With the arrival of June, the long-hoped for summer vacation is here for most students. Unfortunately, summer vacation can also spell disaster for some students in the form of lost knowledge, often referred to as the “summer slide”. Below are some tips to avoid learning loss and alleviate some parental stress. Hopefully these tips will help you maintain your sanity and your hairline (Plus you won’t have to explain why you forgot to pick your kids up from camp).
- Don’t throw away those notes! It can be hard for your student or even you to keep class notes, but at the very least, keep the chapter overviews, quizzes, essays, or any major tests. These will give your students something to consult if they don’t remember previous concepts.
- Schedule review sessions. You schedule holiday vacations, why not schedule review sessions. Schedule one per summer month for an hour or two to review notes or major concepts. Your students may complain at having to do homework over the summer, but it will be worth it.
- Preview next year. Check the department of education website for your state to preview what’s on the curriculum for next year. You can anticipate what your child will have to know and learn by knowing for sure what their educational goals are. And while you are on the DoE site, print out the EOG practice tests for your student to review.
- Consider a themed summer camp. If you have the money or the ability, consider booking your student in a themed summer camp, such as Google “Math Summer Camp” or “Pre-College Summer Camp”, or any type of summer camp your student needs. Some may have free or financial aid options if you need them. If they don’t have any information about financial aid on their website, consider calling or emailing to find out what your options are. Either choose a camp in a subject your child is passionate about, or consider trying to find a camp to help them in problem areas.
- Consider online tutoring. Online tutoring can be a great way of helping your child get a jump on the coming school year, but it can also be a great way of retaining knowledge. Academics Plus, Inc. offers a variety of programs to help your child maintain knowledge throughout the summer, while also preparing them for the new year. Whether you want general tutoring or a concept review, we’ve got programs specifically designed to help.
- Play educational games. Learning through game play is useful for some children. Thankfully, you can find a variety of educational games online for nearly any subject. Check back through our ThinkLinks to find educational games; you can also just Google “math games” or “biology games”, and you’re likely to get a few decent results.
- Put together a summer book club. For younger kids, consider putting together a summer book club or finding one through your local library. If you have friends with children around the same age as yours, encourage them to read together and talk about the books. For older students in middle or high school, encourage them to read some of the classics during their time off. And, if you have previewed your child’s educational goals for next year, you might just be able to get their reading list ahead of time.
We hope you’ve found these tips helpful for maintaining knowledge over the summer or even getting a head start on the next year!
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