With school out for the year and summer break in full swing, it’s time for students to take a well-deserved break from their traditional studies and have fun before regrouping for the next year. With breaks from school work can sometimes come gaps in material learned the year prior. “Summer slide” is the term we use here at Mathnasium of Cherry Creek, to describe skill loss that happens during the summer. On average, students lose up to 2.6 months of learning during the summer.
Summer slide isn’t just something that affects kids the following year. While many teachers spend 1 – 2 months reviewing material that students learned the year before, kids being behind everytime they go back to school from the summer break can have long term effects on them. Lower self-confidence, lower test scores and lower chances of overall success in school at all levels can be caused by summer slide.
Keep the sliding to playgrounds and water parks and not in school studies! Summer doesn’t have to negatively impact your child. The summer months can be an ideal time for your child to practice last year’s learning and even start working on new material that will come up for them he next school year. We understand most kids don’t want to just study all summer – we aren’t wanting to take away the fun. Without the running around and fatigue of the school year with classes and the extra-curricular activities, summer can be an ideal time to take small opportunities to do a little extra math here and there. Below are some ways to help your child keep practicing math throughout the summer.
Math is a part of every kitchen, on every recipe card and honestly at each family dinner. The math of cooking and baking often go unnoticed, but there’s tons of it! Everything from measuring, increasing batches and quantity, weight of meat or vegetables, and cost of the foods used to make the food requires math. Making meals or baking goods with your kids helps them practice functional math skills. And, if you want some bonus math, you can use European or Canadian recipes. This will have you converting the Celsius temperatures to Fahrenheit.
Math is a part of many board games. Some are more popular than others, however, not all board games are created equal when it comes to practicing math. If you’re wanting board games that practice concepts beyond just counting, addition and subtraction here are some of our favorites: Achi (ages 6+), Tsuro (ages 6+), Suspend (ages 8+) and Laser Khet 2.0 (ages 8+). These all take the bored out of board games and enhance practicing math skills such as strategy, physics, pattern recognition, problem solving, spatial reasoning, geometry and refraction. Bonus: this is a great way to squeeze family time in too!
The freedom of summer is something that kids love, be it running through sprinklers, eating popsicles in the middle of the day or a little later bedtimes. Summers may be a little more relaxed schedule wise in your household, but kids still need some routine and reading is a great way to incorporate structure that’s fun. Our preference, of course, is that they read math related books. Reading is a win-win becuase it benefits kids in two ways; math and reading. Some of our recommendations are “Math Curse” by Jon Scieszka, “The Number Devil’ by Hans Magnus and any of the “Multiplying Menace” series books by Pam Calvert.
Most legitimate businesses won’t hire anybody that isn’t at least 15 years old, but there are still ways for kids to find work. Mowing, walking dogs, babysitting and making crafts to sell are all great ways for kids to learn some basic business practices, like marketing themselves and communication. They are also a great way for kids to learn about money exchange – one of the best practical uses of math. Calculating potential earnings and learning how to save are great skills to start developing early that definitely use math.
Just as summer can be a potential hazard for significant summer slide, summer, too, presents a time for kids to focus on areas where they struggled while they were in school, without so much other circular distraction. During summer, kids can learn more at their own pace with less pressure. If you’re looking for summer math programs that specialize in creative, effective ways to teach math and work with your family’s schedule, were happy to help at Mathnasium of Cherry Creek. We offer summer programs for kids that focus on multiplication, fractions, algebra, long division and more. We help kids head into the school year successful, while having fun.
This summer, have some fun with your family and let your kid discover how fun math learning can be!
