Dr. Ruth Peters TODAY contributor • Profile • E-mail

A few schools already have. Most are about to. Close their doors on the academic year, that is. And for many students that means that much of what they have learned in the past nine months goes out of their heads like summer heat rising from the blacktop. To offer advice on how to stanch this seasonal brain-drain, “Today” invited contributor and psychologist Dr. Ruth Peters onto the show. Here are some of her suggestions:

Summer will be here before you know it, and if you think those lazy, hazy months should be all play and no work, take a gander at the following statistics provided to me by Ron Fairchild, Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Summer Learning. (Ron and I recently participated in a seminar in conjunction with Johns Hopkins and Sylvan Learning Centers and he was kind enough to provide this information to me.)

• All students experience learning losses when they do not engage in educational activities during the summer.
• On average, students lose approximately 2.6 months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills during the summer months.
• Low-income children and youth experience greater summer learning losses than their higher income peers.
• Students may not have the same structured meal schedule and access to nutritious meals during the summer.
• Studies show that out-of-school time is a dangerous time for unsupervised children and youth.

Important facts

• Only about 10 percent of students nationwide participate in summer school or attend schools with non-traditional calendars.
• A majority of students (56 percent) want to be involved in a summer program that “helps kids keep up with schoolwork or prepare for the next grade”.
• Research shows that teachers typically spend between 4 to 6 weeks re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer.
• At least 11 percent of children between the ages of 6 and 12 care for themselves over the summer months (unsupervised).

Action you can take
What can you do, personally, to help combat summer learning loss with your own kids?

RESOURCE LINKS Teachers First Resource Listings Education World Summer Reading Guide National Parent Teacher Association National Education Association

Well, unless you live somewhere particularly remote, there are probably plenty of options in your community — you just need to be a bit creative and think outside the box. 

For instance, my local newspaper, every April or May, has a special section listing all private as well as community-funded summer programs for kids.  Many of these are eclectic-types of camps involving swimming, sports, crafts and field trips.  However, more and more add in reading enrichment or remediation as well as math tutoring over the summer.

In addition to community and private day camps, check out the following options:

• Learn to love your local library (and librarian!).  It’s a wonderful place to promote the love of reading, and the librarian can suggest grade-level as well as pure recreational books that will keep your kid’s neurons clicking.
• Check out safe, parent-approved Internet sites. There are many that offer a “summer camp” theme — a daily craft activity to do alone or with a parent each day, some brain teasers, video streaming of important world events (volcanoes erupting, the Martin Luther King “I have a dream” speech), and tons of grade-related math, reading and science work to be checked out in a fun way.
• Consider your local newspaper — many have summer writing camps.  Your performing-arts center has summer camps that involve singing, dancing and set décor as well as script reading (notice the reading part?).
• Even if your child attends a public school during the year, many private schools offer summer programs for all students that involve academics as well as sports, crafts and field trips. Learning academics is more fun when interspersed with active movement and game-like activities.
• The summer months are an excellent time for your child to fill in learning gaps or zoom ahead with enrichment activities at supplemental learning centers, or via tutors or last year’s teacher.  Your child’s teacher is an excellent resource to give you ideas for summer books to read and math workbooks to complete in between play and television watching.
• Sleep-away camps can be specialized for leaning opportunities, especially for niche fields such as computers, science and even math camps. Lots of other activities are interspersed to keep it an active experience for all.  Also, consider Circus Smirkus in Vermont (www.circussmirkus,org), acting and film making in New York (www.nyfa.com), CyberCamps (www.cybercamps.com), and Omega Institute holistic learning camps (www.omegateencamp.com).

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What you should do now
Before this school year ends, be sure to check with this year’s teacher(s) to get suggestions for summer workbooks and pleasure books, science activities, etc.  He or she will know what will be helpful for next year.  Also, you may be able to check with next year’s teacher to get his or her advice on interesting summer activities.

NOTE: This is especially necessary if your child is “on the bubble” (weak in a particular subject, afraid to answer questions in class for fear of being wrong). Summer is a great time to fill in the learning gaps and to begin the next year in a confident manner.

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