Summer is upon us, and while your child may be anticipating carefree days of staying up late, sleeping in, watching hours of TV and, in general, avoiding all things academic, there are many good reasons why you should make it your goal to be sure your child's reading, writing and math skills don't go dormant for the months of June, July and August.

According to the Reading Is Fundamental website, "all young people experience learning losses when they do not engage in educational activities during the summer."

In fact, research has shown that students given a standardized test at the end of the summer typically score lower than they do on the same test taken at the beginning of the summer (Cooper, 1996). This is a phenomenon that is widely observed by teachers in the fall and requires school to begin the year with several weeks of review.

Students lose about 2.6 months of grade level equivalency in math computation skills during their summer vacations. "The greatest areas of summer loss for all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, are in factual or procedural knowledge (Cooper, 1996)".

Summer loss in reading skills is of particular concern for low income students, with reading skills for children of middle and high socioeconomic status generally showing slight gains, and a loss of two months experienced by lower socioeconomic children after the summer months, contributing to the achievement gap between lower and higher income youth (Cooper, 1996).

What can parents do to help their children avoid this summer learning loss?

If your child was invited to attend summer school through your local school district, please accept the invitation.

Children need to practice reading to get better at it, much as they must practice a musical instrument or the skills required in a sport to excel. Schedule a reading time, and be firm about it. In an unstructured day, the time tends to slip away.

Frequent your public library. Many libraries have summer reading programs which offer incentives to reward children for their summer reading. If you are the parent of a young student, he or she may need your guidance in choosing reading materials that are at the correct reading level.

Summer is a time of swimming lessons, baseball games, soccer practice, etc. Keep a bag of books and magazines in your car for these frequent trips. Reading will make travel and waiting time go much faster for your child and will provide effective practice

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