Temperatures are rising. Teachers are assigning less homework. Days are getting longer. Summertime — and the freedom it brings for school kids — is right around the corner.
Pretty soon, your kid’s backpack will be collecting dust in the corner. Any thought of homework or tests will be out the window for several weeks or months. That’s great, as kids deserve a break after studying hard for so long! How do you make sure they don’t forget what they learned in school over the summer, though?
The idea of summer break is a bit of a Catch-22. Kids need the downtime to rest their brains before another school year. Every day out of the classroom, however, could be an opportunity to forget something important. Don’t worry! You can help your kid hold on to their knowledge with these seven tips to avoid summer learning loss.
1. Stay Connected
With laptops, websites, and educational apps, your kids’ school days look nothing like yours ever did. These tech tools give them immediate access to an endless web of online knowledge. One of the benefits of summer is being able to decrease screen time, get outdoors, and connect with friends and family.
Excessive screen time can cause setbacks in children’s social and emotional development. However, a phone for kids can help them connect in ways that help build relationships with live conversations on a call and person-to-person communication via texting. Another perk to providing a kid-friendly phone is GPS tracking, so you can see where they are, wherever they decide to adventure this summer.
2. Be Interactive
Going to zoos, museums, or nature trails can be fun activities for kids during the summer. Most have plenty of cool things to see and a lot of room to run around. If you want your kid to hold on to all that info in their heads, do more than visit. Be interactive.
Look for museums that offer hands-on activities like magnet experiments or a fossil dig in a dinosaur pit. Search for zoos that let kids ask questions during animal presentations or pet furs. Your child will be engaged and fascinated. They’ll be too busy having fun to realize they’re still learning.
3. Read Together
Did you have a bedtime story routine with your child when they were younger? You probably have some fond memories attached to snuggly storytime. Good news! Reading together is a great way to connect with your child now, too. Plus, it will help them retain what they’ve learned all year.
Take the opportunity to walk your child through sounding out new words and learning their meanings to increase vocabulary. You can also answer questions and explain details to help with their reading comprehension skills. The nice thing is you don’t have to spend a fortune at the bookstore. There are plenty of free e-books available so you’ll always have a new one to share with your kid. Your local library might also have a summer reading program for young kids.
4. Create a Learning Challenge
If your child is older, you can double-down and turn learning into a game. Create a summer challenge that motivates them to constantly improve. Maybe it’s learning 10 new vocabulary words or reading a book from the next grade level every week. Maybe it’s increasing how quickly they can fill out a multiplication table. Let them choose the goal — just make sure it’s fun and tests their abilities.
Remember, content is king, so if the challenge is reading, be sure your child selects books about a subject they really enjoy. Then, consult an expert. Get book suggestions from a librarian. They can give you recommendations and tell you books your child should read first. Don’t forget it’s a challenge, so have a prize ready for your child when they reach their goal.
5. Experiment with Science
There’s a huge push to expand what kids know and understand about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Teaching these concepts is a big part of the current curriculum. Fortunately, there are many fun things you can do outside the classroom to keep your kid’s STEM skills sharp.
Summer programs that offer hands-on learning with coding, science, and robotics will test and train your child’s problem-solving skills. Instead of listening to a teacher all day, they’ll learn more by doing things themselves. Check with museums, libraries, and zoos for free or low-cost programs that will ignite your child’s imagination all summer.
6. Plan an Education Vacation
For many people, summertime is closely linked to a vacation getaway. It’s a time to relax and disconnect from anything that requires brainpower. Kids can be the same way. What if you found a way to mix downtime with learning — especially if it didn’t feel like school?
That’s where the “education vacation” comes in. Ask your child to name one or two things they really loved learning about during the school year. Take those topics and choose a vacation spot where they can see or experience them in person. For example, did they learn about Washington, D.C.? Plan a trip to the city and enjoy all the free museums and monuments it offers.
7. Write in a Daily Journal
When your child thinks about writing, research papers and essays might come to mind. That sounds like the work they’re trying to avoid. Instead, encourage your child to start a daily journal. It’s a way to write about whatever comes to mind anyway they want.
They could write a story, record what they do during the day, or jot down their feelings. Every now and then, mix it up. Suggest a topic or give them a question to answer. They can pull from their own knowledge or explore the internet and learn even more. It’s a great way to reinforce their writing and researching skills.
With the school year speeding to a close, kids everywhere are looking forward to a break from the school daze. Giving them a chance to recharge their batteries is an important part of the learning process. Holding on to what they’ve already learned is equally as vital. Try these seven fun tactics to help your child retain what they’ve learned this year. It could make the next grade easier and more fun.