Summer Learning System
During summer break, students lose a vast amount of the information they just learned in the past school year. This is especially difficult in the 2020 as students were forced into remote learning for much of the spring. Summer learning loss is a real thing.
Oxford Learning found students to lose 2.6 months of math knowledge (Oxford). Students spend six weeks “relearning old material in the fall to make up for summer learning loss (Oxford).”
There are many different initiatives parents’ can take to help retain their children’s learning information from the past school year and we will discuss option here. Our goal with this writing is to provide an option for parents to enhance their children’s summer learning in a way that is fun and motivational for students.
Rewards-Based Learning System
A rewards-based learning system is a great way to motivate your kids to learn throughout the summer. A rewards-based learning system can promote skills for math, reading, writing, grammar, foreign languages, and more.
How to Make a Rewards-Based Learning System:
First, assemble a variety of prizes and experiences your children would enjoy and that would motivate them to want to hard to “earn” the prizes. You can and probably should involve them in this discuss so you ensure they are committed earning these prizes.
Also, you can certainly have different prizes for each child to provide maximum motivation for each child. Some prize examples are below:
- Favorite Lego set
- Ice Cream with Mom and/or Dad
- A day at a favorite water park.
- Lunch at a child’s favorite restaurant.
- A favorite doll or toy.
- Throwing a football with Mom or Dad.
- Cooking a meal or cookies Mom or Dad.
Second, you will want to determine what efforts by your children will be required for them to earn the gifts that you jointly agreed to earlier.
You could use tokens and assign a number of tokens that a child receives for each task completed. Each task can be worth different amounts of tokens.
Then make sure you assign the number of tokens required to earn each prize. Once your children they know how many tokens they get for each task encourage them to calculate what effort or results it will take to get their first prize.
Once they earn and get to enjoy a prize, they will be motivated to continue completing tasks so they can earn more tokens and prizes. You may be surprised at how much effort they will give to earn prizes.
Students may read full books in a day, write several stories a day, and write countless letters in cursive just to receive the highly sought-after prizes as a reward. This is very motivational to curbing the summer learning loss.
Summer Learning Loss Resources
Below are some learning opportunities for your children. There is really no limit to what learning opportunities are available to offer your children. Be creative but also make sure each child has prizes that they want to earn.
Also, there are some websites listed below that offer free math and English/language arts worksheets. Hopefully these will give you good ideas and help you find the learning opportunities that will motivate your children to excel this summer.
- Reading educational books for vocabulary and reading comprehension
- English learning through short stories, writing worksheets and cursive pages for English, grammar and writing
- Math skills learning such as through math worksheets, real life problems such as estimate the tax on our meal at a restaurant, and educational games
- Foreign language through vocabulary sheets, DVD’s and worksheets
Stopping the summer learning loss and all of these vital skills needed for the next school year can be accomplished through a reward-based learning system.
Free Reading Worksheets
Free Math Worksheets
With the winning tips from this article on curbing the summer learn loss, your student will be ready for the new year.
A rewards-based learning system is an effective, creative, and entertaining way to teach educational skills to your children all summer long. This method of learning can motivate all students to practice skills they will need for the future, preventing the possible summer slide and hopefully prepare them well for the next fall school year. Have fun with your summer learning experiences!
What a true win/win!
Sources
https://www.oxfordlearning.com/summer-learning-loss-and-how-to-prevent-it/
