How to Avoid the “Summer Slide”
School may be out, but learning doesn’t need to stop. Reading for fun, learning new things, and trying new activities are all great ways to keep the mind active during summer break. Lots of kids want to relax and take it easy during their summer break. Rest is an important part of vacation, but it is also important to exercise both your body and your mind. Skills that are not used are skills that do not stay. For their success, kids need to practice their skills over summer break.
During the summer, kids can fall behind in their learning when they don’t keep reading and using math. Research shows that children can lose about two months’ worth of learning in both their reading and math skills during summer break. This is sometimes called a “summer slide”. This “summer slide” means that many teachers will need to spend several weeks at the beginning of the new school year re-teaching lessons that students have forgotten over the summer. After several years of “summer slide,” children who are not continuing their summer reading and learning can become years behind their classmates. This gap means that children are less likely to graduate from high school with their classmates or may struggle to graduate at all. Not finishing high school or finishing later can have long-term effects for future job opportunities and a child’s overall quality of life when they become an adult. Public library reading programs like Anchorage Public Library’s Summer Discovery program are shown to slow the summer learning loss. Some research has also shown that children who complete summer reading programs are more likely to read at or above their grade level than children who do not. Summer reading programs provide families with fun and engaging free events. They encourage children to keep reading and learning over the summer break and to exercise their minds. With a slower or smaller summer learning loss, children will take less time to catch up on lessons in the fall. These children will have more time to learn and focus on new lessons. Keeping reading skills sharp means that skills will stay. A child who reads at grade level is more likely to graduate on time and have more opportunities in their future. Help your child fight summer slides and sign up for a summer reading program at a public library near you! 
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