How is Summer Learning Loss Affecting your Child?

The sweltering heat of summers bring along the sweet memories of summer vacations. Lazing around the house, visiting our grandparents, meeting our friends and enjoying mangos. These have all been an irreversible yet important part of our youth. However, have you ever wondered if there could also be a slightly bitter side to the summer break?

Summer vacations allow students a little rest after working hard the whole year. It also marks the transition for students from one grade to the next. Since this is the longest holiday in the school year, children spend their summer vacations either hanging out with friends, attending summer camps, or visiting relatives. Summer break is also typically a time when kids get extra screen time and zero responsibilities. However, all of this free time can lead to the summer slide, a regression in academic proficiency due to summer break. Experts warn that this summer slide is hindering children’s progress when they head back to school.

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Kids lose significant skills in reading and math over their summer breaks each year. This tends to have a snowball effect as they experience subsequent skill loss each year. Research shows children lose about 2 months of reading skills and 2.6 months of math skills over a single summer. Summer slide is cumulative, so these lost months add up over time. Over the years, children lose about 2 years of learning by the time they reach middle school and about 5 years by the time they reach high school all because of the summer slide.

Owing to this loss of learning during the summer breaks, teacher have to spend the first 4-6 weeks to re-teach and revise the previous year’s concepts at the beginning of each school year. Which means if a teacher has to teach division to the class, she first needs to revise multiplication tables and then move on to the new concept.

How can this learning loss be stopped? While schools may stop teaching in the summer, the learning does not have to come to a halt.

Here are some interesting ways to keep children busy during the holidays and ensure you beat the summer slide:

• Daily Reading

Like the old saying goes, ‘Books are the windows to the world’, children learn a lot simply by reading even 10 pages every day. You can introduce your children to popular book series like Harry Potter or the old classics like The Famous Five. This gets them engaged and wanting to keep turning pages. Also carry books along with you during your trips. Children can read during the train journeys. Alternatively, you can also let children read e-books online. The goal is to let them practice and boost their confidence with English each day.

• Daily Puzzles

Puzzles exercise children’s critical thinking skills and provide the needed practice in math, spelling, and other areas of the curriculum. A puzzle a day allows practice that pays! Children do not have to be tied down to practice puzzles for hours. Instead, even 15 minutes daily practice proves to be quite useful.

BrainGymJr provides new puzzles daily in Math, English and Real World concepts. They take just 15 minutes to solve and help sharpen your mind. Try BrainGymJr now

• Engaging Conversations with Family

Talking to your children from a very young age is a way of offering them information, which helps them feel valued and respected. Regular conversations teach them what conversation should be like, how to listen and when to respond. Being able to have conversations helps children make friends, ask for what they need and develop strong relationships with others.

• Audio Stories/Books

Audiobooks allow kids to hear explicit sounds of letters and letter patterns that form words. You can make use of these audiobooks during car rides or short trips to keep children entertained and focused on learning. Get weekly audio stories to solve on the BrainGymJr App. Signup Today

• STEM Toys

STEM toys are educational toys that train kids to focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. These Toys are perfect to reinforce the importance of learning in a fun way. STEM toys like Lego blocks, robotic games etc. are incredibly beneficial tools that help children sharpen their logic and critical thinking skills

Combating summer slide is not as hard as you think. Children do not have to be tortured to study even during their summer breaks because they deserve the holidays to reset and relax. Introducing children to fun ways of learning, even just for 15 minutes a day, can help prevent learning loss effectively and keep them busy.

“Anyone who keeps learning stays young”
– Henry Ford