The school year is coming to an end and students are gearing up for summer camps, vacations, playing outside, and hanging out with friends by the pool.
With the summer break from school, some students may have difficulty retaining all the important knowledge they learned over the school year. Continuing to learn can keep these skills fresh and help our students jump into the next grade with less time needed for review. Many students are able to catch up quickly when they return to the school routine. However, many neurodivergent students may have more difficulty remembering the information learned and recouping those skills when they return in the fall.
So, what can you do to help prevent the summer slide? Keep your children learning all summer long. But not to worry, this does not mean year-round school! Instead, provide real life opportunities to continue practicing their knowledge while still having fun all summer long. Here are some ways to keep your child actively learning:
Baking
Have your children join you in baking to continue to use math skills like measurement and fractions, and maybe even science. Convert ounces to pounds or try to double a cookie recipe by multiplying fractions and decimals.
Shopping
At the grocery store, children can weigh produce, calculate bulk items and determine if it’s a good deal. Percentages are always helpful in shopping in the sale section and money is a critical skill as well.
Audio Books
Get lost in a good book while on a long road trip.
Reading
Create time in the day for quiet reading or even read a book aloud together. You can create your very own book club and discuss it together. Reading helps retain and build new vocabulary as well.
Outdoors
Explore the garden for different plants and insects and record what they find. Set up a butterfly garden to watch the life cycle in real time.
Educational Places
Beat the heat by checking out a fun museum and learning new cool facts about dinosaurs, magnets, and other areas of interest.
Writing
Send emails to friends or family members to share about their summer adventures or even a fun postcard from a vacation spot.
Games
Play word games like Scrabble or Bananagrams. You can also play Memory, complete jigsaw puzzles, Soduko, or create a Lego masterpiece following the step-by-step directions in the set.
These are some ideas to keep your kids actively learning all summer, engaging with real word scenarios and still having fun!
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