Stop Summer Brain Drain In Your Kids
As the school year quickly comes to an end all over our country
, parents scramble to come up with ideas to keep their kids busy. There are day camps, weekly camps, athletic camps, and countless special interest camps to fill the hours of summer.But what happens to all the information your children spent learning throughout the past school year? Many studies have shown that approximately one to two months of academic achievement is lost during the summer months. The term educators' use for this fact is learning loss. Some call it the summer brain drain.
According to a press release on May 5, 2010 in Philadelphia, PA, research shows students retain 8 months of information from a typical 9 month school year. For math and spelling they lose 2.6 months, and retain only about two thirds of the information learned.
Even First Lady Michelle Obama is getting involved with learning loss when she said "We also know that during the summer, when our kids take a break from school, too many of them experience what they call summer learning loss. And a lot of kids sometimes find that they forget some of the things that they learned throughout the school years, and as a result, if they stop learning through the summer, they can fall behind and then they're struggling throughout the year."
The brain needs to be exercised just as much as our bodies. If an athlete took a two to three month break from training it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that their athletic abilities would be lacking.
Here are a few suggestions to help sharpen your children's mind so you can help prevent summer learning loss otherwise known as summer brain drain:
Reading: Summer reading will help your child to develop reading and comprehension skills. Take the whole family to the local library. Most libraries have a summer reading program that ranges from toddlers to teens, where students can set individual goals and earn books. While at the library pick up a book or two for yourself and set an example.
Explore your local area: Visit your closest local zoo, museums, historical sites, and botanical gardens. As you walk through the exhibits point out fun and interesting facts. Some historical visits will help make history real when they read about the events in school. Make learning fun.
Math: Numbers are all over. There are many ways to practice math without making it seem like too much work. The next time your child asks how long it will be to get to a certain place have them figure it out. By giving them and distance to your destination and the average speed in which you are traveling you can have them determine how long it will take. When you fill up with gas they can figure out how many gallons it will take. This helps makes math come alive. Make math real. When math is real, they will see the need to learn it. For young children, parents can teach them to count objects. Just taking your kids to the store can be an opportunity to learn greater math skills. By asking your children simple questions, you will help them develop those skills to master story problems. Math opportunities are endless.
Journaling: Keep a family journal of the summer. Leave some paper out where everyone can write on it. That includes you. Have your kids write something they liked about the day or what they did. Make sure they write at least one or two items a day. By doing this you can observe their spelling and if older, their sentence structure. When you come to a misspelled word help them to sound it out and correct it. Make it fun, don't be nit picky. Not only will they be practicing their writing skills, but you will have a great memento of the summer.
Cook up some fun: There are many lessons to be learned by supervised cooking. You will be helping your child learn to follow directions by giving them a recipe. With your help let them plan a meal, do the shopping, and once home let them do the measuring. Recipes are filled with numbers and many have fractions. Cooking gives your child reading and math practice; along with learning to interpret directions.
It doesn't take a lot of boring workbooks to keep skills tuned up during the summer months. A little creativity in finding everyday opportunities will make learning fun and keep their interest. By integrating these opportunities into their daily life you are developing self confident and independent children. These are life long skills that they will use long into their adult years. It is a life long gift of love.
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