Explaining Summer Slide to Parents

Explaining summer slide to parents is extremely important, especially since they probably have never heard the term before. Summer Slide is very real. Studies show that students fall up to 2.5 months behind. What’s even more alarming is that this is cumulative so as years pass, the gap becomes wider.

The summer slide is real but many parents don't even know what it is. Here are simple ways to explain it and to support parents and students during the summer months.

Explaining Summer Slide to Parents

I often hear parents complain that making their children do school work over the summer strips them of summer fun. As a parent, I tend to agree with that as well. I don’t want my children to spend the entire summer doing schoolwork and packets instead of playing in the backyard.

I have found that in order to engage my children and to prevent the summer slide, they don’t have to complete packets upon packets. We have found ways to have fun and live everyday life while also incorporating learning naturally and effortlessly.

If this message can be made clear to parents and ideas and resources are placed in their hands, parents will be more apt to engage their children in summer learning.

Free list of ideas for parents

I created a list of ideas for parents to use over the summer. The list is in both English and Spanish. Make sure to download it and put it in your students’ hands. Explain to parents its importance and how they can make a difference in their children’s academic growth.

My children’s top 3 favorite non-packet activities

Shopping Lists and Budgeting

Whenever we are going shopping, we make our list together. We discuss what snacks they want and we also look through the fridge and cupboard to identify what we need. I have my kids write the list. Once in the store, it is their job to read the list to me, read the signs to figure out where we can find the items, and check things off the list.

The other thing they really love to do, is to look at prices. I give them a budget and they either use mental math or a calculator to add up our total and determine when we are reaching our budget.

take your kids shopping and let them create the list. it helps their reading and writing skills

Listening to stories on YouTube

I not only suggest this to parents, but during the school year I also play YouTube read alouds for students. It’s nice for them to listen to others read and not just me. Story Time with Ms. Becky is one of my students’ favorite channels because as she reads, she also shows the book. Students like to look at the illustrations and if they’re able to see the words, they like to follow along.

Cooking

My children absolutely love to cook with me. They are learning and don’t even realize it. It is hands-on, provides for some bonding moments, and they’re measuring and reading recipes and nutritional facts. So much learning takes place during that block of time and they learn more about measuring and adding than they would if they had completed a worksheet.

Parents are our partners. We must always work at empowering them and showing that they are as much the teachers as we are. This requires intentional teamwork. Keeping parents engaged can sometimes be challenging because we’re not really sure how to go about it. Here are some other posts that can help.

Using Weekly Progress Reports to Involve Parents

5 Ways to Keep Parents Involved

Happy Teaching,