Have you ever heard of the summer slide? It’s when children are on summer break and they start to forget important things that they learned in school the previous year. Children can actually lose up to three months of academic progress over the summer. Fear not! There are ways that you can help your child to avoid the summer slide.
We all know that technology has grown rapidly the last few decades. So much so that children are having difficulty putting down their devices. It seems like we’re all stuck to our phones, computers, televisions, video games, etc. It isn’t the healthiest of environments for learning when we’re constantly connected and distracted.
What we can we do to avoid the summer slide?
In order to avoid the summer slide, we recommend making learning fun, hands-on, and interactive. When children are having fun, they stay engaged and learning. It’s all about capturing their attention and keeping it. Here are some fun things you can do at home to help keep your child learning this summer.
1. Read every day!
Whether your child is an independent reader or you still read to them, reading every single day is very important. We recommend reading for at least 20 minutes per day. Make sure to check out your local library to see if they have a summer reading program. Many libraries have incentives and rewards for reading over the summer. It’s a great motivator to keep children interested and loving books.Read every day! Whether your child is an independent reader or you still read to them, reading every single day is very important. We recommend reading for at least 20 minutes per day. Make sure to check out your local library to see if they have a summer reading program. Many libraries have incentives and rewards for reading over the summer. It’s a great motivator to keep children interested and loving books.
Here are some fun hands-on activities for learning phonics and beginning reading skills
- CVC Short A Sentences
- Dot and Color Letters & Sounds
- I Spy Beginning Sounds
- Cookie Jar Letters & Sounds
- Initial Sound Picture Sort
- Interactive Notebook for Letters & Sounds
- Letters and Phonics Literacy Curriculum
- Rhyming Clip Cards
2. Plant a garden!
Gardening is the perfect spring and summer activity! Children can learn all about planning, planting, and tending a garden. We find that when children are engaged in growing their own fruits and vegetables, they enjoy eating them even more!
3. Go on field trips!
Take a trip to the local museum, air zoo, animal zoo, gardens, and more. Get your children engaged and have them research where they would like to go. For added fun and learning, have them keep a journal about their experience. They can predict beforehand what they think they’ll see at the museum and how they will feel. Then, afterwards they can write about what the experience was actually like. This gives them the opportunity to predict, observe, and compare and contrast their experience. Lots of fantastic learning!
4. Explore with science experiments!
Science is a great way to get creative and get the brain engaged. There are no boundaries or limits to science experiments in the summer because there is no set curriculum to follow. This can get children even more excited for the possible experiments they can do. Here are some great science experiments that we recommend:
- Ice Volcanos by Reading Confetti
- Homemade Quick Sand by Growing a Jeweled Rose
- Cloud Jars by Learn with Play at Home
- Homemade Giant Bubbles by Happy Holligans
- Sink or Float by Kids Activities
5. Play games!
Go on scavenger hunts, play games like Monopoly with money and counting, play card games, etc. Incorporate as many fun games as you can where children are exploring, counting, reading, and having fun! All of those skills help to avoid the summer slide.
Download our Scavenger Hunt Activity
We love spending time outdoors. One of our favorite things to do is go on nature walks. There are so many wonderful things in this world to explore. We created a fun scavenger hunt to take on our nature walks. Children love searching for all of the things on the list and get very excited when they find them.
Download the Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt
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Very nice post.
Thank you!