Strategies for Summer Learning

By Rachel Ofo
 

The long-anticipated summer break. A period of time when we don’t have to worry about lunch prep, early morning drop-offs, and getting the children to bed on time. I have loved summer vacation since childhood. For me, knowing that I would get to stay out with the neighborhood kids well past sundown was always the most exciting part. My siblings and I would take full advantage of the free time.

One thing I remember, however, was the end-of-summer struggle getting back into the school routine, and even worse, trying to remember everything we had been taught the previous year. How was I supposed to recall how to do long division when all my counting had consisted of finding enough change to pay the ice cream man? The only reading I had done was the jokes on the inside of my bubblegum wrapper.

Parents with children following a formal school schedule will all have dealt with the dreaded return. Yes, the break was great, and we got to travel and enjoy ourselves, but when our children return from the first day of school and ask “What is 1+1?”, we almost regret allowing them the time off school.
 

Brains on break 

My daughter is currently in kindergarten and recently had a spring break. I was excited because she is homeschooled, so her break is my break as well. We’ve also made it so she still follows the local school schedule, so breaks and holidays coincide with all the other children in the area. However, from that one-week break, she returned with absolutely no knowledge of everything we’d spent months learning. I wanted to be frustrated and angry at her, but that wasn’t fair.

There is a common phrase that says “children are like sponges”. This is absolutely true. My daughter had spent months absorbing everything that was taught to her. She did an amazing job during those first few months, but like a sponge that wasn’t used for a while, her knowledge dried up. So we spent the first couple of weeks refreshing. That was for just a week-long break. Thinking about what will happen during her first three-month summer vacation had me stressing like never before. So I started considering things that I can do to help her retain what she’s learned, without either of us feeling like we’re still in school.
 

Learning over summer

Thanks to technology and social media and data mining, I stumbled upon an Instagram post by a fellow homeschooling mom, Susie Allison, also known as “BusyToddler”. Susie had uploaded something called “Summer Camp at Home” (1).

To put it simply, she’s created a six-week program for parents to follow how they please. There are various fun activities that stimulate and continue learning after the kids get out of school. And because the activities are fairly open-ended, it’s easy to adjust based on your child’s level and interests. For example, there is a camping week that focuses on everything connected to camping. Maybe your child doesn’t like to be outdoors, maybe the bugs won’t allow it, or maybe the weather doesn’t permit it, but it doesn’t matter because this lesson is so easy to adjust for condo-living. 

With every activity, it is possible to incorporate STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) learning, and your child will believe they’ve spent the six weeks playing and having fun. However, when they return to school, their brains will have been properly watered.
 

Beating the summer slide

Although “learning loss” is a fairly new research topic, many parents I’ve spoken to have experienced what is called “summer slide”. One mom joked about how her older daughter had to teach her younger daughter number orders, despite the younger daughter having already learned and grasped this concept previously. It can be funny, but it can also be frustrating.

According to Scholastic, an American publishing, education, and media company founded over 100 years ago, it is believed that grade school children can lose 20% or more of their learning in math and reading over the summer break (2). However, they also mentioned a few tips to help. These include:

1. Letting them read whenever and whatever. My local library has a fun reading challenge where they give points for books read and, subsequently, prizes for points earned.
2. Allowing for “smart play”. This means puzzles and games like “Stop the bus!” (a game where players race to think of different items beginning with a specific letter of the alphabet) can help your child and their friends keep their brains working while they have fun.
3. Getting out of the house. Museums, aquariums, parks, and places like these allow for more fun and more learning. And Bangkok has plenty scattered about.
    

The secret to learning every day

The takeaway: learning can be fun. And because you’re not actually teaching your child but helping them retain what they’ve already learned, it takes some of the load off. Some everyday activities are great for practicing learning.

Having them measure for you when you cook or bake can help with counting, fractions, measurements, and conversions. If they’re playing in the garden, creating a game of how fast they can find a certain number of items (rocks, sticks, leaves, and so on) will help them with counting and sorting. Going shopping and instructing them to find food items of a specific color or snacks beginning with a certain letter will play into retaining color and letter recognition. Then they can help pay. These small adjustments to activities we’re already doing can play a big role in avoiding the summer slide.

The secret is to just have fun. It takes a bit of planning, but incorporating simple learning opportunities into fun or even mundane activities will make the difference in your child’s education. The only summer slide we want our children to experience is into a pool or ball pit. And don’t forget to ask them to count how many seconds it takes them to go down. Doing this will help not only your child but also your child’s learning instructor and you as well. Our children are our future, and we have to take the steps needed to help them succeed in theirs.

References

1. Busy Toddler (2024) Free Summer Camp at Home.

busytoddler.com/summer-camp-at-home-with-busy-toddler/ 

2. Austrew, A. (2022) How to prevent your kids from losing what they learned in school during summer vacation. Scholastic.

scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/summer-slide.print.html 

About the Author

Rachel Ofo moved from the US to Bangkok in 2016 and spent six and a half years there. She has a daughter, whom she loves dragging around on various adventures like hikes and fishing trips. In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching movies, and trying new restaurants. She also enjoys being out in nature.