A Balanced Summer for Students and Parents
We know intellectually that each day has 24 hours. That’s equal to 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds. It sounds like a lot. Yet, somehow the time between the last day of one school year and the first day of the next seems to fly by faster than all the other times of the year. After almost 10 months of early mornings, homework, textbooks, tests, extra curricular activities and a decent amount of chaos, it seems that everyone in the family is more than ready for some down time, and our Southern California summers are the perfect antidote.
While it might be tempting for your kids to spend the whole summer sleeping in, watching lots of TV, going to the beach, hanging out with friends, and not giving one single thought to academics, it’s actually beneficial to your children if you can balance carefree summer days with some stimulation for their minds.
Many studies have been done on the so-called “summer learning loss” or the “summer slide,” the idea that summer break causes students to lose some of the academic learning from the previous school year. One study done in 2015 showed the learning loss is most prevalent in grades three through eight. For example, in the summer after third grade, students lost close to 20% of their school-year gains in reading and 27% of their gains in math. In the summer after seventh grade, students lost an average of 36% of their school-year gains in reading and 50% of their gains in math! So while we want our children to enjoy their summers and have plenty of downtime, we should also do what we can to minimize potential academic difficulties facing them at the beginning of a new school year.
By focusing on not only playing hard, but also stimulating their minds, we can make sure our children are refreshed on both a physical and mental level so that they can start the new school year running. This balance is especially critical when your children are at an academic bridge — that is, advancing from elementary school to middle school or from middle school to high school. So what are some things you can do?
Sports and Physical Activity
Keep your students active, whether by being part of a sports team, attending a summer camp, or just getting plenty of outdoor time at the pool, the park, the beach or just outdoors at your home. With long warm summer days, these are the activities that will make their childhood summers memorable. A combination of planned activities like camp or sports as well as unplanned relaxation like having friends over to swim, packing up the car and heading to the beach, or meeting friends at a basketball court for a pick up game will keep your kids active and happy. Try to ensure that they spend plenty of time outdoors and/or socializing with friends rather than wasting their whole summer solo in front of a screen playing Fortnite or watching reruns of Friends or Sponge Bob Square Pants!
Summer Reading
During the school year, it can be next to impossible for your kids to read just for fun. They will be assigned literature in their English courses plus be kept busy with homework from other subjects/courses as well. On top of their homework, many students have other commitments during the school year such as sports, volunteer work, other special interests, part time jobs, and so on. Even the weekends can be busy with athletic games, homework and other activities. Summer provides the perfect time to encourage your children to read for pleasure. Reading helps stimulate your child’s imagination and creativity as well as develops their vocabulary. It also helps with communication skills as they see how characters interact in books. Finally, it reduces stress. Think about it — when you’re reading, your mind is relaxed and you’re focused solely on the book rather than other things in life, almost like a form of meditation. Your children too will benefit from this level of relaxation and calm.
Take them to the local library to pick out some books for the summer or to a local book store if you want to buy them. They can even use their iPads or tablets to read — just make sure that they’re actually reading and not scrolling through social media or playing their favorite online game! Set aside some time every day if possible for quiet reading. Have your kids set a goal for how many books they’ll read during the summer months, and provide incentives such as a special dinner out or an Amazon gift card if they reach their goal. Whether it’s family reading time after dinner or a half hour earlier in the day, make sure to enforce it and make it a family event. Everyone benefits from slowing down and focusing on devouring a good book!
Cultural Outings
Living in the Los Angeles area affords so many opportunities to expose our kids to a wide variety of cultural experiences, and summer is the perfect time to do so. There is plenty of research showing the benefits of taking kids to museums. They provide memorable experiences, pique children’s imagination, and allow them to immerse themselves in unknown worlds and experiences. Take a day to travel to Exposition Park to hit up both the Natural History Museum and the California Science Center. See some of the area’s best art at the Getty Center, the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) or the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Delight your kids with a field trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, or a trek to the Griffith Observatory. Or for a unique day, explore the 150 dazzling cars on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Plan these excursions as a family or with some of your kids’ friends and their parent(s).
Academic Review
Yes, it’s summer, and yes, your kids have earned a break from school. But it’s not a bad idea to work in some time to review some of their academic subjects. Some schools in fact will send students home at the end of the school year with math packets, English reading and writing assignments, as well as work for other courses. Some students will attend summer school, either to retake a course that they didn’t do well in or to complete a class or two during the summer in order to reduce their academic load
during the school year.
Regardless of the situation, make sure your children don’t put off their summer assignments until the last couple weeks of summer break. If they have books they have to read, papers to write, and/or math packets to complete, map out how and when they will get the work done, spreading it out over the weeks of the summer so that it’s not too overwhelming. Be sure to consider any family vacations you may be taking so that they still have plenty of time to finish the work.
If they don’t have specific summer assignments, it’s still a good idea for them to spend some time reviewing material they learned during the previous school year in order to minimize any “summer slide” of academic retention. Particularly if your students struggled in a subject like math or English, ask their teachers for some work they can do over the summer in order to retain the knowledge and make sure that they are ready for the next year and the next level in that subject.
If your children need help with completing their summer assignments or summer school coursework, or need to be in a quiet environment free of summer distractions like the swimming pool, video games or siblings and pets, consider seeking out a private tutor and/or an academic learning center. At Synergy Academics in West Hills, CA, we have professional tutors who can work one-on-one with your K-12 students on any assignments they have — year-round! We have tutors for over three dozen different subjects so we can definitely meet your child’s needs. Additionally, Synergy Academics operates a Study Center for students at our West Hills facility, which is always monitored by a proctor who can assist them with any homework assignments they have.
For more information on all of our programs, visit our website.
Whatever you do this summer, whether it’s traveling near or far or just enjoying all there is to do in beautiful Southern California, we hope that the season is full of wonderful memories with family and friends and that your children are refreshed and ready to go back to school when the last days of summer break have passed!
