Stop the Summer Math Loss

Summer is nearly here. Children everywhere have started their count down to the last day of school. Thinking of those mornings they can sleep in, discard their schedule, do their own thing, in their own time for weeks and weeks.

The idea of this is beautiful, and it seems, the way life was meant to be. Unfortunately times have changed.

Even though we as parents want to give our kids the type of summer we remember - riding around the neighborhood on our bikes, heading to the beach or park, loosing track of time with our friends and probably at some point building (or attempting to build) a tree house - we seem to spend the months of April and May scouring the internet for camps.

Day camps, residential camps, fun camps, scouting camps and of course in recent years math camps or even better S.T.E.M. Camps! Our kids have to attend if they want to stay competitive .... right?

I don't believe so. I actually avoid camps pretty much ALL the time. You can read more at k6-blog-summer-math

Ideas for Home Based Summer Math

If you are like me, then perhaps you would rather have your children running a little 'feral' during their summer vacation, rather than being hyper scheduled.

Having said that, we know that students need to stay on top of two of their most essential academic skills - reading and arithmetic.

Reading can be relatively easy to come by - but perhaps you would like a little inspiration on how you can incorporate some math into their days.

Check out these 10 Strategies to Prevent Summer Math Loss

Your Childs Day Should Include ...

At the very minimum, children need to do math facts on a daily basis. This wont use all the math skills they need to retain, but will certainly help slow down the loss of math skills.

Math facts can be done in so many ways.

Board Games,Card Games,Mentally calculating tax,Adding up menu items,Calculating the cost of a bus trip ...

No matter what you do in life, basic math comes into it. But what if you are not with your child all day?

If another person (perhaps a grandparent) is responsible for your child during the day when you are at work then it is a good idea to have some Mixed Math Facts Worksheets at hand - where you can insist that one (which takes less than 5 minutes to complete) is completed each day.

Just so you have one less thing to worry about - I have created all the Mixed Math Facts Worksheets you need for the entire summer! Just The Facts

Come Participate in the Conversation!

I have created the K6-Math-Cafe a Face Book group where communication is much easier and faster. I would love for you to join us there. It is currently a small group, but growing.

We are fostering a 'help and be helped' atmosphere. So if you would like to brain storm ideas for the summer - this is the Café to come and socialize in.

This summer, I will be conducting a complete re-vamp of my site. I you want access to material that may be taken down from the site during this period, asking in the K6MathCafé will be the easiest and fastest way to make requests - and get a quick response from me.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Back to Back Issues Page