Summer Slide: Is your child at risk of learning loss this summer?

As the school year comes to a close, we’re looking forward to fun in the sun, sweet watermelon and smiles, and lots of time to play! While we’re enjoying these summer activities, let’s make sure your child doesn’t fall victim to the “summer slide”.

When your child is on break from their education, academics often go out of the window. Unfortunately, when school comes back in session next August, your child may have forgotten much of what they’ve learned this year, even as much as between 20 and 50 percent! Even more alarming, as your child ages, the loss tends to increase each summer, with higher rates in reading and math. This learning loss, commonly referred to as “summer slide” means your child may lose the overall equivalent of an entire month of learning over the summer, with as much as 2.6 months of loss in math, and 2 months in reading skills .

This summer slide means teachers often spend close to six weeks of the next school year re-teaching material that children have lost over the summer, and it can take as long as two months to get your child back on track once school has begun again.

While these statistics of months of learning loss are staggering, it takes surprisingly little time to prevent summer slide. Spending an average of 2-3 hours a week on education during summer break can prevent any learning loss — ensuring your child doesn’t fall behind during the summer.

Here are 3 ways you can prevent summer slide this year:

  1. Never Stop Reading — Try reading a chapter of a book each morning when your child is accustomed to learning, and is least distracted. If you’re traveling, bring books for the car. If you’re looking for an activity outside of the house, try visiting your local library!
  2. Math Games — Math skills are incredibly easy for children to lose over the summer, particularly as they get older. Try downloading educational games that will keep your child’s math skills sharp this summer.
  3. Consider Summer Academics — The safest way to ensure your child doesn’t experience summer learning loss is to enroll your child in online or on-site classes for summer months. At eLearning Academy, we offer STEAM camps, one-on-one tutoring, credit recovery, Barton Reading Clinic, academic on-site education, and online teacher services, so there’s an option for every child, and every schedule.

Interested in eLearning’s Summer Academics? Registration is now open!

Our Top 3 Connected Picks

1. Monster Math | “Math Facts are fun with Monster Math, the educational game that improves over 70 math skills including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions.” Download on Google Play | Download on the Apple App Store
2. Sight Words Reading Games | “Come along on a reading adventure with pirates Billy and Katie!” Learn sight words on this pirate adventure! Download on Google Play | Download on the Apple App Store
3. Math Land | “With the learning games of Math Land, kids will learn math while enjoying a real adventure packed with action and educational arithmetic games.” Download on Google Play | Download on the Apple App Store

Unplugged Activities

Don’t forget to get physical!

Physical performance has a direct correlation with peak mental performance, so it’s just as important to make sure your child stays physically active this summer, too! Here are a few ways your child can stay active this summer:

  • Take a daily walk or bike ride around the neighborhood as a family.
  • Consider enrolling your child in swimming lessons or a summer sport.
  • Set up a slip-n-slide or sprinkler for a few hours of afternoon fun!
  • Play a game of hide-and-seek to get their adrenaline and blood pumping!
  • Create a hula hoop family challenge, and see who can keep the hoop up the longest!