School is officially out for summer! Kids everywhere rejoice! And parents everywhere wonder how to keep those growing brains engaged during the summer months.
Summer learning loss is a real phenomenon parents and educators have long acknowledged as a significant setback to academic achievement. Math proficiency is particularly susceptible to the summer learning slide. Most students lose 2 to 2 1/2 months of the math computational skills that they learned during the school year.
According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, the summer slide can have long-lasting effects on a student’s academic life. “Early summer learning losses have later life consequences, including high school curriculum placement, whether kids drop out of high school, and whether they attend college.”
Just as experts widely agree that summer learning loss in math is a big problem, they also agree that summer math studies provide a solution. So how can parents help their students combat the summer slide? Here are some easy-to-implement ideas.
1) Read something every day! Little brains need stimulation, and reading every day is one of the best ways to keep them engaged all summer long. Even books that are cartoons or lighthearted in nature help practice reading skills. Math-themed books such as Seven Ate Nine, The Number Devil (it’s like the Alice in Wonderland of math books), and The Greedy Triangle are all good places to start with reading over the summer. Furthermore, books like this help integrate math and literacy concepts together!
2) Enroll in local summer educational programming. Enrichment classes like those offered at Mathnasium provide flexible ways for students to continue with math work that is customized to their specific needs. Studies have shown that students who attend summer programs with a math component score higher on math tests the following school year than students who were unable to participate in summer instruction. Indeed, Mathnasium students have shown significant increases in performance in fewer than 20 sessions. This number of learning sessions can easily fit into the summer months, giving kids a substantial leg up for the school year ahead, and enabling retention of mathematical concepts they’ve already learned.
3) Take your learning outside. Learning doesn’t just take place in the classroom. Integrate math learning into your summer routine. This Hula Hoop outdoor clock idea from Creekside Learning is a great way to teach kids to tell time:
â— Take a hula hoop and set it outside on the ground.
â— Go explore for two sticks that are long enough to make an hour and second hand.
â— Draw the numbers of the clock with chalk on the sidewalk within the hula hoop
â— Practice telling time!
You can also integrate time telling and math while running errands -- i.e. how long did it take to go grocery shopping? What time does the clock say on that building? Help me make change for this $20 bill., etc.
4) Use food as a teaching tool! Even daily meal preparation can be a learning opportunity for kids. Include your little math students in the process of making trail mix (and help them learn ratios along the way!). This fun food experiment makes good use of the concept of crunchy vs. chewy and tastes delicious. Kids can measure out various quantities of ingredients and learn about ratios while making a delicious snack.
The bottom line is that math practice can be fun but you have to make time for it! Take advantage of 
the summer months to ensure that your student is prepared for a great start to the next school year. For more information and to get your kids enrolled in Mathnasium summer learning programs, please call us at ___ or click here.
About Mathnasium
Mathnasium, the nation’s leading math-only learning center franchise, specializes in teaching kids math in a way that makes sense to them. When math makes sense, kids excel—whether they’re far behind or eager to get ahead. The proprietary Mathnasium Method™ is the result of 40+ years of hands-on instruction and research. Franchising since 2003, Mathnasium has become one of the fastest-growing educational franchises. There are over 700 Mathnasium franchises in the U.S. and abroad. For more information, visit www.mathnasium.com.
