Tips for Parents: Avoiding the Summer Slide and More!

6/29/2019

Parents, I'd like to share some tips with you! I have tips on avoiding the summer slide, and I have tips on how to engage your preschoolers in meaningful play over the summer in order to prepare them for Kindergarten. First, have you heard of the summer slide? Educators have been made aware of it, and I would like to pass what knowledge I have on the subject on to you. The summer slide is previous learning that is lost during the summer. So how much learning does your child forget over the summer? There is debate about that, and the research is continuing. However, it is known that there is definitely learning loss during the summer months.

According to NWEA, analyzing MAP Growth Assessment data can give some insight into the summer slide. From this data, "it appears that summer learning loss is fairly stable in terms of RIT points across grade levels.
But a more sobering trend is the pace of summer learning loss, which we calculated by estimating the ratio of summer loss to school-year gains for each grade. In the summer following third grade, students lose nearly 20 percent of their school-year gains in reading and 27 percent of their school-year gains in math. By the summer after seventh grade, students lose on average 36 percent of their school-year gains in reading and a whopping 50 percent of their school-year gains in math. In other words, summer learning loss increases with age through elementary and middle school – a troubling trend that should be examined further." --NWEA Summer Learning Loss: What We Know and What We’re Learning

Click the link below to read more about what NWEA has to say about the summer slide.

Nwea: Summer learning loss

So now that you know that children lose learning over the summer, what can you do about it? Don't worry; there are things you can do to combat the summer slide! And most of this also applies to children preparing for Kindergarten as well.

Tip #1 KEEP READING!
Encourage your children to read, and you read to them! Let your children pick out books that are interesting to them. Take trips to the library. If your library offers a summer story hour, take advantage of that; take your children to story hour. By fostering a love for reading, you help along continual learning. Reading will help children prepare for Kindergarten as well as curb that pesky summer slide for older children.

Tip #2 ENGAGE YOUR CHILDREN!
Ask your children what their interests are. Create fun learning games based on their interests. Lots of fun, engaging learning activities can be found online. I will link a few suggestions at the end.
Take learning outdoors! Take trips to the museums and aquariums. Go to the park, and incorporate learning there. Make art, history, science, and math fun and hands-on!
Sign your children up for community activities in order to keep them socializing over the summer. Socialization is as important as academics. Children should be engaging in whole child learning. This means that ALL of their skills should continue to be developed.

Tip #3 REVIEW WITH YOUR CHILDREN!
Review whatever your children were learning during the school year. Remember those fun games that I mentioned earlier? Do more games with your children that focus on review work. They should be less likely to forget what they have learned if they are reviewing it in a fun way. For your preschoolers going into Kindergarten, you mainly want to focus on social emotional and self help skills, but you also want to review other preschool skills.

Tip #4 DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE POWER OF PLAY!
When children explore their world, investigate things, ask questions, and get messy while playing, they are actively learning! Maria Montessori said that "play is the work of the child." While electronics are important in the world we live in today, don't forget to limit screen time; make time for active play! Play is actually essential to learning especially in early childhood. Even older children learn best from hands on activities. Allow your children to have an active summer!

Have fun this summer, and have a wonderful upcoming school year as well!

Check out the following links for activities ideas. Some of these are free activities!

Empathy and Kindness Bundle -- Activities, Task Cards and Posters by Brighter Day Classroom

According to the product description, "by teaching our students to be conscious of other people’s feelings, we are encouraging tolerance, and kindness; contributing to their mental health; promoting social harmony; and reducing the likelihood of bullying.
By fostering empathy in the classroom, we are developing a more accepting, and respectful school community."

Examples included in the bundle:- Emotions Collage - a creative and fun way to learn different emotions and how we express them, with the help of our body language and facial expressions.

- Match and Draw - with the following feelings and emotions: happy / bored / surprised / exhausted / angry.
- Animals and Emotions - this activity will help children understand that animals also express emotions. It will also help them to develop an attitude of respect towards them.
- Body Language - children will learn that emotions can be communicated through body language and facial expressions.
- Coloring Pages
- Kindness inspires Kindness - 45 task cards that will inspire children to be kind, and to give back to society. It will also promote their mental health, while developing their social skills.
- Positive thinking cards - a lovely activity to start each day with a positive attitude.
- RAK Chart - great way to keep track of childrens Random Acts of Kindness.
- Smiles in a Box - a fun way to stimulate children´s creativity, while allowing them to make someone else´s day better.
- Helping Others - this activity will challenge children to pick up an item of their own and to donate it to charity. It includes a poster that can be used to decorate the classroom.
- Put yourself in their shoes - the activity includes 5 different situations. They will help children gain a deeper understanding of empathy by allowing them to put themselves in someone else´s shoes.
- How do they feel? - this set includes 32 task cards. Children are asked to respond to each situation, using kind words that would make that person feel good.

TPT Empathy and kindness bundle

This next resource is FREE, and can be adjusted to fit any age child. This is a checklist. Engage with your children and find out their favorite things, their current likes and interests, what they enjoy about school; after you check off these things, set goals for the upcoming school year!
Check out Target Setting and Back To School by Cre8tive Curriculum!

TES Target setting and back to school

I'm excited to share my sand recipes with you! This is a FREE resource that includes a science observation page. My kiddos love experimenting with science and sensory projects! I'm sure your children will enjoy these recipes as well. Put some science in action this summer.