Prevent the Summer Slide!

Especially after school closures due to Covid19.

A recent study of children in 3rd to 5th grades showed that students lost, on average, about 20 percent of their school-year gains in reading and 27 percent of their school-year gains in math during summer break.

Couple this with our recent distance learning, and the possible setbacks make me just a little nervous.

Social Emotional Learning/Health

Your child just went through a traumatic ending of the school year.  It's important to recognize that and proceed accordingly. You know your child best.  What does he need?  Would it be best to just continue on with the regular schedule?  Does he need a break?  Take time to talk with your child about his emotions and continue to make him feel safe during this uncertain time.  Social emotional health is paramount to academic learning.  

If you are looking for strategies to help your child with learning at home, check out these videos:

Routine

Creating a routine is essential!

Outline the expectations of summer learning for your child.  If you want to give them a week of between the end of school and starting up your summer routine, that's perfectly fine.  Lay it all out for your child.  "We will take the next week off, but starting on June ___, this is how our days will look."

I suggest doing 30 minutes of math and 30 minutes of reading per day, but only go Monday- Thursday.  Give your child choice in choosing when to do the blocks of time.  Maybe your child is better at working first thing in the morning after breakfast to get it out of the way.  Maybe your child will do the work during afternoon downtime (in our house it's quiet time).  Help your child decide what will work best.

Motivation

Every child is different.  Some children may do the work simply because you asked them to do it or are intrinsically motivated.  Others will fight you about everything and need you to provide external motivation to get the work done.  Some may say this is a form of bribery.  It's human nature to want something in return for the work we've done.  Do you go to work for free?  Most of you expect a paycheck in return.  Kids are no different.

For example:

1. When/Then Approach:  When you finish your work, then you get to _____.

1. For my child, free time on his tablet works as a motivator.  He knows if he doesn't do his learning, he doesn't get his tablet.  Maybe for your child, it's staying up 10 minutes later or getting extra outside time.  Find out what will motivate your child.

2. Sticker Charts: Some children enjoy checking off the task.  Setting up a simple sticker/checklist chart might be all the motivation you need.

1. Then, you could give a weekly reward for meeting the goal of completing each day's work.  Friday night ice cream?  Family campout in the living room?  Their choice of dinner?

2. For my child, free time on his tablet works as a motivator.  Maybe it's staying up 10 minutes later or getting extra outside time.

Be Reasonable

I'll add that you should make your follow through reasonable.  My child gets 30 minutes of free tablet time after he gives me 30 minutes of learning.  If you tell your child you will buy him a new Lego set each time he does his 30 minutes, you're going to go broke.  Additionally, if you administer a 3 week grounding for refusing to do the 30 minutes, that is excessive.

Be Consistent

Follow through is one of the most important tools for a parent and teacher. If you say you will do something, do it.  

I tell my little guy that he can have his tablet once his learning is done. One time when he refused to do his learning, he didn't get his tablet for 4 days.  It was painful for both of us, but in the end he learned that I am more stubborn than he is and he gave in.  Although there may have been yelling on his end, I kept my cool and explained to him (over and over) that we made a deal and the deal falls through when he doesn't keep up his end of the bargain.  

If your child earns the reward you agreed upon, give your child the reward as immediately as you are able.  If your child earned ice cream for the week, don't make him wait 2 weeks to get that reward.  The motivator will lose its luster and eventually stop working.

What Can Parents Do?

Follow the steps in the previous slides.  Complete this checklist before jumping into summer learning:

• Talk to your child about when he would like to learn (what time of day).

• Together, create a plan.  Write it down and have both parties sign it.  I know this may sound silly, but you need your child to buy into this plan.

• In this plan, decided on motivators.  Ask your child, what would you like as your daily/weekly reward for sticking to our plan?

• Decide when you will start the plan.  Write it on the calendar.

• Fill out the rest of the summer calendar with any dates you know will be "vacation days" when you will let your child off the hook for their learning (maybe you'll be out of town for a week and want to give your child a break, etc.)

• Breathe and get ready to stick to it.  Your child may not be thrilled about this plan, but explain that it's really what's best for him and maybe even share the research.  You can do this!

Reading

Simply, read.  

Set aside quiet reading time for your child, and maybe for the whole family.  It's powerful for children to see their parents value reading.  The best way to do that is to allow your child to see you actually reading a book.  Maybe you can read the same chapter book and have discussions after each day, like your own little book club (or join my book club)!  If you aren't into juvenile/middle grades fiction (you really don't know what you're missing), then read something, ANYTHING during the time your child does his reading.  Let your children know that the set reading time is sacred.

Allow your child to choose what books to read.  Student choice is backed by research.  If your child won't choose, reach out to his teacher to ask for suggestions.  Also, try getting your child to read a favorite book from your childhood. And PLEASE!  Stop saying no to graphic novels.  They are great tools to get children who aren't interested in reading to actually read books.

Summer Book Clubs

Math

Now that you and your child have decided when you will do math learning, what will you have your child work on?  I suggest also including your child in this decision.  Some children prefer online learning vs. workbooks, or perhaps your child would like a combination of both.

Workbooks:

• There are lots of workbooks out there.  All of the ones I've seen are better than nothing, but you certainly want to look for the grade level your child just left, rather than the grade he is heading towards.  This will allow your child to be confident in working on standards he's already learned, while keeping his brain sharp and eliminating the need for you to be teaching him new math.

Online tools:

• Khan Academy Course mastery is a great tool to review concepts already learned.  Students can choose which topics to review first.  If you sign up for a parent account, you can see your child's progress.

• SumDog and Education Galaxy are both good (and fun) ways to keep children engaged in math. 

Summer Slugger (math and reading)

MLB has helped to create a summer program to prevent the summer slide,  It's a fun, baseball themed, and competitive.  It's also something our class hasn't done before! This platform is specifically for students in grades 4-5.

To join my class, have students go to platform.everfi.net/login, click Register, enter code 25fa778f and click Next.

If they are asked to create a username and password, please instruct them to use lastname.firstname and password of bpsd15102 so that I can help troubleshoot in the future.  

It's great that you have stuck with me this far into the post and are considering ways to support your child academically over the summer break. Allow yourself (and your child) some grace. We are all doing the best we can.

Take care and be well.

Love,

Mrs. Meucci