Summer School - summer slide

Ahhh summer, a time to kick back, relax and unwind.  But the seamy underbelly of three months of doing
nothing can be learning loss, sometimes called the summer slide.  Here we are in August already, school, home or otherwise is just around the corner.

What is learning loss?

Without academic stimulation students lose the information that they gained during the school year. According to research students can lose as much as 2 months of grade level equivalency in math and some in reading. This varies with individual students, grade and age.  As the saying goes, if you don't use it, you lose it.

Of course the simple answer to this problem is to engage students in academic activities over the summer months.  Personally, I think that this information points us to a year round school model with more frequent breaks, but hey, just my opinion.  As a homeschool parent we have the freedom to make our schedule any thing we want.  This year I chose to take a complete break for the entire month of June.  Then in July start up with some light schooling, a couple of days of math, nature study, educational outside games.

What can we do now?

Even if the kiddos have not done one single academic thing all summer, it is not too late.  Now is the time to get back in the groove. Start up those brains so when school starts full swing they will be ready to go. Does this mean hitting the books now, chained to the desk?  No, learning can be fun.  Take the learning outside. Have fun enjoying the last days of summer while warming up those brains.

Get started today.  

All you need is some side walk chalk and some pavement (and maybe a pair of dice, some sticks and stones) .

How big is it?  I love this exercise, it is really eye opening.  Find something big, dinosaurs and sea creatures are fun to do.  Find out exactly how big they were.  Get out your measuring stick.  Measure just how big that creature really is.  Then draw a picture of it.  See how many people would fit inside.  Have fun, get informed, do some measuring math.

Gross Motor Addition Game - This game will have kids hopping, skipping, jumping, and adding.

Make your own life sized math game.  Over at the Math n spire blog they created a fractionopoly game, a fun way to review fractions.

Dara a strategy game from Africa.

Count through a maze of numbers.  This is a life size counting maze for the little ones.  (You could probably do this with big kids too, but give them problems to answer to get through the maze rather than just counting.)

I am just warming up myself.  Five days of Summer Schooling.  Join with me each day this week as I bring you creative ways get your child's brain ready to start a new school year. Check out the other TOS Review Crew blogs as they share 5 days of homeschooling topics.