Hey there, welcome back to The Education Connection
where we bridge the gap between learning and
life. I'm your host, Robin Wilson, and today
we're diving into a super important topic for
parents and teachers alike, preventing that summer
slide. That's the learning loss that can happen
over these long summer months when school is
out. But before we begin, I want you to listen
to this. Hi, I'm Steve Mileto from the Teaching,
Learning, Leading K -12 Podcast, a part of the
Education Podcast Network, just like the show
you're listening to now. Shows on the network
are individually owned and opinions expressed
may not reflect others. Find other interesting
education podcasts at edupodcastnetwork .com.
All right, so back to the podcast you're listening
to right now. We're gonna be talking about preventing
the summer side. That's the learning loss that
can happen over those long summer months when
school is out. But the good news is with just
a few simple strategies, you can keep your child
skills sharp and still enjoy every minute. of
summer fun. So I have covered this subject before,
but I'm going to go over a few more tips tonight
that will help you stay in the loop with those
summer skills. So we work so hard during the
school year, teachers, parents, homeschool parents,
public school. private school to help kids grow.
And it's tough to think of losing some of that
progress just because summer gets a little too
relaxed. And listen, I need summer as just as
much as you do and your kids. We've got to have
that summertime. But we need to also just think
about a few minutes a day, making some fun educational
decisions so that our kiddos are ready to go
when it's all over. And summer should be fun,
but with few easy ideas, you can keep learning
woven into the summer without feeling like you're
running a classroom at home. So tip number one,
keep reading fun, and I can't express it enough.
Your child should be reading just 15 to 20 minutes
a day. Now if they take off and go longer, I'm
happy about that and I know you are too but if
we can read with them listen to them read or
they can read independently just 15 to 20 minutes
a day that's going to make a huge difference
in that summer slide and not sliding so much.
Ways to do that, visit your local library, let
your child pick out whatever interests them.
Maybe you could even start a little neighborhood
library where there's a little mailbox that you
have set up. I've seen these little houses on
like post, like a bird house except that it's
a book house and then maybe you can even start
one of those in your neighborhood that after
a child reads a book you can put it in there
and then other people in the neighborhood can
put books in there that your child may enjoy
reading. You can start a casual family reading
challenge with little prizes. Now I know our
local library always has a summer reading challenge
for adults and for children alike. So if they
read so many books they get stickers and at the
end they can win some pretty big prizes. I've
seen scooters and bicycles and iPads, Kindles
and some pretty pretty great things that you
can win at your local library and that time is
coming soon we are just about 24 school days
away from summer we are just one month away we
have the month of may right now and that is it
so it's time to start planning your june and
getting your june lined up for those prizes Number
two, you can make math a real life. So math does
not have to come from a worksheet. Bake together
and double a recipe. Set up a lemonade stand,
track profits, or plan a trip and calculate the
gas mileage or budgets. Real world math shows
kids the why behind the numbers. Tip number three
keep writing casual so you can encourage your
child to keep a summer journal Make it light
and fun. I know a lot of times Not to be stereotypical
But sometimes girls love to keep those little
diaries buy them a diary that has a lock and
key and they can keep their Their daily things
in that I remember as a little girl myself I
used to write dear diary and I would write about
my day I have no idea where that diary is. I
would love to find that and read through some
of my journaling that I did as a little girl.
But your child can do that. Or if you want to
start writing a letter to someone that is...
family member that might be far away maybe they
can start writing if their grandparents are not
in town or even if they are they can start writing
letters and I guarantee you those grandparents
will write them back family members doesn't have
to be grandparents could be aunt uncle Even you,
mom and dad, you can write notes back and forth
to each other around the house. Authentic writing
builds a strong language skill without feeling
like homework. So maybe they could even have
a friend that they would write to. Tip number
four, build routines. Well, it's tempting to
let routines slide, but a simple morning or evening
routine that includes a little reading thinking
or writing keeps those academic muscles strong.
I don't know if you subscribe to the paper but
if you do if you don't maybe it'd be fun to do
that during the summer to where you get the comic
strip and your child reads that every morning
with breakfast. You might start a tradition that
you did not have before that encourages a little
bit of morning reading. That's fun. It doesn't
have to be fancy just a little consistency goes
a long way or if you were to get a comic book
at the library maybe they can read one every
morning or a joke book every morning that would
help them going a long way and it wouldn't feel
like work to them. Tip number five, use ready
to go resources. So if you're feeling overwhelmed,
you don't have to reinvent the wheel. I've created
get ready resources that are low prep, easy to
use, and packed with activities to keep your
child's skills sharp over the summer without
the stress. I believe my kindergarten one has
like a hundred pages in it so you could pick
and choose or you could do a couple a day or
you could just pick I know there's about 60 days
in the summer so you could you know pick 60 out
of those the most fun ones maybe or my first
grade one I'm guessing it's got 70 ish pages
and I am excited to tell you that I am in the
middle of upgrading updating my second my get
ready for second with the science of reading
um skills that are the latest greatest research
out right now if you haven't heard of science
of reading it's the new buzzword in education
and i'm in the process of updating my products
with those um and so the first one i'm starting
with is get ready for second grade and i've been
going through the list that needed for science
of reading for second grade so that is going
to be updated soon and I'm looking to have 70
to 80 pages in that one as well and you can pick
just some pages that do over this summer some
fun ones and there there are things that are
going to be fun to do. Now if you're tutoring
your child that they're great for that too or
if you're tutoring other children they would
also be great for that. So you can find those
at my store and I'll link them in the show notes,
too You can find them on my TPT Store, but you
can also find them on my web page coming soon
So I want to speak of getting ready And one of
the things, if you know me personally, you know
that I have newish glasses. I say newish. It's
probably been about a year now that I've had
these. I think I got them last summer. And they
are Pair I Wear. And I have about 12 toppers.
And if you don't know what Pair I Wear is, oh
my goodness, let me tell you. Pair I Wear, so
fun. You can match the glasses to go with your
outfit. I have a couple Mickey Mouse ones. I've
got just plain red. I've got plain colors. I
have some sunglass toppers So and if they have
them for kids, too So that's kind of why I wanted
to mention it on here if your kids need new glasses
or you now is a perfect time Pear Eyewear offers
adorable customizable frames that kids actually
want to wear and they're tough enough for all
the summer adventures ahead. So one of the coolest
features is their magnetic sun stoppers that
instantly turn regular glasses into sunglasses.
tons of fun toppers to match any summer outfit,
whether it's yours or your child's. So right
now when you use my special link, and I'll put
that in the show notes, you'll get $25 off your
first order. It's a great way to grab something
fun and support the podcast at the same time.
I'll have all the details linked for you. So
one of the things I want to tell you about the...
pair eyewear is the thing that I was surprised
about is we have an HSA so a health savings account
and I'm not sure if you have that so my health
savings account actually covered my base pair
even though it wasn't like an online it wasn't
at the doctor's I went to my doctor got my prescription
took my prescription uploaded it to pair eyewear
and the glasses that I currently have the base
frames, the one that I chose are called the Wanda.
And so they were 199, which I talked to somebody
recently and they're cheaper than Wally World,
if you know what I'm talking about. So they're
cheaper than them. And because I think they said
they paid like 285 for theirs at Wally World.
And they had some toppers too. And so these were
199 plus I got $25 off. and I think I got an
additional $50 off because you get like $50 off
your first order. So I mean some really cool
things and then you can get different colors
of toppers. So I just wanted to share with that
with you because I thought that was so cool and
my favorite pair. They're just my favorite pair
of glasses. So well listen thanks so much for
hanging out with me today. I hope these simple
tips help you and your family enjoy a summer
that's full of fun adventure and learning. I
do want to keep coming back to preventing that
summer slide. That's something that we need to
keep on our minds. We need to keep it ready to
go, and I want to provide tips to help you with
that so that stays in the forefront of your mind.
If this podcast has been helpful to you, would
you mind giving me a five star rating and leaving
a quick review? It helps other families and teachers
find the education connection and get the tools
they need to help their kids thrive. Until next
time, keep connected. Keep learning and keep
loving the journey. Have a wonderful week.