The 3 Best Ways to Avoid Summer Learning Loss
At MUSE Global School, we recognize the tremendous effort our students put into cultivating an educational environment that is both enriching and successful. Every year our students accomplish many unique and personal goals, and it is a privilege to witness every student’s remarkable development.
Summer vacation offers a chance for students to rest after such hard work and participate in some much-needed recreation, but it is essential to ensure that students remember the lessons from all that hard work. A summer learning routine can be simple, fun, and effective while ensuring that students retain the skills they’ve acquired in the past year and enter the coming year assured and confident.
How To Avoid Summer Learning Loss
Summer Learning Loss is the decline of skills, abilities, and techniques that can occur with students in the summertime. Throughout the school year, students develop numerous skills through a routine of practice and maintenance, like how muscle is maintained through regular exercise. With all the activities summer offers, it can be easy to forget to practice these skills.
Luckily for students and parents, practicing them does not have to be at the expense of a rewarding and restful summer vacation. Here are some ways to promote a passion-based summer education!
Read
This is nothing new, but it’s tried and tested! Students lose an average of two months of reading education every summer, but by encouraging a passion for reading, learning loss can be prevented. Reading just four to five books over the summer has been shown to be comparable to an entire summer school enrollment in helping students retain and advance their reading comprehension skills.
Reading Tips:
Students tend to have much less required reading during summer vacation, so this is an opportunity to engage with the reading material that brings them the most joy. It is also a great time to explore new reading material. Book clubs with classmates or family members are great ways for students to discover new avenues of reading and to feel involved in a shared reading routine.
Take field trips
Students often have interests that are only ever cultivated from afar, but field trips allow them to engage with their interests up close and in person. Explore opportunities for field trips such as museums, farms, aquariums, and historical sites. Immersive experiences like these help students deepen their investment in their passions by broadening connections between their classroom education and their real-world experiences.
Field Trip Tips:
Use community resources such as local libraries and recreation centers to their fullest! Attending stage shows, concerts, and even sporting events can introduce experiences that are often accessible to students of all ages. Greater accessibility allows students to invest more consistently in their interests.
Family involvement
Including students in two to three hours of household tasks per week is a great way to build and maintain self-efficacy, one of MUSE Global’s Five Pillars! Involving your student in household cooking is a simple and effective way for students to develop new proficiencies and apply the task management skills they’ve learned throughout the school year. Accomplishing household tasks with your student also doesn’t have to feel like doing chores. It can be an opportunity to collaborate with your student to apply and instill practical skills that will help make them more competent adults.
Family Involvement Tips:
Throughout the school year, a student’s day is shaped by responsibilities and obligations such as attending classes, communicating with classmates and educators, and working toward learning goals. If students are accustomed to a structured learning routine, a lack of structure during summer vacation may make it difficult to commit to a learning routine. Connect with your child to set learning goals for the summer and devise a schedule they can use to accomplish those goals. Establishing a learning structure they can rely on will help students commit to their success.
Summer vacation is a wonderful opportunity to rest and recuperate for our students and educators alike! It is a time when students can enjoy their favorite summer activities and apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to cultivate rewarding and memorable summer experiences.
We are so excited to see how our students use their passions to enrich their education further this summer! Whether you’re currently enrolled at MUSE or are considering enrolling for the first time, ask how we can collaborate with you and your student to create a rewarding summer learning experience.
