According to Alexa, summer in the United States of America lasts for 3 months, 2 days and 18 hours. We live in a country where most kids who take part in public and private education have the summer time off from school to do whatever their families see fit. But if you live in my house You Gon’ Learn Taday’ & Everyday! 

As a mother and experienced educator, I personally don't see an added benefit in having time off from learning just because the season changes. In fact, it may create a slippery slope as knowledge obtained slips down the summer slip & slide. 

What is the summer slide you say?  Summer slide refers to the loss of academic skills and knowledge over the course of summer vacation in countries that have lengthy breaks in the school year, such as the U.S. and Canada. 

I do believe that if you don’t use it, you will lose it. So how do we prevent that from happening to our sweet babies whom we all claim are geniuses? 

Don’t close the door on learning just because the season has changed. If you are like, “Listen Honey, after the pandemic homeschooling we had, the door is closed on learning in my house sis’ it’s break time.” I get it.  

Check out my video about the pandemic learning gap. Maybe you will gain insight from that too. 

My now 15 year old who is performing at the college level learned to read at 2 years old and I credit learning the letter sounds to our listening to Dr. Jean and Friends in the cars on our daily commute to daycare beginning at 3 months old. There’s so many mundane tasks that you can turn up a notch and get your kids recalling skills they have learned from school.

Take advantage of the FREE summer reading programs at your local library and local businesses that are encouraging literacy rich homes. Most libraries have a program and if your library doesn't, it’s really shame on them and you should say something. 

The Pizza Hut Book It program started in June for kids ages 4-12 and allows them to earn a free one-topping personal pan pizza when they reach their monthly reading goal from June through August.

Create onsite learning experiences. I have picked up museum passes that our local library loans out for free. This allows us to experience what the museum has to offer without paying. I will take a virtual tour of the museum and contact their education department to see how I can make the most of the experience. There are people hired to design these experiences already in place for us to use. Have your child take a clip board or use the notes app on their device  to take notes at your desired location. If handwriting is a focus skill then have a designated journal for entries about the experience once it is over. But actually read the journal entry so that your children understand that you genuinely have an interest in their learning and growth as a writer. Go over the spelling, grammar and take of note skills you want to focus on for your next onsite learning experience or even communicate to the new teacher in the fall. 

If you're looking for printable resources that you don’t have to pay for use Pintrest, and do a Google search using the terms FREE PDF! You don’t have to buy a bunch of those boring workbooks. You can personalize the materials you are using in the summer by gearing it to your child’s interest. 

Do the summer work assigned by your child’s school. And by do the summer work I don’t mean YOU THE PARENT DO THE WORK THE NIGHT BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS! 

Set aside a special space and time to complete the task. And if your school district did not assign summer reading or math prep work then you can find it on the neighboring school districts site for FREE. Most school districts have it available for ANY family to download. Committees of highly qualified teachers design those programs therefore, use those packets as a resource. I did this with my nephew last summer and he remembered and came back this summer asking for his math packet because he knew he’d earn a prize or incentive if he completed it!

Hire a tutor before you buy the Jordans or Lebrons. No shade but, the cost of several pairs of name brand shoes some families splurge on equal the cost of tutoring sessions for in person or virtual  support with certified educators like me. Invest well in your child’s education. Don’t wait til they get to college to pay for support out of your own pocket.

Go back and get those books out of the book bag that your child’s teacher sent home. Go back through the content your child completed during the school year and have them fix things in the workbooks that may be wrong. You can have your child do that for a few minutes each day with a friend, sibling or a tutor you hire.

Just start, you don’t need a huge plan or guide. Let your children see you engaging in new learning experiences and reading more than what you intake on social media. Be a good example for them by creating a literacy rich home. Be your child’s first teacher by simply leading by example. 

Our children didn’t come with an instruction manual. So please know that I welcome questions. Because I’ve taught all types of children for well over 17 years, I have so many more tips to share and can talk about this topic for hours. I do believe if you don’t use it, you will lose it and there is scientific data to back up that thought.  Let's prevent those sweet babies from losing what they worked hard to gain during the school year.