How to Reduce Summertime Educational Setbacks
By: Ernie Bilodeau, Regional Director
Club Z! In-Home Tutoring Services
At a quick glance, summer vacation can seem like a well-deserved brake from school studies for both the parents and the children. However, what you do not know can in deed hurt you. According to Dr. Harris Cooper professor of education at Duke University and leading expert of summer learning loss, has documented that summer vacations interrupt a student’s rhythm of instruction. This can lead to forgetting acquired knowledge from the school year and requires a significant amount of reeducation of students as they return to school in the fall months. He did a study that indicated the average students overall achievement scores dropped approximate one month and that mathematical and reading skills took the largest decline at a whopping 2.6-month loss in achievement.
His study also indicated that the summer loss is much more significant for math computation skills and spelling than any other tested skills. It was determined that both math computation and spelling skills have a common thread in that they involve the gathering of factual and procedural knowledge where their counterpart such as math concepts, and solving math problems are more conceptual. It was then determined that without continuous practice, facts and procedural skills appear to be at greater risk of loss. The study also indicated that the loss in math skills was overall more profound than any other area studied and that it was most likely due to more additional opportunities found in the home to read than to practice mathematics.
As a parent, there are steps you can take today to help your children prevent the summer loss, particularly in mathematics.
- Help your child recognized math situations in everyday life – throughout the day point out the mathematical situations and vocabulary to your child. Point out the measurements of ingredients on the back of cereal boxes. Open a savings account with them and teach them how to make deposits, count money, and balance their book.
- Get to know their teachers – if you get to know their teachers, you can get an idea of any study material that they might recommend for the summer and what their upcoming curriculum is going to look like. That way you can purchase some materials to help educate your child for the upcoming year.
- Play educational games – there are many games you can play with your child that involves numbers or adding. Also mathematical situations such as cards like “crazy 8’s” and the board game Monopoly. Let your child be score keeper or “banker”.
- Count change with them - you can create pretend purchasing situations where you buy something from them and they offering you up the proper amount of change back.
Lastly, you can consider summer tutoring services. At Club Z! In-Home Tutoring Services, we offer many in-home tutoring options that you can choose from. Whether it is our incredible math tutoring in Bradenton, one-on-one reading comprehension in Coral Springs, EZ SAT Diagnostic / SAT Prep in Wesley Chapel or our comprehensive study skills program (Learning Built to Last) in Sarasota. Our tutoring services can assist your children through the sometimes boring summer months by accelerating many areas of education such as mathematics, reading comprehension writing, or SAT/ACT test preparation. This year, when the new school year begins not only will they not have fallen behind due to summer loss, they will be ready to hit the ground running for the new school year.
Contact one of the many Educational Specialists at Club Z! In-Home Tutoring Services. They would be happy to give you suggestions that will Reduce Summertime Educational Setbacks.
