Summer Matters: A Whole New Reason
As winter comes to a close, many families turn their attention to the upcoming summer months. Every spring, parents of school-aged children are tasked with engineering a summer plan for their child. Should we go with summer camps? Take a family vacation? Hire a babysitter? And what about that so-called “Summer Brain Drain”? Will my child really lose all the academic strides she worked so hard to make during the school year in just a couple of months?
Summer learning loss, or “Summer Brain Drain” as it is commonly called, refers to a remark many teachers make at the beginning of the school year: “Why has my class forgotten material they had mastered only months ago?” In fact, a survey of teachers in 2013 found that 66% said they spend three to four weeks at the beginning of each year re-teaching old concepts. This observation that a long break in instruction leads to learning loss is supported not just anecdotally, but also from years of research documenting the “use it or lose it” phenomenon. Studies have shown that in the absence of practice, skills naturally deteriorate over time. Thus, based on the fact that learning decays when it is not reinforced, it’s understandable why so many teachers notice some learning regression each fall.
What these studies suggest is that the summer months are a monumental time for children’s learning and that they shouldn’t be overlooked. Fortunately, research suggests that there are many effective ways to counteract summer learning loss. The RAND report reviewed numerous studies investigating the effectiveness of summer programs and at-home programs, finding that all forms of learning enrichment have a positive effect on mitigating summer learning loss. It is worth considering what summer enrichment should look like in the face of research that counters the value of homework, standardized testing, and that questions the need for students to learn through rote learning methods.
The question of meaningful summer enrichment is further deepened when we take a look at the changing nature of “21st century education.” The top 10 jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004. Today’s learner is expected to have 10-14 jobs by the time she is 38. As Cal Newport points out in his book How to Win at College, high-ranking universities seek not perfect GPAs and resumes stock piled with extra-curricular activities. Instead they seek interesting, passionate, creative, flexible, self-motivated learners. As schools grapple with the changing demands of life and job trends in the not-so-new-yet-dauntingly-new-to-education 21st century, it is worth asking whether summer can be a time to close a gap that many schools are slowly inching towards closing. Schools like High Tech High and projects like The Independent Project have been exemplified as models of learning for a new age. They showcase learning that is hands-on, inquiry-driven, based on student interests, personalized and that fosters deep thinking, exploration, real-world learning.
If the school year is still largely about paper-and-pencil traditional academic learning, should summer be about this new way of learning so that between school and summer, a child can experience whole growth? And, what does this new learning look like?
Here are some examples and tips to get you going:
Step out of school into the real world
The simplest way to engage such expanded learning is to get outside and learn in the real world. Even recent research supports such thinking. Authors of the research reviewed above noted activities such as going to the library, taking vacations, playing sports, and engaging in a variety of enriching experiences such as attending camps, museums, concerts, and field trips all provide children new ways to learn. Further, a large study of over 5,000 children attending a variety of summer camps found that youth development occurred as a result of their summer camp experiences. Specifically, campers experienced gains in areas of adventure/exploration skills, making friends, positive identify, independence, leadership, and spirituality. This study demonstrates the significance of summer in facilitating personal growth outside of academic development.
Develop interests
Taken one step further, summer is a precious time for a child to pick one, two, or many different areas of interest and dig deep without the pressure or constraints of pre-determined schedules. Consider some of these ideas to start a brainstorm with your child about some questions, topics, themes that pique his or her interests.
Long summer days offer the perfect opportunity to …
… pick a question, theme, author, genre, series and head to the library. Many public libraries offer free summer learning programs for school-aged children that are fantastic opportunities to support summer learning. The Seattle Public Library offers an online “Summer of Learning” program that includes scientific experiments, writing projects, and reading challenges. Students are encouraged to track their progress throughout the summer, making them eligible to win prizes.
… build crazy contraptions with found and reusable materials
… concoct unusual recipes in the kitchen
… get lost digging in sand, study rocks, shells, and marine life
… doodle, draw, paint all those wild imaginative fantastical stories and places that “distracted” your child in the classroom
… with a camera or video recording device in hand, you may have a budding filmmaker or photographer on hand
… got a science-y one on your hands? Nurture a love of scientific inquiry while you get your child outside this summer by growing and experimenting in the garden. Or gather a handful of household items and let your kitchen become a little chemistry lab.
… sign up for a set of summer camps that all tie together related interests – robotics, coding, Lego animation, programming or sewing, felting, tie-dye, quilting and knitting, or gardening and cooking
Pause, reflect and dig deeper
To help your child reflect on the experiences, find patterns, take the experiences one step further, create a simple summer journal to write about their summer experiences, musings and questions. While on vacation, you can foster both your child’s social relationships and their writing skills by helping them write and send post cards to friends and family members. Allow your child to have a hand in all steps of the process, including selecting and purchasing the post card, drafting and writing the message, addressing the post card, calculating and purchasing the correct postage, and mailing it off. All stages of this inexpensive activity provide your child new and important real-life experiences. If writing is not your child’s thing, create an online photo album or a simple blog.
These experiences make learning real, experiential, inquiry-driven, and they foster interests and passions. They make learning personal! Summer offers an invaluable opportunity to learn in a myriad of ways that schools with walls are slowly aspiring to do. You can help your child take a giant leap in the direction of learning for a new age by seeing summer as a huge opportunity for learning.
Check out Art of Education Summer Camps to ignite an interest and develop a perspective!
