Helping Your Child's Mind Stay Sharp Over the Summer

Ah, summer... a time to relax, rejuvenate, and enjoy time with your family, friends and kids. Summer is a very special time of the year for me as an educator. I look forward to extended camping trips with my family and pups, spending time in my garden, and catching up on reading, quilting and other projects I have little time for during the school year.

While I look forward to summer every year, I also know that summer can pose a challenge for struggling learners. Research shows us that students, especially those from low-income households fall an average of 2 months behind their peers during the summer. This loss continues summer after summer and can significantly impact students as they encounter more and more difficult learning challenges.

Please take a look at these great articles to help you parent through the summer slide this year:

• Colorado Summer Slide Research This is a great source for further reading on the causes, impact, and some solutions for dealing with the summer slide. 

• 7 Ways Parents Can Help Students Avoid the Summer Slide Here are some tips for keeping your young learners on track this summer in order to start next year off right.

It is also important to remember how far our struggling readers have come! Many of our students who were barely able to sound out words will leave for summer with a voracious appetite for reading. Others have less of an appetite to choose reading during leisure time, yet have learned skills to break unknown words into easier-to-read parts in order to read them. They have learned to analyze how characters interact, and what story elements contribute to a deeper understanding of the text. They can navigate the text- and graphic features in non-fiction text to locate information they need... and so much more! It is important to celebrate how far our students have come this year, while continuing to practice and use the skills and strategies they have learned so they are off and running in the fall!

If you would like more information or help finding fun, engaging ways to keep your kids learning this summer, please contact me at kpickrell@stanwood.wednet.edu.