Camping, traveling, sleepovers, sʻmores – and more! Thatʻs what summer memories are made of. While it is true that summer is a time to reconnect and enjoy many moments of laughter and discovery, unfortunately, itʻs also a time of loss. “Summer slide” is the well-documented name of the loss of academic skills gained by children during the previous school year. Here are some research-based findings:

• Summer loss is greater in math than reading.
• The greatest loss has been in math computation and spelling.
• Some students sustain a loss of 1-3 months of academic learning.
• For some students, although there is no to little loss, there is also no to little academic growth across the summer.
• Summer loss across many years will have consequences in the high school years.
• Children who are struggling through the school year will likely lose a disproportionate amount of learning by the end of summer, compared to students who do not struggle.
• Reading 6 books throughout the summer can help children retain their reading skills.

In recent years, educational leaders have begun to look at summers as the perfect time to be innovative with learning opportunities. Here are some sites that might be helpful as you consider your role as your childʻs “summer teacher”:

The Scholastic Reading Summer Challenge: http://www.scholastic.com/ups/campaigns/src-2016

Sign your child up to read every day and log in minutes. As more and more time is logged in, videos and stories from favorite authors (Dav Pilkey, author of the Captain Underpants series, introduces the Challenge) are revealed. The theme for this yearʻs Challenge is “Be a Reading Superhero.” Check it out and sign your child up today! Even if your child doesnʻt participate, this is still a great site to browse lists of books.

Read/Write/Think:

http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?resource_type_filtering=70-72-74-76-80-82-113&resource_type=70&sort_order=alpha&q=Writing&srchgo.x=0&srchgo.y=0&old_q=&srchwhere=par

Here youʻll find activities that will require reading and writing with your child. The activities will take you to different online tools to create book covers, visit virtual museums, etc.

The Summer Math Challenge:

https://www.quantiles.com/content/summer-math-challenge/summer-math-loss/

“The “challenge” of the program is simply for parents and their children to talk about math a little together every day! The program will last for six weeks and will focus on one math concept per week. Parents will receive daily emails which will include fun activities and resources to help kids retain the math skills learned during the previous school year.” This challenge targets those students who have just completed grades 1 through 7.

Global Trek:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/globaltrek/

At this site, students are able to keep a travel journal as they trek through different countries around the world.

The following sites suggest a variety of fun learning opportunities to enjoy with your child while holding and building onto the academic growth of this past school year.

Little Scholars:

https://littlescholarsllc.wordpress.com/10-ways-to-prevent-summer-slide/

Parent and Child Magazine:

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/developing-reading-skills/three-ways-to-prevent-summer-slide