Preventing the Summer Slide

0:03 Hey there, welcome back to The Education Connection where we bridge the gap between learning and life. I'm your host, Robin Wilson, and today we're diving into a super important topic for parents and teachers alike, preventing that summer slide. That's the learning loss that can happen over these long summer months when school is out. But before we begin, I want you to listen to this. Hi, I'm Steve Mileto from the Teaching, Learning, Leading K -12 Podcast, a part of the Education Podcast Network, just like the show you're listening to now. Shows on the network are individually owned and opinions expressed may not reflect others. Find other interesting education podcasts at edupodcastnetwork .com.

0:52 All right, so back to the podcast you're listening to right now. We're gonna be talking about preventing the summer side. That's the learning loss that can happen over those long summer months when school is out. But the good news is with just a few simple strategies, you can keep your child skills sharp and still enjoy every minute. of summer fun. So I have covered this subject before, but I'm going to go over a few more tips tonight that will help you stay in the loop with those summer skills. So we work so hard during the school year, teachers, parents, homeschool parents, public school. private school to help kids grow.

1:39 And it's tough to think of losing some of that progress just because summer gets a little too relaxed. And listen, I need summer as just as much as you do and your kids. We've got to have that summertime. But we need to also just think about a few minutes a day, making some fun educational decisions so that our kiddos are ready to go when it's all over. And summer should be fun, but with few easy ideas, you can keep learning woven into the summer without feeling like you're running a classroom at home. So tip number one, keep reading fun, and I can't express it enough.

2:24 Your child should be reading just 15 to 20 minutes a day. Now if they take off and go longer, I'm happy about that and I know you are too but if we can read with them listen to them read or they can read independently just 15 to 20 minutes a day that's going to make a huge difference in that summer slide and not sliding so much. Ways to do that, visit your local library, let your child pick out whatever interests them. Maybe you could even start a little neighborhood library where there's a little mailbox that you have set up. I've seen these little houses on like post, like a bird house except that it's a book house and then maybe you can even start one of those in your neighborhood that after a child reads a book you can put it in there and then other people in the neighborhood can put books in there that your child may enjoy reading. You can start a casual family reading challenge with little prizes. Now I know our local library always has a summer reading challenge for adults and for children alike. So if they read so many books they get stickers and at the end they can win some pretty big prizes. I've seen scooters and bicycles and iPads, Kindles and some pretty pretty great things that you can win at your local library and that time is coming soon we are just about 24 school days

3:59 away from summer we are just one month away we have the month of may right now and that is it so it's time to start planning your june and getting your june lined up for those prizes Number two, you can make math a real life. So math does not have to come from a worksheet. Bake together and double a recipe. Set up a lemonade stand, track profits, or plan a trip and calculate the gas mileage or budgets. Real world math shows kids the why behind the numbers. Tip number three keep writing casual so you can encourage your child to keep a summer journal Make it light and fun. I know a lot of times Not to be stereotypical But sometimes girls love to keep those little diaries buy them a diary that has a lock and key and they can keep their Their daily things in that I remember as a little girl myself I used to write dear diary and I would write about my day I have no idea where that diary is. I would love to find that and read through some of my journaling that I did as a little girl.

5:17 But your child can do that. Or if you want to start writing a letter to someone that is... family member that might be far away maybe they can start writing if their grandparents are not in town or even if they are they can start writing letters and I guarantee you those grandparents will write them back family members doesn't have to be grandparents could be aunt uncle Even you, mom and dad, you can write notes back and forth to each other around the house. Authentic writing builds a strong language skill without feeling like homework. So maybe they could even have a friend that they would write to. Tip number four, build routines. Well, it's tempting to let routines slide, but a simple morning or evening routine that includes a little reading thinking or writing keeps those academic muscles strong.

6:19 I don't know if you subscribe to the paper but if you do if you don't maybe it'd be fun to do that during the summer to where you get the comic strip and your child reads that every morning with breakfast. You might start a tradition that you did not have before that encourages a little bit of morning reading. That's fun. It doesn't have to be fancy just a little consistency goes a long way or if you were to get a comic book at the library maybe they can read one every morning or a joke book every morning that would help them going a long way and it wouldn't feel like work to them. Tip number five, use ready to go resources. So if you're feeling overwhelmed, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. I've created get ready resources that are low prep, easy to use, and packed with activities to keep your child's skills sharp over the summer without the stress. I believe my kindergarten one has like a hundred pages in it so you could pick and choose or you could do a couple a day or you could just pick I know there's about 60 days in the summer so you could you know pick 60 out of those the most fun ones maybe or my first grade one I'm guessing it's got 70 ish pages and I am excited to tell you that I am in the middle of upgrading updating my second my get

7:52 ready for second with the science of reading um skills that are the latest greatest research out right now if you haven't heard of science of reading it's the new buzzword in education and i'm in the process of updating my products with those um and so the first one i'm starting with is get ready for second grade and i've been going through the list that needed for science of reading for second grade so that is going to be updated soon and I'm looking to have 70 to 80 pages in that one as well and you can pick just some pages that do over this summer some fun ones and there there are things that are going to be fun to do. Now if you're tutoring your child that they're great for that too or if you're tutoring other children they would also be great for that. So you can find those at my store and I'll link them in the show notes, too You can find them on my TPT Store, but you can also find them on my web page coming soon So I want to speak of getting ready And one of the things, if you know me personally, you know that I have newish glasses. I say newish. It's probably been about a year now that I've had these. I think I got them last summer. And they are Pair I Wear. And I have about 12 toppers.

9:17 And if you don't know what Pair I Wear is, oh my goodness, let me tell you. Pair I Wear, so fun. You can match the glasses to go with your outfit. I have a couple Mickey Mouse ones. I've got just plain red. I've got plain colors. I have some sunglass toppers So and if they have them for kids, too So that's kind of why I wanted to mention it on here if your kids need new glasses or you now is a perfect time Pear Eyewear offers adorable customizable frames that kids actually want to wear and they're tough enough for all the summer adventures ahead. So one of the coolest features is their magnetic sun stoppers that instantly turn regular glasses into sunglasses.

10:04 tons of fun toppers to match any summer outfit, whether it's yours or your child's. So right now when you use my special link, and I'll put that in the show notes, you'll get $25 off your first order. It's a great way to grab something fun and support the podcast at the same time. I'll have all the details linked for you. So one of the things I want to tell you about the... pair eyewear is the thing that I was surprised about is we have an HSA so a health savings account and I'm not sure if you have that so my health savings account actually covered my base pair even though it wasn't like an online it wasn't at the doctor's I went to my doctor got my prescription took my prescription uploaded it to pair eyewear and the glasses that I currently have the base frames, the one that I chose are called the Wanda.

11:02 And so they were 199, which I talked to somebody recently and they're cheaper than Wally World, if you know what I'm talking about. So they're cheaper than them. And because I think they said they paid like 285 for theirs at Wally World. And they had some toppers too. And so these were 199 plus I got $25 off. and I think I got an additional $50 off because you get like $50 off your first order. So I mean some really cool things and then you can get different colors of toppers. So I just wanted to share with that with you because I thought that was so cool and my favorite pair. They're just my favorite pair of glasses. So well listen thanks so much for hanging out with me today. I hope these simple tips help you and your family enjoy a summer that's full of fun adventure and learning. I do want to keep coming back to preventing that summer slide. That's something that we need to keep on our minds. We need to keep it ready to go, and I want to provide tips to help you with that so that stays in the forefront of your mind.

12:09 If this podcast has been helpful to you, would you mind giving me a five star rating and leaving a quick review? It helps other families and teachers find the education connection and get the tools they need to help their kids thrive. Until next time, keep connected. Keep learning and keep loving the journey. Have a wonderful week.