One of the biggest problems with the traditional school year is the long summer break. During that break, many students do not continue to make academic progress. The three places that students fail to continue their forward progress are math, reading, and spelling. Some students lose as much as two months worth of knowledge in the three month summer break. Upon returning to the regular classroom, the first weeks and months of school are spent regaining and reviewing the knowledge that the students lost over the summer. By then, the school year is in full swing, and the push is on to complete a years worth of learning in the remaining time until the next summer break. Does this seem like a crazy cycle to you?
It certainly does to me!
The first year we home schooled we started second grade in January. My child was so hungry for knowledge, we finished second grade by June. And I was so proud of us, and what we had accomplished, that basically took the summer off. When we started back to home school in the fall, just like public school students, my daughter had “forgotten” stuff that I know she had learned. It was so frustrating, that I took a look at the way we did things, and we started year round school. We had shorter, but more frequent breaks all year long. Because it is so hot and humid in the summers where I live, I decided that we would continue working on school during the summer, and take breaks in the spring and fall, when the weather was more agreeable. And that is how we have done school for the four years that we have been home schooling.
For parents with children in traditional schools, or who home school, but adhere to the traditional school calendar, have no fear, there are ways to help your students retain the knowledge they have gained. Skills that are leaned by repetition, such as math and spelling , are the ones that are first lost, and easiest to maintain. Parents can use summer bridgework books, or other workbooks for math, but students will see that as work, and they are supposed to be off for the summer, right? Well, there is a way to get them to continue reviews, and not make it seem like school.
What am I talking about? GAMES! Kids love computer games. Here is an example, Unscramble is a game where their spelling words are given to the child in mixed up order, the child then has to pull letters, and rearrange them to form the spelling words. Random math games are another way to help your child stay in practice with multiplication tables, and other math facts that are learned by repetition. Math and spelling words games are two places that you can really find grade level appropriate computer games. Some places even let you make your own spelling lists so it is possible to tie the games directly to the summer reading list. Don’t forget that reading is another place where students need to stay in practice. Most local libraries have summer reading lists that are level appropriate. Then take vocabulary and spelling words from those books, place them in spelling games like Unscramble. As a parent you are helping your child stay up on their skills, yet you are not making them do drudgery repetition. These are just a few ways to beat the summer learning loss.






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