We LOVE Thinkstretch.com! We’d like to share their summer learning loss info with you, as well as a link to their FREE activities – they really have A LOT (24 pages of fun)! And they go well with our 101 Things To Do This Summer lists!
So, “What is summer learning loss? How does it affect my children?” The short answer is most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in reading and mathematical computation skills over the summer months – what educators and researchers refer to as “summer learning loss” or “summer brain drain.”
To succeed in school and life, children need ongoing opportunities to learn and practice essential skills. This is especially true during the summer months.
- Parents consistently cite summer as the most difficult time to ensure that their children have productive things to do (Duffett et al. 2004)
- Low-income students lose more than two months in reading achievement, more than other income groups (Cooper, 1996)
- Summer learning loss is NOT correlated to race, IQ or gender (Cooper, 1996)
- About two-thirds of the ninth-grade achievement gap between lower and higher income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities during the elementary school years (Alexander et al. 2007)
So, how can you minimize summer learning loss?
- Homeschooling throughout the summer will certainly help – don’t worry, you can have a relaxed schedule
- Googling and looking for summer oriented sites (like Thinkstretch!), will be beneficial as well
- Touching bases with your local co-op, and your community in general, to see what they have scheduled for the summer
- Just being cognizant that learning can (and DOES ) take place any time and anywhere (homeschoolers pretty much know this!)
- Taking a look-see at the book The Summertime Survival Guide for Parents: How to Create a Summer of Wonder, Discovery and Fun! It’s written by Homeschool.com’s very own Rebecca Kochenderfer, and contains some great (and fun!) summer learning advice. You can download her FREE Summertime Survival Planner here.
Do you ideas on how to prevent summer learning loss? We’d love to hear from you. You can leave your suggestions in the comment section below. Thank you!