30+ Ways to Avoid the “Summer Slide” & Keep Your Child’s Academic Skills Sharp

Reading

• Read to your student every day, from books, magazines, newspapers, etc. Some teachers or classes have a required summer reading list. Start checking off books early and encourage your student to journal so he or she doesn’t forget important details. 
• Make sure your student sees you reading everyday so that he or she will witness that reading is important to you and part of your everyday routine.
• Visit the library often and check if your local library offers a summer reading club. A summer reading program can help motivate kids with prizes and make it even more exciting to visit the library and read. 
• Create a routine for your reader that includes scheduled reading time(s), for example: after swimming, during regular car travel times, before or after meals, before bedtime, etc.
• Have your student practice reading and then read a story to a grandparent or younger sibling, encouraging them to focus on expression, reading rate, and characterization.
• Include a variety of genres for your student to choose from, both fiction and non-fiction materials. 
• Check in with your reader often and discuss his or her reading materials. Ask critical questions that encourage them to summarize, reflect, and evaluate their text materials.

Writing

• Have your student establish a pen pal to communicate big events of the week. A pen pal could be a relative or friend that lives far away. To make their correspondences more interesting, include coordinating photos.
• When taking a trip, have your child make a list of all the states license plates they see. Then, ask them to alphabetize the list.
• Ask them to write a book review of one of the books they’ve read and present it to their sibling(s) or other family members. 
• When it’s time to make your grocery list, dictate the list to your child and ask them to write it down, or type it into your phone or tablet.
• If child has specific targeted skills to work on, set goals for practicing them for a designated time every day, and be creative! For example, if your child is working on speech skills, have them write captions that include the sound(s) for pictures or photos and read them to you. Or for reading, while at a stop sign, find as many words on a billboard that have the targeted sound(s) and shout them out. 

Mathematics

• Cook or bake together. Have your child do the measuring and let them figure out how to double or triple a recipe.
• Plan the fastest or shortest route to your destination.
• Plan vacation costs together.
• For specialized multiplication exercises and help your child master multiplication, check out the website multiplication.com.
• Play multiplication war with playing cards. Take turns drawing two cards, and the first to answer wins. 
• Play board games. For basic operations, play Monopoly, Life, or Tripoly. For patterns and geometry, play Geospace, and Quirlkle. For coordinate graphing, play Battleship.For Strategy, play Chess and Checkers.

General

• At least two weeks before school starts, begin regular mealtime and bedtime schedules.
• Write your child’s new teacher a letter.
• Begin praying for your child’s principal, teacher(s), and new friends.
• Talk often about your expectations and what might be new or different for your child at school. This will help alleviate anxiety about the unknown.
• Set some simple short- and long-term goals. Then, check in on progress at regular intervals.
• If possible, take your child with you when buying school supplies, book bag, and clothes. As much as possible, include them in making purchase choices.
• Plan out your child’s wardrobe for the first few days.
• If possible, do a walk through of the building, helping your child become familiar with the location of his or her classroom(s) and locker.