Summer learning -- it has to happen!

Education continues: parents' responsibilities during the summer vacation

By staff from the Mercy College School of Education

[June 22, 2013]  In short: Some significant difference in math or reading scores is made in the summer vacations over the years because parents have the most impact on their children's learning. However, parents shouldn't try to replicate school during the summer. The ease and leisure of the summer weeks offer the benefit of reviewing math, reading and vocabulary lessons learned during the year in a relaxed, comfortable way.

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We have embarked on one of the most important and yet also most neglected periods of time for a child's educational development -- the summer vacation! Most kids, left to their own devices, will see this as a time for "freedom" -- especially from matters of education.

Research shows that those who receive educational support at home will perform better in school than those who do not. Some significant difference in math or reading scores is made in the summer vacations over the years because parents have the most impact on their children's learning. The question that most parents grapple with is, what is their responsibility during this crucial period? We hope to give a few important suggestions here.

Supporting mathematics learning

Quantitative thinking -- often referred to as mathematics -- is frequently neglected in home educational support. For one thing, many adults have no qualms about themselves having not been too talented in mathematics, and if -- even inadvertently -- that is passed on to their children, it immediately lowers a child's perceived expectation in mathematics. So for all grade levels, parents need to support on a continuous basis the importance of performing highly in mathematics.

For younger children, skills in mathematics can decline precipitously over the summer. Parents can effectively promote numeracy in young children by counting, describing shapes, playing board games, measuring ingredients for recipes and so on.

Parents should also be familiar with the arithmetic algorithms used in teaching arithmetic in their children's school. This can be more challenging for parents coming from other countries, where arithmetic algorithms are oftentimes different from the ones that are used in our schools. Yet it is worth the effort to become familiar with these algorithms and support children while reinforcing the arithmetic skills.

Even though most parents often claim to remember little from their high school mathematics classes, they would be wise to encourage their children to look at the many books available that enrich our understanding of mathematics at the school level by presenting topics often considered "off the beaten path," and yet quite enriching and motivating. A clever technique for parents to follow here would be to ask their children to read sections of the book and then explain to their parents what they read. This not only ensures real understanding of what they read but also genuinely reinforces it. Typically, a general appreciation for mathematics follows from such an activity.

Supporting child development and home literacy

More than the nightly storybook, the summer weeks should include many experiences with reading. Frequent visits to the library and "story hour" events are two examples of activities that will keep reading alive during the summer. Remembering that a child would hear a lot of reading during an average school day, parents should make a deliberate effort to increase the amount of reading that takes place at home. Parents can read aloud from a variety of genres, including narratives and expository texts, and talk about the text and the illustrations in the book. Many books for all ages include pictures or charts to help comprehension.

For children of all ages, vocabulary development is a primary focus of instruction. Vocabulary knowledge persists as a predictor of academic achievement in later years. Parents can support vocabulary development during summer months through frequent conversation, highlighting new words and through continual narrative with children's experiences. For example, a trip to the zoo might include conversation about the color of the animals' fur, their habitat and homes. Conversation offers children the opportunity to connect vocabulary to concepts (for example, hearing the word "tiger" and seeing the actual animal). Summer experiences actually offer many new avenues to develop vocabulary.

One more thing parents can do is to plan a time and place for their child to write every day and then talk about, respond to or read the child's writing aloud, because that will give the child the authentic purpose of writing.

Writing for young children begins with drawing and scribbling. Often, art projects provide young children developmentally appropriate tasks that promote writing skills. Drawing and writing stories about summer experiences can help maintain the skills children learned in school while entertaining them in a delightful art project. Markers, pencils and brushes are essential materials for the summer months.

Parents should not try to replicate school during the summer. The ease and leisure of the summer weeks offer many benefits in themselves. The enriched, unhurried activities that both parents and children enjoy in the summer are excellent learning opportunities when they are reinforced with a parent's attention to sustaining basic learning skills and building vocabulary.

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By the following from the Mercy College School of Education, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.:

• Alfred S. Posamentier, dean

• Zoila Tazi, chair of the Department of Literacy and Multilingual Studies

• Mi-Hyun Chung, chair of the Childhood Department

[Text from file received from Mercy College]