Top Tips: For Preventing the Summer Slide

Summer is on its way and it’s time to get outside and play! But did you know kids can lose some academic knowledge over the summer if they don’t use them? Educators sometimes call this the summer slide. How can parents keep their child’s brain engaged in fun, and hands-on learning activities?

Here are Junior Learning's easy tips on how to avoid the summer slide and boost your child’s learning over the summer break:

1. Read Every Day: Encourage children to read for 15–30 minutes each day. Let them choose books that interest them to build a love for reading. Find a summer reading challenge or create a summer reading list.

2. Educational Activities: Use fun learning tools like educational games, board games, puzzles, and activity books to reinforce math, reading, and critical thinking skills.

3. Incorporate Learning into Daily Life: Practice math by cooking, budgeting, or shopping. Encourage daily writing by keeping a summer journal or writing letters or postcards to friends and family. Get into gardening and learn about nature and nutrition.

4. Visit Libraries and Museums: Take advantage of your local libraries, science or art museums and engage kids in interactive, educational experiences.

5. Enroll in Camps or Classes: Look for summer camps or workshops that focus on STEM, reading, the arts, or other subjects of interest.

6. Limit Screen Time: Balance recreational screen use with educational screen time and plenty of offline learning activities.

By keeping learning fun and consistent throughout the summer, children can retain knowledge and enter the next school year confident and prepared!