How to Prevent Summer Learning Loss

Summer vacation is here, and for many students and teachers, it is time to take a break. However, many students lose a large portion of the information that they have learned throughout the school year during Summer Break.

To lessen the learning gap this summer be sure that your children are engaged in some learning activities. These activities should include reading, writing, critical thinking, math, science, and history. Art and drawing can also be incorporated into their learning experiences.

The following suggestions are some simple and inexpensive ways to keep your kids learning over the break. 

Establish a Learning Routine

School may be out, but it is important that you establish a learning routine for you kids. Have a set time and a set day that they will focus on learning.

You might even want to designate a spot in your house for learning. The time allotted to summer learning shouldn’t exceed more than an hour or two per day. Remember, this is summertime.

Read…Read…Read

Research has shown that kids who don’t read during the summer months lose from two to three months of reading skills. So, it is important that you get your kids to read.

You can start by taking a trip to your local library to check out some books that he or she might enjoy. Don’t try to force your kids to read books that they don’t like. This will only negatively affect they love of reading. Instead, allow them to read a variety of books that they enjoy. This includes magazines, graphic novels, and some lower level books. However, be sure that you are asking them questions about the books or articles that they read.

Questions to ask your children include:

•       What was the story about?

•       What was your favorite or least favorite part of the story?

•       Can you tell me what happened in the story? Start at the beginning, go to the middle, and the end.

•       What was the most exciting part of the story?

•       If you could change the story, what would you do differently?

Summer Reading List

Some school send home Summer Reading Lists. These lists include books that are recommended for each grade level. They are a good ways to keep your kids reading and learning during the summer months.

If your children’s school did not send a list home, then you can always check for recommended books online. All you will need to do is do a search using your children’s grades or reading ranges.

Virtual Field Trips

Virtual field trips offer an inexpensive and fun way to keep your kids learning. Decide where or what you want your children to visit. Decide what you want them to learn from the activity. Check to see if there is a virtual trip available for the place you picked out, and then, you are all set for learning.

• Have your children start a “K-W-L” chart before you begin your virtual field. This would list what they know, what they want to know, and what they have learned once the activities were all complete.
• Check out and read books on the subject of your virtual field trip.
• Play learning games centered around your trip.
• Have your kids create and present visual representation of what they learned from the virtual field trip.

Movies

Whether it is a family movie night or a trip to the cinema, movie time can also provide learning opportunities for your kids this summer. First, let your kids pick out the movies that they want to watch.

• Next, have your children justify their choice of movie. This can be done verbally or in writing. This simple task is part of the critical thinking process.
• And, if you have them do it in writing, you have added a writing process to your bag of tricks.
• Ask your children to write you a letter convincing you to let them see the movie.
• If you want to put graphic organizers into play, you can have them complete a “T” chart on the reasons for and the reasons against letting them watch the movie.

Once the movie is over, ask your children questions about the movie. These questions can be some of the same questions you would ask if they had read the book because a movie does the same thing as a book. It tells a story. So, it has all of the same story elements.

Family Recipes

Sharing family recipes is not only a way to save and share family memories. It is also a way to help keep your kids learning this summer. Here is how.

• Don’t just hand over the family secret sauce. Instead, as you are prepping the family meal share a story connected with how the recipe became a part of your family. This will help to share your family history as well as make the meal more memorable. New research is showing that storytelling is a great way to get people to remember key information.
• When you finish telling your family story, have your children write down the most memorable part of the story (writing).
• Get them to explain (justify) why that particular part of the story stood out to them.
• You can also ask them to retell the story to you in their own way (summarizing).  These are all key reading skills.
• Next, go over the steps to the recipe. Encourage your kids to write down the steps. Then, have them demonstrate the process to you.
• Have your children solve simple math problems while determining the right amount of ingredients for your recipe. This can involve completing fractions, percentages, and simple adding and subtracting.
• Ask your children what they think would happen if you changed up the ingredients of the recipe (make predictions).
• You may even want to create two different versions of the dish and compare and contrast the taste.

These are a combination of reading, writing, and science skills.

Plan menus

Let your children help plan the family menu. They are out of school for the summer, and they can help decide what they will be eating.

You may want to present your children with a few suggestions to begin with to keep from making the task too overwhelming. And, be sure to make it clear that hot dogs and hamburgers can’t be eaten every day. Then, together pick out the meals of each week.

• When planning the meal, make sure that your children take into consideration the three main meals: breakfast, lunch, and supper. And, remind them that they will need to pick a main dish and one or two side items (problem-solving).
• Things to discuss while planning include the items that you already have on hand and the cost of purchasing the other needed ingredients (critical thinking & math skills).
• While planning the menu, you can even discuss the various nutrients and vitamins found in the food listed on the menu.
• You might even want to dive into calorie counting.
• Figuring out the portions using fractions and percentages will also help to cultivate important math skills.
• Meal planning also offers a great lesson on nutrition.

Audiobooks

Audiobooks are not cheating. Your kids can listen to a book on tape. There is much debate about the benefits of listening to a book vs. reading one. However, kick the debate to the side and allow your child to listen to a book on tape if that what he prefers. Audible books can be purchased online, at a physical bookstore, or checked out at your local library. Remember, not all people are visual learners. Some people are auditory learners.

Your children may also want to follow along using the actual book. The audio version of the book can also help your children learn how to pronounce any difficult and unknown words.

• Your children should be encouraged to listen for context clues as to the word meanings.
• They can also keep a running list of new word to be researched and used. This will help to increase their vocabulary.
• And, just like with a hard copy of the book, you can ask your children some questions about what they have read and assign them activities to complete related to the text.
• You can even have them compare and contrast the two version, and then tell which version of the text they like better: the audio version or the physical version.

Gardening

Gardening is not only fun. It is educational too. Your kids can continue to learn a lot of science facts while they are growing their own herbs and vegetables.

• You can have them identify and learn the various parts of a plant.
• You can discuss the water cycle and why it is important.
• You can talk about decomposers and their contributions to the soil can help their garden.
• This is also a good time to discuss pollinators and their role in food production.

Depending on where you live, summers can range from mild to extremely hot. While gardening you can discuss the various climate zones and the temperature ranges.

If you are crunched for space, you can recycle boxes, flower pots, and planters to use to grow your vegetables in. Every little bit of space can be made to count when it’s time to let your kids try their hands at gardening.

Writing can be integrated into your gardening time.

• The different parts of a plant and their function can be described.
• You might even want to get your children to keep a plant journal where they monitor the progress of their plants.

Journaling

You can also encourage your students to keep a journal during the break. Give your kids the freedom to truly express themselves in their journals. This doesn’t have to be anything scripted. Of course, you can use writing prompts if you like.

The benefits of journaling include:

• Keeping up their writing skills
• Relieving stress
• Provides and outlet for negative feelings
• Provides a place to store those fun summer memories

https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/health-wellness/healtharticle.7-benefits-of-keeping-a-journal

Write A Family Story

Writing should be a key part of your children’s learning process this summer and throughout the year. Create a family story with your children.

Pick a fun event that your family has shared and write a story about it. This can be a narrative or a creative writing story. You and your kids can write this all at once or over the course of a few days or even weeks.

Summer Photo Journal

Flowers and other beautiful blooms are on full display in the summertime. Use them as inspiration for a Summer Photo Journal. Almost everyone has a camera or a digital camera with one. Start snapping those pictures this summer. Next, if possible, print your pictures.

• Use the pictures as topics for journal writing. Have your children explain why they picked each picture.
• You can let them compare and contrast the various flower or other scenic pictures that they took.
• They can research the flower, birds, or other objects that they took pictures of. This information can be included in their photo journals.

So, while they are taking pictures, they are also developing their writing skills. They are learning critical thinking as they justify their choices and learning how to conduct research.

Art

Grab some paper, pencils, paint brushes, and crayons. Then, get started learning. Summer and arts and crafts seem to go hand in hand. Simple craft activities can be turned into a learning experience.

• Encourage your kids to capture nature on canvas.
• They can draw or paint pictures of various plants, insects, and animals.
• They can even use these pictures to create their own informational picture books.
• They can research various artist and do activities centered around the artist’s life.

4 ways to incorporate art into summer learning activities

Mobiles can also be created using clothes hangers, yarn, and construction paper or other paper items. Your children can create a mobile of the solar system, the water cycle, or the life cycle of those vegetables they planted. The possibilities are endless.

Nature walk

Nature walks are also a fun way to keep your children learning over the summer. And, nature walks provide a way for your children to experience nature first-hand.

• They can observe the different wildlife, insects, and plants while out walking.
• This is a great time to teach children the difference between flowering and non-flowering plants. Collect samples of each variety during your nature walk. Then, help the students distinguish the difference between the two.
• Nature walks can also provide students with tons of pictures of their scrapbooks or photo journals.

Go Bug Wild

Bug watching can be done in the spring, the summer, and the fall. Bug observation will probably be more fun for younger children. However, you can also get your tweens and teens involved. There are many different activities that you and your kids can do that are centered around bugs.

• You can teach your children the difference between bugs and spiders.
• You can discuss the life cycle of certain insects.
• You can paint pictures of bugs.
• There are a lot of different books that you and your children can read about bugs.

Summer break doesn’t have to mean a break in learning. Instead, encourage your child to read, compose journal, garden, and create art as ways to prevent summer learning loss.