9 Engaging Ideas To Prevent The Summer Slide

Keeping Your Child Active & Learning Over Summer Break

Summer break is an excellent chance for students to get a break from the day-to-day hard work of school, but the time away from the classroom can also lead to a loss in retention and academic skills during the long summer months.

Without the right mix of consistent and engaging activities to keep the young mind occupied, it’s easy to fall into a “summer slide” - but with the right mix of activities and ideas, you can keep your student engaged and ready to keep learning well into the next school year.

Here are a few basic ideas for how to keep your little learner active and engaged without giving in to the summer slide:

 

1. Read Every Day

Nothing engages the young mind as fully, or leaves as lasting a positive effect, as regular reading. Keeping your student on track with a particularly thrilling book or series of books is an excellent and easy way to keep your student learning and entertained, no power required. Plus, many community libraries host family reading programs and book clubs to make sharing the literary adventure easy as can be.

 

2. Plant A Crop Garden

Kids are already natural gardeners - they play in the dirt and love to engage with the earth in its natural form. Raising a crop garden with your child is an easy way to stay engaged and teach the importance of conservation and the value of hard work for long-term rewards. Plus, nothing tastes better than a home-cooked meal made from fruits and vegetables you grow with your own hands.

 

3. Learn A Word A Day

The world is full of words - long ones, short ones, confusing ones, borrowed ones, and more. The more words your child is exposed to at an early age, and the more regularly you introduce new vocabulary to them, the more you help improve retention and reading comprehension in the long run. Can you say heure d'été?

 

4. Try A Few Easy Science Lessons

Science isn’t just confined to the labs and classrooms, it’s all around us - and becoming comfortable with science takes hands-on learning. Try a few easy science lessons with your student in the comfort of your own home for a fun, educational way to keep building those STEM skills through the summer season.

 

5. Get Active and Get Moving!

When you’re body’s active, your brain’s active. Keeping your child on the move is critical to keeping that blood pumping, and summer is a great time to get outside and enjoy the fresh air. Whether your child signs up for a sports team, registers for camp, or prefers to simply get out and play, nothing makes staying focused on learning easier than a few hours burning some steam with a bit of good exercise.

 

6. Listen and Learn On The Road with Audio Books

Those long summer car trips can easily become boring for any kid. But rather than give in to the pull of the handheld video games or the isolation of the ear buds, give an audio book a try. These engaging and car-friendly stories provide an easy way to keep everyone engaged together in a story even after hours on the road.

 

7. Cook a Homemade Meal

Learning to cook can be a formative experience for any child, since it opens up a new world of independence and self-empowerment that can stick with a child for the rest of their lives. Gathering together to bring a meal to the table is a fun, hands-on way to keep your student active, learning, and experimenting with new skills. Plus, you might just be surprised at just how much math and reading can be involved in following a recipe!

 

8. Explore Your Local Adventure Spots

For those who know where to look, a great adventure is never too far away. Local and state parks, overlooked museums, historical markers, libraries, beaches, and more all offer easy and engaging getaways for the afternoon, and a day spent exploring a local treasure can teach the value of curiosity and create memories that last a lifetime.

 

9. Find a good summer camp that combines all of the above

Keeping summer days full and exciting is a lot easier with professional help. During World Academy’s SummerQuest, you child will experience wonderful activities like:

• - daily outdoor swimming and playground/soccer field experiences,
• - use of our gorgeous gym and rock climbing wall,
• - arts and crafts, weekly cooking and sign language classes,
• - optional Summer Quest camp opportunities like soccer camp, drama club, special visitors, swim lessons, dance lessons, karate, cooking and art classes, and Lego design,
• - awesome spontaneous activities, and more!

 

Keep The Summer Slide At Bay

Summer doesn’t have to set your student back for the new school year ahead. With the right combination of engaging activities and learning opportunities, you can keep your student eager to learn and ready to conquer what’s ahead all summer long - and you might just have an amazing summer together in the process.