Beat Summer Learning Loss with These Great Resources

Summer learning loss is a well-documented problem. Students lose approximately 2.6 months of learning in math skills over the summer on average regardless of socioeconomic status. For reading skills, the loss varies by income level, with middle-income students showing slight gains while low-income students lost more than 2 months of reading achievement over the summer. Here are some resources to use with your child to help them preserve their well-earned skills in math and reading:

• National PTA has links to resources to turn your kids on to reading over the summer, tips to stop summer literacy loss, and suggestions to get a boy reading over the summer.
• Common Sense Media has a summer learning guide filled with the best apps, games, and websites for learning while doing over the summer. The guide breaks down these activities into categories such as Explore the World, Hands-On Science, Tinkering & Tech, Get Creative, Learn Together, and Multimedia Memories for age groups 2-6, 7-12, and 13-17.
• Scholastic offers a summer reading challenge for kids of all ages. Resources include book lists for kids from babies and toddlers to young adults as well as books in Spanish. There’s also a primer for parents on the summer reading challenge and additional resources for schools that are participating as a whole.
• ¡Colorín colorado! is a bilingual site for families and teachers of English Language Learners (ELL). Their summer resources include bilingual summer reading tips and book lists, tips on how to use the library for ELLs and their families, summer learning tips, and kid-friendly websites.
• Reading Rockets provides teachers and families with ideas and activities for summer learning fun, including materials for teachers to print and share with their students and their students’ families.
• Summer learning is not just about reading. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has a collection on online interactive math activities for students from Pre-K to high school.
• PBS Parents offers simple tips for summer math learning as well as some great summer reading tips.
• Family Education has a huge collection of summer learning ideas including lists of ways to learn math while having fun, hands-on nature activities, great places to squeeze in summer learning, and more.