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"How do you do it all?"

Someone asked me, "How do you do all of this and have a young family?" I am used to hearing people say, "Do you ever sleep?" Yes, I sleep. In fact, I need at least 8 hours of sleep each night. Rest is important for me to function at full speed as well as for my recovering brain. It's a fair question. When I was a beginning teacher, I would arrive at school early in the morning and stay there until past dinner. Then, most nights I was doing work at home before bed. It would've been really difficult for me to be an excellent teacher if I were just now starting with littles at home (not to say that others who are just starting and have littles at home can't be excellent teachers, just that it would've been hard for ME). But due to that hard (and likely unhealthy) work back then, I have a lot of strategies in my teacher tool kit and many resources to pull from. I also spend an hour each day in the summer working on resources that will help me durin
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Summer Slide Email Home

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We are already three weeks into summer and I'm already missing your kids AND thinking about next year.  I hope this email finds you well! I'm also hoping I'll see many of you tonight at our first summer math/book club. 😎


Our kids made so much growth this school year.  I'm proud of each and every one of them!  Now, we can't let them go all summer without some sort of 'school stuff' because I can tell you from personal experience that the summer slide is real.  If you've never heard of it, there is such a thing as the "Summer Slide" where students slide backwards academically.  A 1996 study by Harris Cooper found "that all students lost at least a month of math skills every summer, with an average loss of 2.6 months." I can tell you from experience, most teachers spend the first month of school battling this summer slide. Wouldn't it be great if our kids started back to school in August right where they left off?


Three researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that "two-thirds of the ninth-grade reading achievement gap could be attributed to how students spent their summers in elementary school."  Wow.  


So maybe you are wondering, what are some ways I can help lessen the "summer slide" for my child?  Of course there are camps and programs in which you could enroll your child. Those are great experiences for your child if you're able to make those work.  However, my best advice is to start a summer routine where your child does some reading, picks up a pencil to write something, and a little math each day.  Here's how this looks in my house with my 2nd grader and Kindergartener (I can't believe Mila will be in Kindergarten in a few months!).


 First, screen time is all my kids want and they want it all day long. I encourage limits on screen time.  In my house, they get a total of about 2 hours of screen time each day, broken into chunks and they are allowed to watch a show on PBS Kids during lunch. So, instead of constantly fighting with them about it, I've built time into our day when they are allowed screen time and also, I'm making them earn it.  I just used Mega Blocks I had and wrote on them with dry erase marker.  They each have to do about 15 minutes of learning, reading, and cleaning before they can have more screen time (I allow screen time in the morning until I've had my coffee, HA!).  They get the instant reward of adding their block to the stack and are slightly competitive with each other. 


"Learning" is a reading worksheet and a math worksheet.  I need them to hold a pencil and activate their brains this summer, so worksheets help with that.  I also plan to let them spend this time on a few online learning sites if they choose.  Giving kids choice in their activities generates more buy-in and sometimes gives less of a fight about doing it.  For example, "It's learning time.  Would you like a worksheet or do you want to get on Sum Dog?"  Either way, they are doing what I want them to do (activating their brains/learning), but this way they get a little choice in how it happens. We all spend 15 minutes reading together since we all signed up for the library summer challenge. Mario and I both won cool baskets of stuff in the challenge last year!  Then I added a cleaning block because this house is a constant disaster. 😑😆


I don't set timers for these activities, but I could see how that might be good for some kids.  We use Alexa for timers around here, "Alexa, set a timer for 15 minutes."


If you are in need of worksheets, I can get some together and email them or have some at our summer math and book club on Thursday nights.  Just let me know.


Online Resources for summer learning:

khanacademy.org Sign up for a free parent account and watch your child's progress.

bedtimemath.org Free daily math problems for multiple age levels

wonderopolis.com Free high interest articles to read and discuss

starfall.com For beginning readers, this site has a free and a paid version

ixl.com Reading and math for all learners, paid and free version

arcademics.com Great for math facts practice!

prodigy.com We played this in class and the kids love it!

sumdog.com  More gamified math practice.  We did this in class, too.



Whatever you do this summer, be sure to mix in some relaxation, fun, and learning!  Help your child beat the summer slide.  Let me know how I can help.  Once a Meucci kid, always a Meucci kid! ❤

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