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Health & Fitness

How to Avoid Summer Learning Loss

Ron Jaeger offers tips for parents this summer, so their kids don't forget the informationt they learned during the school year.

As the school year comes to an end, many parent’s start thinking about ways to keep their children occupied during the long summer months. Day camps, pool passes and neighborhood play dates are on everyone’s mind but what will happen to all the important information that children learned in school that year? What many parents don’t know, is that kids experience a phenomenon called “summer learning loss.”

Essentially, they forget a lot of what they learned in the previous school year over the summer months. In fact, studies have shown that kids lose more than two and a half month’s-worth of math skills in the summertime. For kids that were already struggling in math, this means that they will start off the next school year even further disadvantaged. And it’s not just math. Overall, kids lose an average of one month of learning in other subjects during the summer.

Think of athletes. Imagine if they stopped training for two or three months in the year. You would expect that when they return to their sport, that they would experience a lag in performance. The brain is no different. It needs to be exercised. Many students go through what we call the ‘summer brain drain’ and in many cases forget much of what they learned the previous year.

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So how can you keep your kids learning over the summer? Here are a few ideas.

  • Any family activity can become an opportunity for learning. At a restaurant, have your little one read you the menu. When making a purchase, have your child try to calculate the change you will receive when paying with cash. Discuss the plot of a movie after watching together—this helps with comprehension. Similarly, read a book together and discuss it afterward. Have your child research an area you will visit on vacation and tell you about the area’s geography, history, etc.
  • Visit a library. Find some books with topics that interest your child so that they are really engaged in reading.
  • Visit local museums, zoos and historical sites. Help your child learn about history and the world they live in.
  • Enroll in summer tutoring programs. For children that are struggling academically, summer can be the perfect time to address it with a customized tutoring program. 
  • Buy mind engaging games for your children and their friends to play, simple card games make for a fun afternoon activity. They are easy to learn and great for including large groups of children!

These ideas will help your children build up more confidence, and prepare them to start the new school year with a bang.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ron Jaeger is owner of Tutor Doctor of the Fox Valley at-home tutoring franchise serving Wheaton, Geneva, Winfield, Batavia, Warrenville, St. Charles, West Chicago, Carol Stream, South Elgin, Bartlett, and Bloomingdale. For more information, visit www.TutorDoctorFoxValley.com.

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