Easy Ways To Stop The “Summer Slide” That Kids Will Love

By Lior Shapiro

The summer break is a great benefit to our little ones: time spent with family, in exploring the world around us, and in play are crucial towards building young brains and strengthening skills.

At the same time, the break from school’s structure, full of opportunities to build and reinforce learning, can lead to what educators call the “summer slide:” a measurable loss of learning that can happen when children don’t have as many opportunities to apply what they’ve developed at school.

 Families often ask how to keep kids reading in summer, and schools frequently offer support to combat the summer slide. These can include formal assignments in reading, maths and science, to help keep learning going over the break, along with resources like activity guides, information on local museums and points of interest, and connections to resources online.

 These assignments and resources can be important, helping children maintain the habit of studying or doing homework while bolstering skills. Alongside them, the best opportunities to fight the summer slide often occur when families can make learning a part of everyday life—over the summer and year-round.

 When a spirit of curiosity and learning are a regular part of the activities of daily living, learning can be part of the joy of play, instead of feeling like a chore, or like school brought into the home.

 Here are a few of our favorite ways to blend learning—especially reading and writing—into a fun family summer.

 Talking About Books

 Stories are a sacred time for many of us…reading well-worn favorites and exploring new stories together, whether it’s before bed or worked into our day. It’s worth doing more than just reading: involving the stories in conversation helps children grow and retain vocabulary and strengthen comprehension.

 While you’re spending time together or doing other activities, talk about books! Connect characters, stories and ideas to daily life. Ask: Wow, it’s really raining hard! What do you think the hero from the story we just read would do about the rain?

 You can chat about a new book with your little ones, asking: Do you like the book? What happened in the beginning of the story? Why do you think that character did what they did?

 You can also link a book’s plot points, places, concepts and even food to daily life. If a character in a well-loved story eats a mango, bring kids shopping to get some mangoes and eat them together. If a book mentions swimming or hockey, you can try these out with children—or, if that’s not possible, find kid-friendly videos about them to explore together.

 Your local library will have a wealth of books available to check out, physically or in e-book format; this is a great opportunity for you to find books that might introduce new ideas and even words that might be a little challenging, helping children strengthen their decoding skills and build vocabulary. Award-winning childrens’ books, highly sought-after new releases, and classics from your own childhood are great choices.

 In all of these cases, making casual, light hearted conversation about books, words and ideas a norm in your house can help kids feel confident entering new territory with reading—even without the supportive framework of school. They won’t feel like they are silly for not knowing if they see their caregivers enjoying talking about new ideas and words!

 Writing About Books

 Alongside talking about books, one great way to work reading into daily life is to write about them. Make a chart of what everyone (caregivers too!) has read this week, with a quick review on each. Encourage your kids to be honest about when they didn’t like a book, and when they absolutely loved one. Kids’ book reviews don’t need to be long, polished and publication-ready; they’re a great opportunity to have a laugh and ask questions. Asking children why they liked or disliked a part of a story or a character is a great way to encourage creativity: ask, “what would you have liked to have happened instead?”

 You can make a regular practice of writing to friends and loved ones in faraway places: letters from children about their readings, travels and activities, particularly when they’re touching on something new, can help expand and strengthen skills and bring new understanding into memory.

 In a world where the practice of writing has become very focused and purposeful, or has given way to chat-speak, practicing the art of writing together is fun and offers powerful learning opportunities.

 In times gone by, a letter was about sharing your life! New restaurants, exploring a new park together, volunteering, going to the beach, or even getting the hang of a new chore might be great material for a letter.

 Collecting family jokes and memories, writing travel guides about new places, explaining the rules of a board game, or even describing a newly encountered animal or plant are all fun for young children and help strengthen literacy, cognition and imagination.

 Reading And Writing In Daily Activities

 Along with reading and talking together, doing activities together provides children with loads of opportunities to read, write, and understand. A checklist, worksheet or educational game is a great opportunity to learn enjoyably, but even better is incorporating the learning into whatever else is going on.

 The key is to encourage children to participate in, rather than spectate on, what’s going on. Cooking? Kids can help wash vegetables and measure ingredients; counting, reading ingredient lists, and labelling leftovers for the freezer can bring literacy into the activity. Cleaning? Learning about cleaning chemicals and recognising safety warnings can be fun and exciting for children.

 Driving to a new place? Children can help decipher street signs, or experiment with phonemes by reading licence plates. Highly anticipated activities, like a trip to the zoo, are a great chance to incorporate reading and writing. Finding the elephant exhibit, reading the rules on sticking one’s hand into an enclosure, or ordering off the snack bar menu (and offering the right money) are all opportunities to practise and strengthen literacy and numeracy skills.

 Modeling reading and learning as a fun, self-directed activity is a great way to fight the summer slide and make it more likely that children will choose these activities as they grow. Families can schedule reading time together—for example, reading magazines or the comic pages from the newspaper after a weekend breakfast. (This is also a great way for families to introduce challenging and nuanced current events in a child-friendly way, if necessary—but when it’s better to avoid the news, special interest magazines and lifestyle, home or local sections are great for weekend family reading.)

 Wishing you a summer full of fun reading adventures!