“But unless you’re already concerned about your child’s academic performance and you want to make sure you’re using the summer really well to develop those extra supports and extra learning, the summer slide is not that big boogeyman that we all need to be afraid of,” he said.
For children who may already be struggling academically when school ends, summer is a good time to catch up and help them be better prepared for next year. Sometimes schools run summer schools for a few weeks or offer programs that combine learning, fun activities, and a review of the previous year.
“For parents, [these district programs] They are usually cheap or free, so it is the best of all worlds, where children can participate in activities during the day, often with their peers,” Kuhfeld said.
What are some great summer learning activities for kids?
For younger children Dr. MH Razaassociate professor at Missouri State University’s College of Education, suggests parents keep learning activities simple over the summer.
“Parents can make it natural; they don’t need to make learning a burden for their children,” Raza said.
He adds that 20 minutes a day of pressure-free learning activity is often all that is needed to help children grow intellectually over the summer.
Raza listed the following activities that parents can potentially use:
- Have your kids create a shopping list and take it with you to the grocery store. Children can look at the products, compare prices and help decide which product to buy.
- While driving, parents can point out road signs and ask their children to read them. Or you can ask your children to spell the words they see.
- Parents can talk to their children about their stories and life experiences.
- Children can be more involved by baking or cooking and helping to measure ingredients.
- Parents can involve children in garden projects or science experiments.
For educators, researchers suggest that teachers spend some time reviewing content from the previous year at the beginning of the year. Kuhfeld says most teachers are already doing this, according to previous surveys and research.
“Teachers face a huge challenge in terms of having to review material and adapt the entire year’s curriculum,” Kuhfeld says. “Setting aside time for review seems to be quite normative, and the expectation is that children will not remember everything they learned in the previous year.”
Learning loss in adolescents
However, it’s not just younger children who may experience learning loss during breaks. Older students might also encounter the summer slide.
“I think older children, especially high school and college students, also suffer from learning loss, but that learning loss is not fully documented,” Raza says.
He explains that critical thinking, engagement, self-reflection, and practical application are deeply connected to learning environments. When older students are disconnected from the academic environment or their collaborative peer groups, they often face learning loss. But he says more research needs to be done to quantify or measure the impact.
Todd Irving, principal at Pinole Valley High School, suggests students look for non-traditional activities in summer school. Irving notes that his school offers a summer program, but students can also take courses at a local community college or even online.
“There are several ways to attend summer school,” Irving said. “We encourage them to read and just do different things.”
But he cautions that students shouldn’t do too much during recess.
“One of the things we don’t want to do is burn them out in summer school, and when they come back in September, when we get to October or November, they say, ‘I’m burned out,’” he said. “So we have to be really strategic in how we do it.”
