It’s the summer holidays. Our first instinct as parents is a sigh of relief – no more packed lunches, no more homework! Unfortunately learning loss over summer is a real problem and this is particularly true for younger students and for students with a learning difficulty. Research suggests students may lose more than one month of reading knowledge during the summer vacations and the losses in maths may be even greater.
However, this doesn’t mean that you should be turning the summer holidays into home-schooling. The trick is to keep your children’s brain active by engaging them in enjoyable activities, exploring topics of interest and simultaneously increasing their knowledge of everyday life and the world around them. There is a plethora of resources on the internet providing suggestions on how you can help your child avoid the summer slide. These suggestions apply specifically to literacy.
- THEMED BOOKS AND ACTIVITIES: http://www.startwithabook.org/summer-reading-learning Reading Rockets provides a list of books and associated activities exploring a range of topics such as dinosaurs, money and the environment. Find a topic your child will enjoy.
- AWESOME APPS TO HOOK CHILDREN INTO WRITING: https://www.weareteachers.com/writing-apps-for-kids/
- RESOURCES FOR PARENTS FROM READ WRITE THINK: https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/celebrate-first-summer This collection provides links to a large range of activities and suggestions for children of all ages.
- RESOURCES FOR PARENTS FROM COLORIN COLORADO: http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/summer-learning-resources-parents Summer Learning Resources for Parents From Colorín Colorado: Another great collection of ideas.
Now all you need is the energy!
Reference:
Cooper, H., Nye, B., Charlton, K., Lindsay, J., & Greathouse, S. (1996) The Effects of Summer Vacation on Achievement Test Scores: A Narrative and Meta-Analytic Review. Review of Educational Research,66 (3), 227-268. http://rer.sagepub.com/content/66/3/227.short