The summer slide is defined as an academic regression students experience during a summer break. Where students are shown as losing some of the wonderful knowledge they acquired during the most recent school year. Studies show that younger children are the most at risk, with the highest percentages in areas of reading and math. So how do you prevent it? The good news is that school doesn’t have to be in session to keep children engaged in reading and math over the summer break. The key is to keep them learning and have fun while doing it!
Some simple activities we find helpful throughout the summer months are the following:
Summer Bridge Activities Book:
This workbook is available for ages 3/4 through 8th grade and is designed for daily exercises that take around 15 minutes to complete. The goal of the workbook is to bridge the gap between your child’s grade they just completed and the grade they are going into. Our children look forward to working in this book each summer. Even better, if you purchase the book from Imagine That Toys and complete each day, your child will receive $15.00 dollars to spend at the store as an award for completion!
Educational Apps and Websites:
Our teachers have recommended several websites and apps that have kept our children engaged in learning. Some of our favorites are the following:
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- Epic: We love this virtual library because the reading can be personalized!
- Raz Kids: Our children use this throughout the school year to track their reading progress, so it is an easy summer add-on to continue working on.
- National Geographic for Kids: Explore and learn about all sorts of things. We may start watching a video on space and end with playing a matching game on bugs.
- Prodigy Math: This virtual platform makes learning math fun through games.
- Khan Academy: This resource is great for all ages and allows you to personalize areas needed for learning growth. Offers math, science, history, art and more. Our kids love this app and go to it for play too!
- MobyMax: This is a great app for closing the learning gaps in subjects and one that our children use throughout the school year, so another easy add-on for summer.
Read, read and more reading!
The most important thing we find with summer reading is to let your child read what they want. We find that this leads to more frequent and enjoyable reading, because there is no stress on our children to read on a specific subject or genre.
We enjoy visiting the local libraries too. The Summer Reading Program offered by the Wichita Public Library is a great program that your children can get involved in. You can also check out one of the Little Free Library Boxes located around town too! For a virtual option, check out Epic. Epic is an app and website with thousands of virtual books for your children to read. As a parent, you can receive book recommendations for your children and can then virtually send them to your child’s account so they can read them.
Board Games, Card Games and Cooking:
Board games are one of our favorite at home activities to do as a family. Monopoly is always one that we go to and great for working on math skills. Add, subtract, multiply and work on money handling skills. There are a lot of games focused specifically on math, but Dominoes, Yahtzee and dice games are easy options too.
Grab a deck of cards and try playing, Race to 100. Each player draws a card from the stack and starts adding the values of the cards together. First person to 100 wins! Another game is a spin on Go Fish, where you try and make a pair of cards equal 10. Puzzles, crosswords, word searches and coding games are some other fun favorites at our house.
For something other than games, try involving your children while you cook! Recipes involve a lot of math with fractions and measuring, and reading too.
Get Outside!
You can incorporate all subjects with outdoor activities. Explore your neighborhood and make observations. Collect, count and sort objects found. Read signs and get creative! Museums, summer camp programs and other local resources are options our children enjoy. Check out the Guide to Summer for local options this summer with your children!
Simple activities in and around the home can keep your children engaged and learning this summer. By keeping it fun, learning becomes fun and makes for an easier transition back into the classroom in the fall.
