Kids can forget what they learned during the long summer months. Avoid summer brain drain with these tips on how to keep your child learning in the summer.
“We won’t have homework the rest of the year,” my five-year-old announced after Memorial Day.
I was shocked. I had hoped they wouldn’t start getting ready for summer so soon. That’s when I realized “summer brain drain” is a real thing.
“A conservative estimate of lost instructional time is approximately two months or roughly 22 percent of the school year…. It’s common for teachers to spend at least a month re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer. That month of re-teaching eliminates a month that could have been spent on teaching new information and skills.” -National Summer Learning Association
Translation: kids lose two months’ worth of knowledge during the summer. Because of that, teachers have to spend a whole month re-teaching all that stuff they forgot. That’s a whole month teachers could’ve used introducing new material.
How to keep your child learning in the summer
I don’t want my kids to have the summers I used to have. Not that they were terrible, but I definitely felt like I didn’t tap into my full potential.Our tween and teen years were the worst, where it was all about staying up late to watch television and waking up at noon the next day to cook stove top mac n cheese.
We celebrate summer for its leisurely pace and lack of demanding school work. As they should: kids need both academic rigor and a relaxed schedule to excel.
But keep your child learning in the summer, not just the school year. Not only will she be better prepared for the coming year, she’ll also come to view learning as fun. Here’s how:
1. Enroll your child in a summer program
Summer programs and camps can be fantastic ways to ensure your child keeps learning in the summer.
Many programs have a focus, such as art, academics or athletics. You’ll also find a variety of options, such as full-day camps to once a week to a few hours each day. You’re not drilling academics but engaging your child through new skills and activities.
2. Read every day
I can’t stress enough the importance of daily and frequent reading. Kids who read during the summer gain reading skills than those who don’t read at all. Incorporate reading into your routine, such as before bedtime. Scatter books everywhere, and have at least 50 children’s books in your home.
Your child will gain reading skills and strengthen his love of knowledge. Reading has many long-term benefits that are too good to pass up!
Read more about the long-term benefits of reading.
3. Attend child-focused programs
Many libraries host free events like story time or crafts. Being in the library also encourages your child to find books and associate learning with fun.
Like libraries, museums also host several child-focused events. Your child can view the exhibits and take part in crafts and activities. Here in LA, we’ve gone to a few in the Japanese American National Museum, the Fowler Museum at UCLA and the Skirball Cultural Center.
Museums catered to children also feature hands-on exhibits. In Los Angeles, the Science Center and the Zimmer Museum come to mind.
4. Take your child on field trips
Go on Trip Advisor and find your home town. Look for ‘things to do’ and find kid-friendly places. Most likely you’ll come up with a handful of places to take your child on ‘field trips’ to.
Plan weekly trips and talk about what you saw during your outing. Maybe it’s a museum like I mentioned above. Or a nature reserve. Or the planetarium. Taking your child to field trips during the summer will help keep her engaged and learning new things.
5. Do practice worksheets
Every day, my five-year-old and I do a worksheet together. We’ve incorporated this into his routine so that we work on it before bedtime. It only takes ten minutes, but it helps keep him learning all year long.
You can find free worksheets on Great Schools, Education.com and everywhere on Pinterest. And find challenging worksheets. Breezing through easy worksheets isn’t something to celebrate. Encourage challenging work, effort and learning new things instead.
Join my newsletter and get sample worksheets and handouts about learning letters and numbers:
6. Inspire your child’s passions
Has your child mentioned something he’s interested in? Encourage this passion. I’ll borrow books on random subjects my kids enjoy, from clouds to bridges to cars. We’ve also taken them to the planetarium to encourage their interest in outer space.
Passions are anything your child talks about or can’t stop playing with. Maybe you can visit the train museum for the child you can’t peel away from toy train tracks. Or the zoo for the child who loves reading about animals.
7. Be physically active
Now that school is out, get your child moving, at least 60 minutes per day. It’s easy to stay cooped up at home or laze away the day. Find activities that will make your child to move. Being active helps improve her mental acuity and keep her feeling upbeat and healthy.
So turn on the music, play a game of chase or take the kids to the park. The physical activities will be a brain booster this summer.
8. Learn the history and geography of your summer trip
Taking a summer vacation? Teach your kids the history and geography of your upcoming trip. Maybe you’re going to a national landmark, another city or even another country. Encourage your kids to learn its history and culture, or borrow books about your travel destination and even cook its local food.
Read these children’s books about geography.
9. Look for things to do with kids on Pinterest
Find learning activities to do with kids on Pinterest. Things that are fun as well as educational and can substitute what they’d learn if they were in school.
Take a look at these 2 year old development activities.
Conclusion
Don’t let summer waste away all that your child has learned during the school year.
Include learning activities to keep your child sharp and ready to go back to school. Simple activities like reading and doing worksheets. Fun things like going on field trips and attending kid-related events.
Summers can be a break from school, but don’t let it be a break from your child’s learning.
Get more tips on how to keep your child learning in the summer:
- 9 Strategies to Help Beginner Readers Build Strong Reading Habits
- Homework Mistakes You Should Definitely Avoid
- 6 Useful Back to School Tips for Parents and Kids
- Teach Your Child the Value of a Job Well Done
- 8 Long Term Benefits of Reading to Your Child
Your turn: What are your tips on how to keep your child learning in the summer? What activities do you plan to do to help them continue to learn during the summer? Let me know in the comments!
I’ve noticed in our homeschool books that the first few months’ worth of lessons, math particularly, consists of review material. When we advance in level, we can usually skip a considerable amount until we find something we haven’t done yet. Brain drain…the struggle is real!
How interesting about the beginning lessons. It’s almost a given for teachers to do a refresher I suppose!
Scarlet’s kindergarten was so play-based – no homework at all – but I’ve definitely noticed that with the heat and the end of the year, no one seems very focused! I’d love to keep some momentum this summer with outdoor learning and camp and reading.
I love your ideas!
Reading does tons of good during the summer, as does nature outings!
Wonderful ideas! I remember loving the time I had to read over the summer, so I hope my daughters will too.
That’s awesome, Charlee!
I mentioned our plan on your FB page the other day, so you know what we’re doing (summer homework, worksheets and lots of reading). I’ll definitely have to look into some of the local museums. With all the Smithsonian museums close by, it would be scandalous not to take advantage of them!
Ooh I’d love to visit the Smithsonian. Such a famous museum!
Unfortunately/fortunately the kiddos live with their teacher. I’m giving them the first week of summer off, but I plan to implement at least 2-3 days of scheduled learning. Thankfully, I have an assistant for the summer,my 13-year-old. I’m sure she will be such a great help this summer, and she has already begun her summer reading for school.
Great tips!
XOXO
That’s awesome! Love how your eldest is involved and helping out too 🙂
My friend told me that fact about teachers spending the first month re-teaching last year’s stuff. I also remember not being very productive during the summer except for the dreaded Chinese school summer work!
Being that I work outside the home full time, I’ve already enrolled my preschooler in summer camp at the current daycare so that he can keep learning in the summer. But as he gets older, I’ll try to schedule him for a variety of summer camps. I like your tip to stay active though because sometimes it can be too easy to enjoy the AC instead of getting some fresh (albeit hot) air.
Same here—being that we both work, my kid has no option when it comes to being engaged during the summer (and since he can’t be home by himself lol).
I’ll have to keep some of these in mind, so my toddler doesn’t forget his basics! I’m planning to do a lot of play-based learning activities.
That’s awesome, Tarana!
We read pretty much every day in the summer. I use Pinterest to find fun worksheets and we try to take educational field trips. Last summer we went to the Noah’s Ark Exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center.
Oh awesome, Melissa! We went there on a rainy day but it was still great to see the hands-on stuff. I even found a great coupon/deal online which helped 🙂
Great tips. Did you know, though, that homework likely does more harm than good – particularly in elementary school? See, for example: http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/rethinking-homework/
Thanks for the link, MaryAnne! Reminds me of a documentary I’ve long wanted to see called “Race to Nowhere” that talks about the crazy amounts of homework kids get.
Still, I can’t discount the value in turning learning and academics into something fun. So far my kids look forward to typical homework, maybe because we don’t do much of it (10 minutes tops) and we highlight the positives of challenge and learning new things.
That said, I think a well-rounded child that learns from many different ways, from homework to exploration to sensory to reading, is a great approach!
When my kids were in elementary school, we did workbooks throughout the summer, and read a ton. Now that they are in high school, I’m happy with summer reading. My daughter has three books she has to read for English, and I’m making my son read against his wishes! I just feel like they are so tapped during the school year that they need a break. I love your tips, though – so many just integrate learning into summer fun activities.
I think the older kids get, the more school work they tend to get, so I can imagine letting it go. I remember having to read so many books. It’s too bad it can’t be more spaced out during the entire year, instead of mad work for 10 months only to crash for the next 2.
I even noticed the brain drain when my kids were preschoolers. They got hooked on MathSeeds, a game-based math website, and made enormous progress. Then they lost interest for a month or so, and when they went back and played again they had forgotten so much! After that, I decided to make sure we never took more than a few-week break from the basics. We do some formal math and reading all summer long, with the exception of vacation. Online math games can help to keep things fresh and fun, and there are oodles of summer reading programs to help motivate kids (libraries, bookstores, MENSA, and more).
As a former school teacher and current homeschooler, I can definitely vouch for that lost time at the beginning of the school year–though I always thought it seemed like at least two months worth of review, and we’ve been able to skip as much as one-third of a math book at home because we don’t stop between levels.
I notice a lag with my kiddo too when we stopped doing a particularly challenging series. When we went back to it, it took him a long while compared to how he used to do it. So now I’m all about practice a little bit every day, just as you would with any other skill. It takes daily practice instead of plowing through for months and then stopping cold turkey during the summer.
Great topic! Reading reading reading!!! My 4th grade girls read every day and we also read a novel together. We just finished Treasurw Island and are now reading the Mighty Miss Malone.
Now that they are older, they are writing more and want to be able to type, so we are using the summer to practice typing skills on the computer.
I also plan to extend the writing practice they started with their teacher by creating Mother Daughter Journals to share reflections and do creative writing.
Believe it or not, YouTube has some great educational content, especially science: “The Kid Should See This” is a great website to find kid appropriate videos. And, so is PBS Learning Media. (We like “I <3 Math!")
Finally, I don't agree that homework or worksheets are ALL bad, though much is decidedly a waste of time. (I wrote a whole post about it.) the purpose is important as well as it being at the appropriate level (is your child appropriately challenged, yet can they also do it independently?)
Agree with you there, Ali. Homework isn’t all bad, but too much and the wrong level is a waste of time. I like how you mentioned that they should be able to do it independently somewhat. It’s fine to ask for help, but if they can’t do it at all on their own then it might be too hard. But if it’s too easy then it’s a waste of time too because they basically weren’t challenged.
I love how you have mother daughter journals! Such a great idea. I’d love to do that with my kids when they’re bigger.
Great post. I keep reading “It’s summer. Leave your kids alone. Let them be kids, let them relax.” But I keep my kids busy all summer with some of the things you mention (they read on their own for fun) and also let them “be kids” — swimming, riding bikes, blowing bubbles…whatever. We have a mix here. And everyone is happy that way. So far. 😉
That’s pretty much how we are too, Sarah. It’s not either/or. They get to relax, but they also need that daily practice. My big picture goal is to raise kids who love learning and look forward to challenges. Whether that’s homework or swimming, it doesn’t have to be one or the other.