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Summer鈥檚 here, and the time is right for鈥� helping our kids hold onto what they learned during this extraordinary year. 鈥淪ummer slide鈥濃�攖he term for lessons lost or misplaced during the warmer months鈥攔esponds well to simple, steady interventions. The kids may not be back in day care or pre-K for quite a while, so Early Learning Nation has gathered tips from top educators and researchers to help you shift gears from home schooling to summer vacation.
鈥淪ummer is a great time for parents and caregivers to do fun activities with children that can also promote learning. For example, cooking together and talking about measurement can connect math concepts for children. Helping children do art projects that involve marking out shapes with tape and then coloring them in with chalk is a good way to talk about geometry and shapes. Planting seeds with children is a great way to talk about science and how things grow. Finally, writing a children鈥檚 guide to summer fun together is a great way to promote writing and literacy and have fun together.鈥�
鈥擬egan McClelland, director of Oregon State University鈥檚
鈥淔or young children, the most important skills that parents can build all come packaged in聽playful learning.聽Building with聽blocks and doing puzzles promotes spatial reasoning, a critical聽component of math. Playing games like Simon Says and engaging in pretend play fosters executive function skills (e.g., planning, self-control, memory). And talking about emotions and other聽mental states when watching movies or reading books can help boost social-emotional skills such as empathy and altruism.鈥�
鈥擧elen Shwe Hadani, fellow at Metropolitan Policy Program, , The Brookings Institution
鈥淭here鈥檚 a well-documented antidote to slow and reverse the summer slide: kids who read, beat the summer slide! When kids don鈥檛 read over the summer, they fall further behind. The best thing that parents and caregivers can do is to let kids select books that interest them. And adults need to get involved, too, by modeling the behavior. So set aside family reading time. There is nothing better than ending your day by sharing stories with a child you love; it will change their lives鈥攁nd yours, too!鈥�
鈥擪yle Zimmer, president, CEO and co-founder of
鈥淧arents can prevent their child鈥檚 summer learning loss by reading a book every day. They can reread a child鈥檚 favorites often and add different storybook genres, such as fairy tales, folktales, fantasy and fables. Families can also engage in book talk during and after reading, act out the most exciting parts, make silly character voices, and discuss reasons why the book should become a new favorite. All these activities will build comprehension and vocabulary.鈥�
鈥擪athy Hollowell-Makle, executive director of
鈥淭here are three simple activities parents and caregivers of young children can do to slow and reverse the effects of summer slide: (1) Talk together and use words to describe the things you do and see around you; (2) read books every day and take time to discuss the stories and characters; and (3) sing your favorite songs. Children are naturally curious and love to play, so parents can follow their child鈥檚 interests to spark new conversations, stories, songs and games to enjoy together!鈥�
鈥擩ane Park, director of , the early learning program of the
鈥淵oung children learn through play. Seize the teachable moments that arise through your day together to read street signs, talk about the emotions they are feeling and measure out ingredients. Let children guide the learning you encourage so it is a joy, not a chore, for them.鈥�
鈥擠avid Lawrence Jr., Chair of
鈥淚nvestigate programming options in your area; we鈥檙e hearing about many districts and non-profits across the country planning special programs this summer. Don鈥檛 forget your local library鈥檚 programs, and be sure your child is checking out books and you鈥檙e talking with them about the books. If you鈥檙e not sure, a librarian can help you choose age-appropriate titles. And always, always, always, talk with your children about anything and everything.鈥�
鈥擟laudia Miner, executive director & co-founder of
鈥淧arents should make sure they approach reading as fun reading, meaning let kids pick any type of book they want about any topic they are interested in and letting them choose the genre鈥攇raphic novels, chapter books, picture books, etc. The other thing that can help with the summer slide in terms of math is playing more board games at home, particularly those that involve counting money. But there are also board games that are specifically focused on math activities. Another important thing to remember is that having family conversations about world events and history are important ways to foster children’s critical thinking skills and language expression.”
鈥擲tephanie Currenton-Jolly, director of
This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 麻豆精品. Learn more here.
Mark Swartz writes about efforts to improve early care and education as well as developments in the U.S. care economy. He lives in Maryland.
Articles by Art Hondros