Summer is imminent—and for many parents, it’s time to start planning ahead for those school-free months. Keeping your kids busy when they have full days of free time can be a challenge. It’s not unusual to pack this period with fun activities and opportunities for learning alike. You may be exploring summer camps and even summer tutoring, but have you considered brain training?
Learning opportunities can be a great way to combat the “summer slide,” also known as summer learning loss. This dreaded phenomenon describes what happens when learners leave school for the holidays—often, time away from their classes results in students forgetting some of what they’ve learned over the year, resulting in a “slide” back in their academic capabilities.
Let’s review some of the benefits of combatting summer slide, and how brain training might be the right option for your learner this year.
Why and How to Fight Summer Slide
3 Benefits of Tackling Summer Slide
What’s the point of fighting the summer slide? Having activities in place can be beneficial to both you and your learner, ensuring they have something to do every day and encouraging them to keep their abilities sharp. Here are a few specific benefits:
- It keeps your kids active. How many times do you hear your kids say, “I’m bored,” over the summer? Do you ever worry about how much screen time they have? Activities that discourage summer learning loss can keep them mentally active, engaged, and alert, ensuring they regularly have something interesting to do.
- It encourages summer gains. What if, instead of learning loss, your child made learning gains? Activities over the summer can be a great way for students to catch up or even exceed the abilities of their peers. This doesn’t have to be limited to academics, either—summer can be a fantastic time to learn new skills and abilities.
- It makes next year more appealing. It’s all too common for kids to dread school, especially if they’re struggling or they’ve fallen out of the habit of learning. When kids engage in summer learning, it can make the transition to the next school year a little easier, and even more enticing.
3 Ways to Combat Summer Learning Loss
It probably comes as no surprise: the best way to combat summer learning loss is to keep kids mentally active and engaged. Here are just a few ideas for how to do that:
- Encourage summer reading. When it comes to fighting summer slide, reading is a classic choice, ensuring a balance of fun and learning! Your local library may have summer reading programs to encourage kids to read. It’s also a great idea to let them pick out their own books at the library or bookstore.
- Start a new hobby. If there’s a topic or activity that your child has expressed interest in, now’s the time to dive in! From drawing or painting to picking up a few phrases in a new language or learning about fossils, new hobbies offer tons of opportunities to learn and practice new skills. They can help keep your child active mentally and even physically!
- Explore brain training. When it comes to strengthening learning skills, you can always try one-on-one brain training! It’s a great alternative to summer tutoring, with a balance of dynamic activities and hard work. Through brain training, your learner can get subject-specific support, or just work on improving their overall cognitive skills!
Explore Brain Training for Your Learner
Summer Tutoring or Brain Training?
While summer tutoring is always an option for learners, why not try brain training this year? At LearningRx, our one-on-one programs are tailored for each student’s specific abilities—so whether they need support with reading or math, or they wish to improve skills related to homework, test preparation, or focus, we’ve got it covered! Through an engaging blend of drills, games, and exercises, brain training keeps learners active and engaged, just in time for the next school year!
Learn more about the great benefits of brain training versus summer tutoring. You can find your local Brain Training Center by visiting us online, or contact LearningRx at 866-BRAIN-01 for more information.
