Helping Your Children Avoid the Summer Learning Loss

The summer learning loss is a real thing. When the students stop attending school for what equals two and a half to three months, bad things happen. According to research, after third grade, students lose about 20 percent of their gains made in reading and 27 percent of their gains made in math after the summer is over.

Ouch!!!

It gets even worse as the students get older. After seventh grade, the kids lose 36 percent of their gains in reading and about 50 percent of their gains in math. It just goes to prove the theory correct: If you do not use it, you lose it.

Do not let this happen to your children. There are ways to combat it. 

Summer School
Summer school is not just for students that are struggling. Enroll your child in some summer school that meets once or twice a week to retain the knowledge they have gained from the previous school year. If your school does not currently offer such a program, there are other schools out there that will. Many junior colleges offer programs like this for kids. Just don’t give up and find a summer school program that will take your children and help increase their knowledge during the summer months!

Trips to the Library
Schedule family trips to the library every week and have your children check out a minimum of two books every time. Make sure they are reading these books by having them summarize what they care about after they finish reading them. Even better, some libraries offer summer reading programs and book clubs for kids. Enroll them in these and see how they enjoy it!

Educational Apps and Websites
More than one million educational apps and websites are available, many of them for free, that can be used during the summer and beyond. There are corresponding apps and websites that kids will love in every subject matter that will educate and entertain them!

Find a Quality Tutor
There are plenty of great tutors available, both online and in-person, that can help your child strengthen their weaknesses in school and maintain their strengths. iAchieve offers tutors for every subject area and every age level!

Make Wednesday Reading Night
Turning off the television can do wonders for eliminating summer learning loss. Make every Wednesday night a reading night for the whole family. Everyone must read after dinner until bedtime. Parents, too! It is about time we get back to reading as a family. After a while, everyone will be looking forward to it. Pop some popcorn and have other snacks available while reading as well. Who knows? It may be something the kids will do with their own family someday. 

Write a Book
By building up a little excitement, you can get your child to write a book this summer. Children’s books come in all shapes and sizes. Some are short and can be read in minutes. Others are more like short novels and will take days to read. Depending upon your child’s age, ask them to write a book this summer. With all of the opportunities to publish books online nowadays, you can try selling them on Amazon or some other corresponding service. Most kids will get a kick out of being considered a professional author. Even if they only sell one book, and it might be to a relative, it should inspire them to keep writing more. 

Ask the Classroom Teacher for Help
Your child’s classroom teacher probably will have plenty of extra worksheets and advice for those parents interested in fighting off summer learning loss. Bend their ear a little bit before the school year ends and see what they recommend!

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