Scared Of Kids’ Brain Drain During Summers? No More!
Have you ever heard about something called the summer brain drain? Chances are that even if you haven't, it sure has occurred right in front of your eyes without you even realizing.
Summer brain drain or what is also commonly called the summer slide is the reason why schools are scared to give out long summer holidays. More so because that even after these holidays, teachers spend time conducting revision classes in school for the kids who are back to school after a long break from studies which has ultimately resulted in drainage of all the syllabus taught. In fact, students on an average lose about 2 months of reading skills in the span of summer vacations.
It's a very common phenomenon but that doesn't mean that it's difficult to avoid. Summer learning loss happens due to lack of brain activity, learning, and revision during vacations. All you need to do as a parent is to ensure that your kid continues to learn while enjoying his time away from school. Also, trust us, it's simple and we've built a guide for you to help
1. Summer Courses
Considering how kids aren't very adamant to revise their school notes or go back to school books during summer holidays, it makes it difficult for you as a parent to keep them in touch with their books. Hence, you could shift to something which would be slightly different and actually prepare your kid for upcoming school assignments. Various online summer courses have different modules as per different levels for various subjects like mathematics. In the course above, your kid can learn the basics of algebra and be ahead in class when school starts again. The advantage is that these courses have a short duration, are computer friendly and make worksheets fun and application based for your child to not get bored.
2. Volunteer Work
Summers are a time when a lot of events keep happening around town. As a parent, you could either send your child as a volunteer or have them tag along with you during your volunteering trips. This not only allows them to learn a new task or discover a new activity, it also encourages them to meet and talk to new people. Moreover, a change of surrounding is always the best way to ensure continuous learning and brain activity. You could look into donation camps, cleanliness drives, orphanage visits or charity events. Anything that can get the job done.
3. Allot Tasks And Make It Fun
During summer vacations, your child is on a holiday but you might be not. It becomes difficult for you to sit with your child all day and teach or play around with them. Moreover, a babysitter has no guarantee of helping your child with their chores. So why not give your child a daily activity which is new and interesting? You could give them a baking task, a drawing task or writing an essay. You could give them a YouTube video about building a toy or just learning how to make a document on the computer. A new task every day and your kid won't be among the brain drain crowd anymore.
4. Ensure Reading
Reading is the simplest and most vital way to avoid any learning loss. Reading just doesn't mean curriculum books or books on mathematics, reading means anything that increases knowledge, improves writing and speaking ability and keeps the brain running. You could take your child to a library for them to explore their likable storybook, stroll down the park while they read a few articles of the newspaper on the bench or read a story to them every night and every morning before they sleep and after they wake up.
It has been found that you just need to spend 2-3 hours a week to ensure that there is no summer brain drain in your household and you could use any of the above-given tips to help you out. Also, don't hold back if you believe that your child might be too young to face this phenomenon, because it has been found that Brain drain has been observed in children reading in 1st grade. But, don't worry and make sure you give your child the attention they need.
