Parenting :: Safe from the Summer Slide

You have definitely heard these two warm weather catch phrases: summer reading and summer slide.  Nationwide, in both educational and literacy circles, parents, teachers, librarians and elected officials discuss ways in which to keep children actively learning throughout the summer months, especially as it relates to reading and math.  There is definitely something to be said for the idea of keeping the brain active and not wanting kids to “forget” all of the skills they learned during their 180 days spent in school (as a stay-at-home mom for many years, I can relate…insert “mommy brain”).

The amazing part to me…study after study reveals the same thing.  And the answer is so simple: Read.  Books.  (This means you too!)

Reading is Fundamental states, “according to the authors of a report from the National Summer Learning Association: ‘A conservative estimate of lost instructional time is approximately two months or roughly 22 percent of the school year…. It’s common for teachers to spend at least a month re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer. That month of re-teaching eliminates a month that could have been spent on teaching new information and skills.'” (rif.org)

Clearly, the statistics are out there.  Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington share a great piece on Scholastic.com, which  stresses that access to books of all socioeconomic brackets should be the most important factor in summer learning. They explain, “studies suggest that children who read as few as six books over the summer maintain the level of reading skills they achieved during the preceding school year. Reading more books leads to even greater success. When children are provided with 10 to 20 self-selected children’s books at the end of the regular school year, as many as 50 percent not only maintain their skills, but actually make reading gains.” (Franzen and Allington)

Read those two quotes again.  A month of review OR reading ten self selected books will make reading gains.   Ten?  Over the course of 10 weeks?  It seems so simple.  If children read just one book per week during vacation, they will keep their brains sharp and active. 

The Scholastic article (the link is listed below) also goes on to discuss the impact of the summer slide for different economic groups.  It is hard to believe, but we live in 21^st century America where there are children who just do not have access to books.  This piece of the learning puzzle breaks my heart.  How can we, as parents and lovers of learning, fix this?  We need to be active participants in our society.  We need to raise a generation of readers and there are many great organizations doing this.  Check them out and join in!

Take the first steps to stop the slide.  Start at home.  Here are a few easy ways for you and your kids to get reading:

1.  Go to the library.  It’s a magical (and free!) place.  Explore it.  Feel the books.  Take a stack of ten off of the shelves and get cozy in a corner.  Look for different genres, types, sizes…read at least one before you leave and take three home.  Make this a weekly trip.  Find the classics.  Share them with your children.  Read a Robert Frost poem.  Find a Shakespeare sonnet.  Look at the language and the imagery.

2.  Create a journal.  Choose a notebook or even staple a few sheets of paper together.  This is now your official “book of books” as my mother say.  Write down the titles, authors, what you liked or did not like and draw a picture of the cover or a piece of the story.  Not only will you have a great  memento of your summer reading but you will also be practicing and expanding comprehension, cognition and composition skills!

3.  Go outside.  What could be easier?  Grab your book, a snack and a blanket and find a spot to make your outside reading nook.  As you journal, make observations about what you see outside.  Draw pictures of different flowers or wildlife.

4.  Get techy.  Kids love technology.  They are much further advanced than we ever were at their age.  There are some really great apps that offer books, interactive books and more.  These can be great for beginning readers.  If you have an e-reader in your house, connect to your local library.  You can download from home and your kids will love the option to choose their book that way

5.  Read together.  Spend time each day and just read.  Put the devices away.  Turn the television off.  Choose some of the classics with your older readers…discover Treasure Island or Little Women.  Read all of the Hardy Boys or Little House on the Prairie.  Introduce them to Aesop’s fables or Hans Christian Andersen.  Search for the Newberry, Caldecott and Ezra Jack Keats medal winners.

In the end, we want our children to read and keep their young minds active. Taking simple steps such as these will only foster a life-long love of reading.   And if you have extra books at home, please donate them to local organizations or schools in need.  A few books in the home of child without any can literally change their world!

Sources and Resources used for this Article and for Reference:

https://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/keeping-kids-off-the-summer-slide.htm

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/bridging-summer-reading-gap

https://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/ezra-jack-keats-award-winners/

https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal

https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberymedal

https://www.missionread.org

https://www.pinterest.com/pagescorner

https://www.maslmd.org/files/docs/Nominated_Titles.pdf