Stop the Summer Slide: Dr. Artika Tyner's Guide for Parents to Keep Kids Learning All Summer
Dr. Artika Tyner explains how children can lose 25 to 30 percent of school-year learning over the summer and offers practical, low-pressure strategies for parents and caregivers to keep reading and learning part of everyday life throughout the break.
Children look forward to summertime. They can enjoy great weather and time away from school. Most children do not want to do any schoolwork during this period. Vacations to theme parks, video games, visits to or by close cousins, non-stop playground action and many more exciting activities abound. Studying and learning can feel like a distraction from enjoying fun and entertainment.
Research, however, shows that during this period when academic work is on hold, children tend to lose the progress made in their educational journey if they completely put learning on hold. The average loss over the summer is 25% to 30% of school learning. There are, however, ways to address this challenge and turn summer learning losses into tangible gains for academic success.
As a “first educator,” you can help promote summer learning gains by promoting reading. “First educator” refers to the fundamental primary role that parents and caregivers play in a person’s early development and education. They instill essential life skills, morals and behaviors.
Reading is an essential building block of education. Yet during summertime, nonacademic activities take center stage. Many children will go several weeks without reading a single book. The benefits of reading include expanding one’s vocabulary, improving cognitive functioning and developing critical thinking skills. Like any sport or activity, the lack of practice is a missed opportunity for growth and development. The improvements made throughout the school year suffer a summer slump when learning is not a daily practice. During the next school year, time is lost getting children to the levels they were at prior to the summer break due to the loss of momentum.
To manage summer slide, the tendency of children losing acquired knowledge or ability during the summer break, parents would have to make reading a part of their children’s daily routine. Although not as intense as during school days, children should be encouraged to engage in reading and fun literary exercises. It could be as easy as reading inscriptions on cereal boxes or pronouncing words on billboards.
Reading consistently in a relaxed environment is beneficial; a routine such as bedtime storytelling will contribute to fostering the habit of reading. Literacy cannot be achieved only through reading academic books or novels.
The following are some of the methods first educators can employ to keep learning ongoing in their homes during the summer:
• Putting on closed captions while watching TV shows together. Children will read the captions they see on the screen. This could also serve as a teaching opportunity, as children may see words for the first time and seek clarification. It also fosters summertime bonding between the child and first educators.
• Get children to help create grocery lists. The excitement of writing the grocery needs of a household will be coupled with the opportunity to spell these words, and even to know the total cost involved, which improves the child’s math abilities.
• Writing letters to friends, favorite books or comic characters. This activity helps improve children’s literary skills as they express themselves with new vocabulary picked up during the school year. Calling family is easier these days, and parents should encourage their children to also adopt letter writing as a form of communication.
• Menu reading. When eating out, children should be able to pick out their own meals from the menu. They can also be made to point out meals chosen by other people at their table. This practice helps children identify words easily.
• Summer Word Jar. Another innovative way of preventing summer reading loss is to fill a jar with new vocabulary. Children are tasked to draw a word a day and then challenged to use these words in conversation throughout the day. Successful children could be rewarded with extra screen time or a cookie of their choice.
• Children should be encouraged to read signs and labels they come across. They should share these words with their family and, if possible, explain. Children who engage in this game should be rewarded to serve as motivation.
• Children will imitate what they see. If a first educator reads in the presence of their children, the probability of the children developing an interest in reading would be high. This is also more effective than forcing children to adopt habits they do not see adults around them indulge in.
“First educators” should not shirk their responsibilities toward their children’s education with the excuse that it’s summertime. Training children to love reading will invariably become a good habit. This will aid in eliminating summer slide. Valuable time is saved, which is used to teach children new things when they return to school in September.
Dr. Artika Tyner is committed to creating a world of inclusive leaders who will meet the pressing needs of today and work towards a better future where racial justice and economic justice reign supreme. As a motivational speaker, author and educator, Dr. Tyner helps people of all ages connect with their gifts and develop tangible tools for bringing forth sustainable, durable change in the family, workplace, community or school. By building and leveraging the tools in The Inclusive Leader she has inspired thousands of people to lead with their own gifts and plant a seed of social change.