All children are at risk of experiencing what educators refer to as the "summer slide." This occurs when students fail to keep up their studies over the summer months. Come September, those students have fallen behind their peers in the classroom. This pattern repeats every year and those students find their academic standing moving farther and farther to the back of the pack.
"Young people who aren't engaged in learning activities during the summer months experience a huge challenge when they get back to school in the fall," said Ron Fairchild, CEO of the National Summer Learning Association. "Teachers often have to spend time re-teaching the same materials they spent teaching the previous year. sometimes as much as up to four to six weeks."
Yet while all students are vulnerable, research shows that disadvantaged children face the greatest risk.
"What we find is that children from growing up in disadvantaged families keep up with children from better off families tolerably well during the school year," said Karl Alexander, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University. "Where they fall behind is over the summer months. And we've seen this over the entirety of the elementary school years."
The good news is there are ways to help your child avoid getting left behind in the classroom without breaking your budget.
- Get your child excited about reading. Issue a challenge to your family and see how many books they can read over summer break.
- Bring them into the kitchen with you to help reinforce the math skills used following recipes
- And set aside quiet time everyday for a little school work practice
Studies show that high quality summer learning programs make a powerful impact on a child's development, which is why experts say that while the summer may be a great time for children to let loose and have fun, parents must also empower them to enjoy the break without sacrificing those hard fought gains made during the school year.
