Beating Summer Brain Drain

With summer fast approaching, students are anxiously awaiting carefree lazy days and late starry nights. As parents, we want to see our children enjoy this time of year without losing any academic gains they may have achieved during the school year.

Learning loss

One Researcher, Dr. Harris Cooper at Duke University, suggests that, "on average, students could lose approximately 1-3 months worth of learning during the summer months." This loss of learning, can be upsetting for children who have worked hard during the school year or impact one's self confidence if a gap in learning already exists.

How to prevent "summer brain drain"?

You can prevent the "summer brain drain" by actively taking advantage of everyday interactions and "teachable moments" to make learning fun. Here are some suggestions for everyday activities and the types of questions you can ask your child to encourage learning. Feel free to adapt the questions to your child's age and development.

Tips to support summer Math learning

With many students getting ready for the summer break, there are also many parents wondering how they can keep their sons' and daughters' entertained for July and August. Here are some math-based ideas to try that are not only fun but will also help keep math skills honed.

Dice games (such as Shut-the-Box, Yahtzee, Pass the Pigs, and Farkle) as well as card games (Snap, pairs, Oh No 99!, Euchre and cribbage) are great for getting kids to practice their number sense. Spatial reasoning games (such as Kanoodle and the app Flow Free) are also a lot of fun and are great for road trips. Speaking of which, look for opportunities to use math on road trips by having your children help with navigating or planning routes or exchanging currency.

If puzzles are your thing, check out the wonderful 100 Days of Summer puzzles from brilliant.org at the website https://brilliant.org/100day/day0/ as well as the number puzzles at http://www.yohaku.ca/.

Learning French

How do we continue to build and support students’ French language learning over the summer months? How can we ensure that skills acquired over the course of the school year continue to build and develop? Parents play a crucial role in helping to support their children’s language learning throughout the school year and during summer months as well. Here are a few ideas to consider as options for French language learning once school breaks for summer:

Beat the “summer slide” with online tools to engaging activities for learners at all levels of proficiency. Check it out!

TV5Monde
7-Must Have French Podcast to Prepare for the DELF Exam
Join a Summer Reading program at your local library - read books in French and English
Take a museum tour in French instead of English
Audio books - Indigenous French Stories
40 French Books to read this summer

Both day and overnight French camps can help to provide children with the opportunity to take risks in their language learning and build their confidence, while at the same time enhancing their acquisition of the language in a new setting outside of the classroom. Building memories while speaking in French will help to create authentic learning experiences that strongly support language acquisition. Camp Marion and Camp Garnier are popular French summer camps in Durham Region for 6-15 year olds. Register online at: www.cofd.ca/en/camps/registration

Volunteering in the community in positions where French is used is a valuable experience that students are encouraged to explore. Being a volunteer will stretch your child’s understanding of the French language, while also helping them to gain independence, build new skills and use French in real-life scenarios. Local libraries in the Durham region are often in need of French-speaking volunteers to support their popular reading programs.

Day trips as a family can also be planned to tourist attractions that offer activities and tours in French. Exploring the many sites around Ontario and the country in this way is a valuable way to demonstrate to your child your appreciation of the French language and the opportunities to use French outside of the classroom. Listings of where to find tours in French can be found at http://www.frenchstreet.ca/en/?category_name=field-trips

Student exchange opportunities provide immersion in French language speaking areas that best support the development of language skills. Not only will students come away with a rich language experience, but also a deep appreciation of the culture and tradition of the French speaking area they visit. You may even want to consider Western University’s Family Exchange Program to Trois-Pistoles, Québec where the entire family can be immersed in learning French together. More information can be found at http://frenchimmersion.uwo.ca/courses/family_french_immersion.html

Visit www.frenchstreet.ca for a wide range of other bilingual experiences you may wish to consider for your child to support their French skills over the summer months.

Have a Yard sale

There are plenty of literacy and numeracy opportunities involved in planning, organizing and hosting a yard sale. For example:

Sorting, organizing and pricing items your family plan to sell and providing change (numeracy).
Creating signs or writing an advertisement for the local newspaper or social media (literacy).

Here are some suggestions on the kinds of questions to ask:

How should we organize these items? Why?
How much should this be? Why?
Should we give a deal if they buy more than 1 item?
What is a good value for this item?
What would be a catchy ad that would attract people to our sale?
Is there a social media site that is better for attracting people? Why?

Road trip or Neighbourhood Walk

Math learning opportunities are available when planning and organizing a road trip, or taking a simple walk in your neighbourhood:

Determining the shortest / most efficient route.
Calculating the exchange rates for various monetary currencies if travelling abroad.
Tallying the number of objects (eg. Cars) you spot while driving or walking.
Reading and researching fun tourist things to do at various destinations.
Keeping a journal to write about your daily adventures and experiences.
Play the "I'm going camping game".

Questions to ask your child:

Is it worth taking this toll road? Why?
How should we dress for our trip? Why?
Where is the best place to exchange our money - the bank or another agency? Why?
How many more red cars did we see than white cars? Why do you think that is?
Explain the pros and cons of visiting a certain tourist spot. Convince me.
Can you use this book creator app to show our journey?
Retell our trip. What should we do next time? Why?
Play a word association game while on a walk or in the car.

Geocatching

Geocaching is a free and exciting global treasure hunt. Being outside increases both our physical activity and oral communication skills.

Visit different caches close to your house.
Wear a pedometer and compare the steps to each cache.

Questions for your child:

Was that as many steps as you thought it would be to this cache? Why?
Estimate how many steps it will take to this cache? Explain?

Other activities that encourage learning

There are endless ideas and activities that encourage learning. The most important thing to remember about any activity you enjoy with your child(ren) is to have fun and look for those "teachable moments." Ask questions and talk with them. Other ideas include:

Plant a garden;
Build a bug hotel, ant farm or butterfly house;
Visit your local library - create a summer reading worm;
Camp in your backyard or go to a cottage;
Learn how to code with Lego Robotics; or
Create a summer bucket list and write in a journal what you have accomplished.

Any opportunity your child has to think and apply what they have learned in school will keep their brain fresh, engaged and ready for September.