooses. I wouldn’t force a student to read any particular book because they do that during the school year. 

Long-form content is more preferable. You want to have something where students can follow a storyline with a plot and character development. 

To keep them curious, engage with your students’ choice as well and have conversations with them about it. 

Audiobooks are one of the most underrated technology tools. Listen to books together as a family in the car, with your student having a printed copy of the book in front of them.

Car trips are such an opportunity to keep kids off technology, and that is when parents tend to put children on technology. But, if you are listening to an audiobook and they have the printed book with them, that is a rich opportunity to build into reading comprehension and understanding.

Kids who read for pleasure, explore interests, and have meaningful conversations with adults, tend to stay more curious and come back to school ready to go. 

Again, reading and math skills are like a muscle and you need to keep them trained but consistency is more important than rigor. The summer is an important time to work to maintain or even improve reading and math skills through structured student choice and meaningful encouragement of curiosities.

The summer slide is real, but so is summer growth! The differences between the summer slide and summer growth are the small, consistent choices that families make every day.

Photo provided.