Summertime is well underway and children have been busy trading in their class time for pool time as schools around the country are on hiatus until late August/early September. 

Families are enjoying day trips, lighter schedules, vacations, quality time together, and plenty of outdoor fresh air. However, although children would probably much prefer to shelve their books and ignore practicing those basic math facts – they shouldn’t. 

Each fall, teachers wrestle with the inevitable “summer slide” – or summer learning loss where studies show there is significant knowledge loss in reading and math over summer break if children don’t practice these skills each day. 

Kelly Ross, Oak Knoll's Academic Support Counselor, said throughout the past year, schools and teachers have noticed a greater need for support of executive functioning skills – or self-regulation skills that are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully.

Ross offers the following advice for parents and families to help children avoid the summer slide and manageably prepare for the 2022-23 school year ahead.

Summertime is here and children have been trading in their class time for pool time as schools around the country are on hiatus until late August/early September. 

Families have started to enjoy day trips, limited schedules, vacations, quality time together, and plenty of outdoor fresh air. However, although children would probably much prefer to shelve their books and ignore practicing those basic math facts – they shouldn’t, especially after this unusual pandemic school year. 

Each fall, teachers wrestle with the inevitable “summer slide” – or summer learning loss where studies show there is significant knowledge loss in reading and math over summer break if children don’t practice these skills each day. 

Thanks to COVID, learning declines throughout last year were very real for many children. However, it’s not all bad news!  Kelly Ross, Oak Knoll's Academic Support Counselor, offers several ways families can help children combat the COVID slide – the gaps of academic growth and lowered expectations due to the learning disruptions from the 2020-21 school year.

New Jersey’s weather has warmed up in recent weeks and the lazy and longer days of summer are on the horizon. This is certainly a relief after COVID-19 shut-downs and precautions left many of us feeling stir-crazy.

However, as schools here in our own state and across the country dismiss children for summer break, more children will be out and about attending summer camps, at town swimming pools, riding bikes, or walking around with their friends. 

Now is a prime opportunity for parents, adults, and caregivers to review safety tips with children. 

Each fall, teachers and school administrators brace themselves for that inevitable “summer slide” – the time during July and August when students’ math and reading skills slow down while families enjoy the summer months away from school.