Math Summer Success

Summer is a time of year that many of us look forward to. For adults, summer can mean nicer weather, relaxed dress codes, sunshine while you walk your dog or at least to and from your car. For teachers, it also means a well-deserved break from the school year. A time to recharge and regroup for next year’s class and lesson plans. For kids, summer also means a break from school. Kids look forward to summer all year long, as they are often ready for a break from the rigors of everyday school life, too. Summer isn’t all greatness though – especially when it comes to math. This is because when kids go on summer break, they often remove their school year thinking cap and set it on the shelf all the way until the next school year. What it results in? Summer slide.

Summer slide is a term we use to describe the math knowledge loss that occurs during the summer as a result of kids getting out of practice with math. Math teachers can spend up to six weeks at the beginning of new school years reteaching math skills taught the previous year – especially those taught at the end of the school year -- in the spring. In addition, according to researchers, summer slide can have long-lasting effects on children, including lower test scores, lower self-confidence and a lower chance of success in high school and college. Yikes. Don’t worry though, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are things you can do to help prevent summer slide, because the summer months can be ideal for practicing math skills. Children tend to be less tired and more able to focus when they don’t have other classes, sports and music commitments they have to worry about. Here are some easy things you can do to help keep your child’s math skills sharp during the summer.

1. Play math-based games. When you think of math games off the top of your head, you might think of some standards, like Monopoly ®, chess and some standard card games like blackjack. Those are good standard choices, but if you really want to break the mold and play some games that will really get your child’s imagination flowing and keep their math skills challenged, try some of these. They are board and card games for all ages that work on specific math skills like pattern recognition, problem solving, logic, probability, spatial reasoning, estimation, algorithmic expression, rotation and time management. Incorporating games into math is a great way to teach kids that learning and math can be fun. It’s very different than typical math instruction that they may be used to, so it won’t feel like a chore or a bore. 
2. Go shopping. You may be someone that typically does grocery shopping while your kids are in school or without your kids in general because they don’t always want to go with you when you shop. Now that your kids are out of school, they might have more free time to be able to take shopping trips with you and shopping is a great way to practice basic math skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and percentages. Having your kids compare and contrast different brands to find out which is the better deal or giving them cash to spend to see what they can buy with it and if they can estimate how much the total will be is a great everyday way to use applied math. Bonus: visiting a farmer’s market is a fun, healthy way to get outside and enjoy the nice weather and put math money skills to practice. 
3. Watch sports and do the math. If you’re a sports person and your child also enjoys sports, watching games and events can be good math practice. Keeping track of statistics of teams or players, time spent between goals or points scored, and yardage, tackles and touchdowns all involves math. Watching sports on TV is an option, but if you have the opportunity to take your child to a live sports event, the excitement is so much greater! Watching sports is a great pastime and is something that can be fostered as a hobby for years to come. 
4. Join our Mathnasium Summer Sessions! We, of all people, understand how detrimental the summer slide can be. We want to keep your child’s math progress on track and flowing! We are leaders in teaching kids numerical fluency and good number sense and we strongly believe that enrolling them in a summer math program can help confidence build for the following year, because they won’t go into the school year being behind. We assess kids to find out exactly where they’re lacking and we work to master those concepts so that they aren’t moving on without having the competent skills to do so. Plus, we make summer learning fun by rewarding for goal achievement. Come check us out!