Beyond the Books: Summer Slide Tips

Monday, June 23, 2025
Posted by Pete

With summer in full swing, many parents may have to deal with summer slide. Summer slide is the potential loss of skills and habits their child could experience from participating in intentional academic activities. This lapse in activity can affect children academically, socially and behaviorally.

To prevent academic summer slide, children and their families can participate in several activities and strategies to stay engaged.

• Reading for 20 minutes a day - Reading is like a muscle, skills can weaken if not used consistently, and they take time and practice to build

• Cooking - Find a recipe you both love and see how it taps into multiple areas - math (measuring ingredients), reading (recipe directions) and science (cause and effect of things like raising dough, solids to liquids and flavor combinations)

• Playing Games - Board games, card games, and physical learning activities offer a fun low-pressure way to keep your child’s brain active (and yours!). Games also offer bonding time through conversation, and laughter.

• Math - Yahtzee, Uno or Dominoes

• Reading - Scrabble, Boggle or storytelling games

• Critical Thinking - Strategy games like chess, checkers or logic puzzles

• Journaling - Writing activities reinforce language skills. Encourage your child to write a letter to a friend from school or write reviews of books and movies your child enjoys

A more consistent summer routine can help prevent summer slide and that can aid with regulation and being ready to learn once they return to school. For more information on the summer slide go to sources like edutopia, IXL Learning and scholastic.com.

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