Avoid the Summer Brain Drain!

Just because the school year is ending doesn’t meaning learning should! Studies show that many students lose the equivalent of 1-2 months of reading and math skills during the summer, but children who continue to read and practice math actually gain skills. Here are some ways to keep your student’s mind active over summer vacation!

Summer Reading Tips:

·         Let kids choose what they want to read.

·         Take your children to the library regularly. Many libraries offer summer reading programs, get your child signed up!

·         Buy books on CD or better yet, check them out at the library.

·         Read aloud together with your child.

Summer Math Tips:

·         Practice math skills on IXL.com. Many students use this program at school and can log in during the summer at home.

·         Practice math facts on the run. Throw out some fast facts to your child while driving in the car.

·         Play grocery store math.

o   The supermarket is an ideal place to use math skills, particularly for older children. Point out that yogurt is $2.59 a six-pack. Ask how much it would cost to buy 3?

·         What's on the menu?

o   The next time you go to a restaurant, hang on to the menu while you are waiting for your meal and play some math games with your child. Ask him or her to find the least expensive item on the menu, then all the items that cost between $5 and $10 or three items whose total cost is between $9 and $20. This will not only fill the time while you're waiting to eat, it will show your child how math is used every day.

·         Cook up a math game.

o   The kitchen is a great place to practice math, as long as there's an adult home to supervise. How many tomatoes will you need to double the recipe for sauce? If there are three people in your family and 15 strawberries to divide equally among them, how many strawberries will each person get?

Summer should be  relaxing and fun for kids! Don’t overload them with math worksheets or constantly quiz them on books they’ve read, but use these tips to keep the brain drain from happening. Enjoy this time with your children! See you in August!