It’s called the “Summer Slide” — the phenomenon whereby students experience a loss of knowledge during the summer holidays. Studies have shown that in general, one to three months of learning can be lost over a long summer and up to six weeks of revision is required after the summer break to bring students back up to speed. The problem has been made much worse this year by Covid-related school disruptions.  

How can we continue the learning process over summer break and still allow students some much needed downtime?  Your first step might be to call your favorite in-home tutoring agency to see what summer programs they recommend.  An hour of tutoring each week can go a long way to preparing your child for the next grade. Plus there are plenty of steps parents can take on their own. 

Reading is key.

By giving your child books to read over the summer break you can keep the learning process going and minimize learning loss over the break period. Find something fun and interesting for your child to read and they will naturally learn without even noticing that they are maintaining and expanding their skills. Withhold access to video games and TV until your student has completed an agreed amount of reading each day.

You can also help prevent summer learning loss by involving your child in household tasks. Tasks such as helping to plan the family vacation or a special meal encourages cognitive thinking and develops problem solving skills. Board games and puzzles can also keep the learning process flowing.  Look for fun word games that develop linguistic skills and foster the learning of new words and phrases.

Summer learning loss is real and can be prevented by spending as little as three hours per week on activities that promote learning. The problem is worse in low-income households.  Working parents often do not have the time or resources to provide their children with summer enrichment.  Consider supporting programs like the Emmaus House CDF Freedom School in Atlanta, which is a summer program helping to counteract the achievement gap which opens up between rich and poor students each summer.

For an excellent overview of research into summer learning loss and the achievement gap, read The Case for Summer Learning by the National Summer Learning Association.

—

Guest post by Maria Hills, part of the community outreach team at Edu Aid. Maria is passionate about ongoing education at all ages, and when she isn’t learning new things is a keen walker and cyclist.