Avoiding the "Summer Slide"

Fun Learning Advice to Help Children Retain Skills all Summer Long

As the last school bell rings and children race home to enjoy the upcoming days of summer, risk arises for the “summer slide,” an experience where children steadily lose knowledge gained throughout the school year from a lack of routine educational settings. As a result, children can fall behind in learning and have a more difficult transition when returning to school or educational child care facilities in the fall.

Recent studies have shown that parents find the summer months challenging times to engage children in productive activities and continuous learning environments. Kiddie Academy, a national child care and education franchisor, recommends parents stimulate their children’s minds regularly with thought-provoking activities all summer long to avoid the “summer slide.”

“By engaging children in educational activities and becoming involved in summer learning programs, parents can help establish a routine of continuous learning experiences for their child,” said Laura Olson, vice president of education for Kiddie Academy. “Providing educational opportunities during the summer will help lessen the ‘summer slide’ effect and ease the transition back into the school year.”

To help keep children’s minds active during the summer and continue the learning experience at home, Olson offers the following tips for parents:

* Check with your local library to see if they offer summer reading programs. Take advantage of read-aloud opportunities or choose short books to read at home and discuss together with your child.

* Take field trips to local parks, zoos, aquariums or historical sites. These activities often incorporate creative and fun educational offerings, such as tours with trained tour guide to enhance the learning experience. For an added benefit, look into discount programs through local libraries or schools, visit during off-peak hours or take friends along for a group discount.

* Talk to your child’s teacher for tips or activities that will support what he learned through the year and prepare him for the next year. Ask for recommendations for summer reading from a teacher or library media specialist.

* Start a family read-a-thon and track everyone’s progress through a checklist that lets them see their success. Use stickers with your child’s favorite cartoon character or animals to heighten her interest even more.

* Incorporate learning into everyday family activities, such as asking your child to read directions or help you mix and measure ingredients for dinner.

* Find a child care program that encourages learning through a wide variety of child-focused and exciting summer activities. Learning in and outside the home during the summer will help your child to gain skills from multiple environments moving into the next school year.

For more information visit; http://www.kiddieacademy.com/

Three Ways to Make Reading Fun

Kid-Lit Week kicks off with a great article and tips by Kelly Wilson of the Teaching Resource Center. Check it out.

With the absence of a routine that the school year provides, summer can seem chaotic. It can also be a prime time for important reading skills to slip.

However, reading doesn’t have to be a chore – it can be fun! Here are a three easy ways to help your kids enjoy summer reading.

Read Together

Reading is a great way to connect with kids. Take around 15 minutes each day to sit down and spend some time in a story or book with a young reader. Use this time to monitor what your kids are reading, asking questions about what’s happening in a particular story and if they agree with choices the main characters are making. This is a simple way to encourage kids to take a deeper interest in a story and relate with it personally. Your kids will soon look forward to this time each day, developing their connections both with you and the reading process.

Celebrate!

There are several Summer Reading Rewards Programs to help support your kids, through your local library, book stores or restaurants. These can be found through an Internet search. Have your children choose their favorite programs and talk about the reading requirements and the rewards offered. Download and print the appropriate forms, and hang them within easy reach. Each day, your kids can mark what they read, getting closer to their Reading Rewards.
If you want to make your own system of challenge and rewards, use this reproducible Bookmark and Reading Log and this Summer Reading Calendar. Make a goal for each day, week and/or month to meet - such as reading minutes or total number of books to read - and decide what the rewards will be when your kids meet the goal. If you want kids to put in a little more effort into Summer Reading, here is a great Book Box activity, along with a printable Book Report form for kids to use.

A Reading Bingo Game

Bingo is a great game regardless of the subject. To make your summer activities a little more book-oriented, print out this Reading Bingo Board. Each square on the Bingo Board has a genre or activity suggestion related to reading. Print one out for each of your kids and make summer reading a fun adventure!

Kelly Wilson writes for Teaching Resource Center in a regular column called “Kelly’s Corner.” Teaching Resource Center offers classroom teaching tools and resources designed to help K-3 students who are learning to read.