The Summer Brain Drain

   Studies have shown that children can lose between 10 and 25 percent of their reading skills over the course of the summer. This is directly due to the lack of work, skills and drills in which the student should be engaged over the break from school. It manifests itself in a slow start and difficulty with coursework when school resumes. Additionally, a child’s ability to write effectively is hindered because the writing process has not continued over the summer. Below are several ideas to help your child maintain and improve his or her abilities over the summer months.                                

READ, READ, READ: Reading is without a doubt the most important facet to a child’s education regardless of age or grade in school. Even math tests are becoming more challenging as word problems are nearly impossible to answer correctly without an understanding of the task at hand. Although many schools have summer reading assignments, more often than not a child sees this as a punishment since the book was chosen for them and not by them. Most students read the summer book assigned three or four days before school begins.  

   To get your child excited about reading, purchase a $15 gift card from the local bookstore and allow him to choose any book he feels like reading. (Of course, it must be appropriate.) This does not have to be a book that he will be reading for school. It will have extra meaning since it will be a book that he has chosen without parental or teacher input.  

Write, Write, Write: Journals or diaries are an excellent way to keep students in the “school mode”. While reading is important, writing and reading work in concert. Children will not want to do long writing assignments, but journals based on what they read and how they feel about the readings can be brief and assist them in moving forward once school begins.   

Fun Study Groups: Kids get together all the time to play video games, watch movies, and just hang out. An exciting book or magazine article that all have read can spark some additional interest. This is a bit more difficult because it requires some parent input. You might find an article on the Internet about a video game the kids play and challenge them to create a test for you based on that article. This way, you have to read the article as well. The culmination is to see if they can stump you on a question. Bet them a trip to their favorite ice cream store once they have completed their test regardless of how well you do on the exam. (Pizza works, too!)