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Are you looking for ways to help your students avoid the summer slide? Have no fear! These three tips will help! Teachers, share this blog post with parents or take the ideas and create your own newsletter to send home. Either way – parents will be extremely appreciative because I have had many parents tell me over the years that they don’t know how to best help their students retain skills over the summer. Take the guesswork out of it for them!

1. Get Kids Out

Make the most of summer by getting kids lot of great outings. No matter how great a teacher may be, there’s only so much we can do within the four walls of our classroom. Summer is a great time for students to go to the zoo, head out swimming with their friends, become a museum visitor, or visit family and friends – near and far! All of these experiences give the child more to relate to when they return to the classroom in the fall. Life experiences are important, and they are a great thing!

2. Keep Learning Fun!!

Encourage parents not to drill and kill over the summer. I’ve known parents that think having their child do hours of work each day will keep their skills “fresh”, but I’ve seen the opposite happen as well. Instead plan fun, hands-on activities. Yes, academics are still important and should take place, but it doesn’t have to become dreaded by the child. Here are two suggestions:

• Make each day look different. Make sure reading happens for 10-20 minutes a day. This can be a combination of the child reading to his/her self and being read to by a parent or older sibling. Then mix it up! Make Mondays about math facts, Tuesdays about working with money, Wednesdays all about telling time, Thursdays can be for writing a letter, and Friday can be a science experiment or just the day “off”.
• Keep it consistent. If a parent knows their child thrives on consistency – try this schedule. Still read the 10-20 minutes a day, do one math problem from Bedtime Math, and write a short letter to a family member or friend. This way each day has the same routine and flow to it.

3. Utilize Technology

Kids love technology, and there are a ton of educational apps out there. While I’m not advocating for an iPad or tablet to become an all day, every day babysitter – it can be a great tool! If you’re not sure which apps are worthwhile, this blog post is a great place to start.

Obviously there are a ton of workbooks parents can pick up for their child, and price shouldn’t be much (if any!) of a factor because even places like Dollar Tree have plenty of great options. Plus there are a plethora of great, FREE resources online too!

Want another option to avoid the summer slide? Check out this Kindergarten Summer Review Packet. It’s great for those students who will be entering 1st grade in the fall. Language, math, writing, sight word, number word, and color word activities are all included! You can buy this as a classroom teacher and send it home with your students. I would pair the sheets with a book to read, coloring book, and some fun summer-y treat. The best part? This resource comes in pdf and Word format, so you can completely edit it and ensure it best fits the needs of your students! Grab your copy today!