Summer Slide for Homeschoolers?

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I’ve been talking about summer slide, which is a phenomenon of public and private schools that take a long summer vacation. Students tend to lose some of their academic skills over the summer which means that when they come back to their studies in the fall, they don’t just have to settle back into a new classroom with a new teacher; they also need a significant amount of review in order to get back to the place they were when they left at the end of the previous school year. This problem has prompted a number of trends, from modified school calendars and summer school enrichment programs, to summer reading clubs, to big box tutoring firms that advertise summer sessions designed specifically to prevent summer slide.

The question for those of us who homeschool is, do we need to worry about summer learning loss? I couldn’t locate any research that looks into this question, but it would certainly be an interesting area to explore!

Many homeschoolers don’t do any standardized testing at all, preferring to evaluate their children informally or to use tools such as research projects, notebooking, recitation and narration to assess learning and growth. Those who do have formal testing done may only do so once a year, which doesn’t allow us to measure objectively whether or not there is a learning loss after a long vacation. If you have felt that your children are experiencing a summer slide, you might want to try testing them just before a break and then again when you are getting ready to start schooling.

You may find it sufficient to use a test of your own design, or one provided with your math or language arts curriculum. For more objective results you can opt to use a standardized test at home. In Canada the test often recommended is the CAT-3, the Canadian Achievement Tests (3rd edition.) If you are using the test to detect learning loss, simply order and administer as directed, then send test sheets in for grading. Results will be sent to you, and the family alone decides how they should be used. Standardized tests of this nature usually cost under $50 per child, so if you are concerned about achievement or learning loss it is something to consider.

Schooling Year Round?

If you have noticed that your children are experiencing learning loss, there is the option of schooling year round. Many homeschooling families already do this, as the full year calendar allows for more flexibility. You may know families that enjoy being able to take a few guilt-free days off to enjoy a good frolic after the first winter snowstorm, or who take several breaks of a week or two for camping trips or international travel. Even in jurisdictions where homeschoolers must meet the same minimum attendance requirements as public schools, a full year schedule allows families to take time away from academics as needed.

Some families find a year round schedule doesn’t work for them, however. If your children look forward to summer as a time when they can do things with their public or private schooled friends, when they can use the public pool or go off to camp, when they can work or get involved with community service, a summer break is important. It may also be difficult to school during the summer months if you go to the cottage with extended family, or if one or more of your children is not homeschooled. Kids who are on summer break can make it difficult to stick to a learning schedule, even if they are trying their best to respect it. Under these circumstances, the best laid plans for a year round school calendar may end up falling to pieces.

Alternatives to Year Round Schooling

The important thing with learning loss is to understand what is happening, and why. Having a better handle on the problem means you are better equipped to resolve it. Here are some of the facts:

1. Learning loss in mathematics has been found in children of all backgrounds. The average loss is 2.6 months.
2. Learning loss in reading is not universal, but depends on factors such as socioeconomic status and special academic needs. Studies show that children from lower income families generally lose about 2 months of reading skills over the summer months, while children from middle income families can see some gain in reading.

Theories about why math loss is universal suggest that families in general leave math by the wayside in summer, while commitment to literacy and access to activities that will support reading success varies. However feasible this may be, the families studied in the existing research are entrusting their children’s education to a third party institution and are not in the habit of playing the role of instructor as homeschooling parents are. Most of us have invested in purchasing or making math teaching materials (textbooks, manipulatives, educational games.) As such, neglecting math over the summer might be an issue for homeschoolers, but lack of resources would hardly be a reason for summer slide in math.

Procedural Memory

Pretty much everybody who is talking about summer slide is taking at least some of their information from a meta-study conducted by Duke University professor Harris Cooper. His team looked at 39 studies on summer learning loss, and they compiled the data that shows math loss is not only more significant but also universal. What we don’t always hear is that, while overall math scores suffered more than reading scores, there were differences seen as well in the individual components of the math and reading segments of tests.

Skills that are procedural (spelling or math computation) suffer more than those that are conceptual (reading comprehension or problem solving.) Procedural skills involve learning rules, memorizing facts, following procedures like the algorithm for multiplying double-digit numbers.

Procedural learning needs repetition and continued practice. At first the repetition allows us to take the facts from short- to long-term memory. Later it facilitates quick and accurate recall of the information we need. If not practiced once learned, the information is susceptible to memory decay. This is probably the reason that drill and oral testing (mental math, spelling bees, etc.) were traditionally favourite classroom tools.

Again, I’m not advocating that we all sit our kids down at a desk and have them recite their times tables while we thump out a rhythm with a ruler and criticize them if they make errors! Another thing that we know now about learning is that it has to be meaningful, and that conceptual learning (understanding why we do things, and not just how) helps to cement the procedural memory. This is why teaching phonics helps kids with reading, and to some extent spelling. It’s also why the use of manipulatives, and instructional approaches that are visual and creative, are well accepted in teaching of subjects like math today.

A Little Review During the Summer Break

What I would like to suggest is that both homeschoolers and those whose children attend school outside the home make use of the understanding that the procedural learning is what needs the most help during a long vacation. It isn’t necessary to lock the kids up in the house with their textbooks all day long, while the neighbours are swimming and cycling, and going off on picnics. All students who take a summer break can benefit from activities that will help them use their procedural skills. Remember the practice must be continual, so this should be a daily habit that you and your children can fit into the schedule with the rest of the summer fun.

In addition to holding brief lessons or assigning worksheets for review, there are a number of simple and often recreational activities that will offer your children the continued practice they need to avoid summer slide. These can be whole family activities, so siblings or cousins schooled outside the home can participate alongside your home scholars, and if friends are visiting they can enjoy the fun too!

Activities to Promote Spelling

• crossword puzzles, word finds, board games like Scrabble™
• informal spelling bees – get the neighbours involved!
• review last year’s spelling words, or have your child create a customized spelling list from unfamiliar words in her summer reading or words he misspells in written work such as letters to relatives
• subscribe to a word a day service online, or choose your own words at home, and find creative ways to use the words learned – builds vocabulary too
• introduce word study, if you haven’t already – learning roots and affixes helps to explain many outlaw words that don’t follow the phonics rules your child has learned
• if your child has been experiencing difficulty with spelling throughout the school year, try an alternative program such as Sequential Spelling – a few minutes a day increases vocabulary and spelling skill, and teaches mechanics (adding “-ed” or “-ing,” making plurals, the possessive case) as well

Activities to Promote Math

• make or buy flash cards, and use them a few minutes daily – your child can compete with another or can record scores and try to improve over time
• play concentration (“memory”) games with flashcards – more on this in coming posts, but for now look into Math Games for some affordable printables
• take advantage of opportunities to put math skills to use in daily activities – counting change, calculating distance covered on a trip, converting temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celcius, etc.
• play card games like Go Fish, Rummy, Crazy 8’s, cribbage, even Bridge depending on your child’s abilities – these teach skills such as counting, matching, computation and of course, strategy
• play social games like darts or bowling, that require computation of scores – the more complex the rules, the more challenging!
• play games with dominoes or dice (e.g. Perudo™) that require subitizing (counting a group of objects quickly) and strategy
• play board games that involve calculations with money (e.g. Monopoly™)
• teach your kids to do logic puzzles, and play games that require logical deductions (e.g. Clue™)
• time lines and mapping are a great way to involve your children in math (scale, distances, time from one event to another, etc.) – a book of centuries and an atlas or road map can travel with you while away from home!
• whether at home or on the road, take advantage of video/computer games that promote math use – our favourite, Timez Attack, is a high-end, professionally designed video game that both teaches and provides practice in multiplication tables up to 12×12

Lots more to come! Keep watching for help fighting the summer slide!

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

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Tags: homeschool calendar, summer learning loss, summer school, summer slide