Preventing summer slide for homeschoolers is just as important as it is for public school kids. Any time that a child has an extended break (2-3 months) from academics they risk losing retention of what they’ve learned. Does this mean that you have to do year round schooling so your kids don’t forget their math facts or what a noun is? The answer to that is no! Fortunately, you don’t have to do math worksheets, grammar, and formal reading lessons to prevent summer slide.

Where does summer slide hit hardest and who is affected the most by it? Typically, summer slide is most noticeable in math (multiplication facts and pre-algebra) and reading fluency, especially in elementary and middle school age kids.

In this blog post, we’re sharing ideas for preventing summer slide in such an enjoyable way that your kids might not even realize or care they’re doing something academic.

Reading

Preventing summer slide for homeschoolers in reading is as easy as signing them up for your local library’s summer reading program. These programs offer incentives for completing a certain amount of reading (daily minutes, amount of pages, or full books). Additionally, libraries also offer activities with their summer reading programs. Our local libraries have a theme each summer and bring in speakers that support the theme.

If you don’t live near a library, some bookstores such as Barnes & Noble offer a summer reading program for K-6th grade. Half Price Books offers a summer reading camp for all ages- even adults! If you don’t live near a Half Price bookstore, you can sign up to participate as an online only reader.

Making sure that your kids are reading during the summer and that you read to and with your kids is the important part, not so much that they’re reading the classics or something highly academic. So, let your 4th grader read Diary of a Wimpy Kid if they want! Find a book to read that has been made into a movie and have a movie night once the book is finished. Some that we have enjoyed in elementary school are The Wind in the Willows,  The Incredible Journey, and Charlotte’s Web.

Math

The great thing about math is that it’s part of our everyday lives. Try to cook without it! Keeping your kids’ math skills up in the summer can be a lot more fun for them and you than you think. For elementary to middle school students, playing various board games and card games (Monopoly, War, Farkle, Yahtzee, and Qwirkle) offers math practice that’s fun. If you need more ideas, join Gameschooling on Facebook and listen to The Happy Homeschooler Podcast gameschooling episode and your eyes will be opened to a world of more possibilities that you can imagine, not only for math but for just about every single subject.

Practicing math at the grocery store is also practical and meaningful. A real-life example; my 13-year-old son likes frozen burritos so when we went to the store I showed him frozen burritos sold singly and a package of eight frozen burritos. I asked to him to calculate what the cost was for eight single burritos and what the cost per burrito was for the package of eight burritos. He informed me that purchasing the package was a better buy and chose that over the single burritos. He used multiplication, division, and subtraction skills to determine the best buy.

Education.com (for pre-k through 8th grade) offer many free worksheets and games that you can also utilize if you need something that doesn’t involve you as much. Also if you have a Duolingo family subscription, your kids can do math and chess. The gamified aspect of Duolingo makes kids of all ages want to keep playing.

High school students can practice their math skills by working with you on the family budget, figuring out the percentage of income to use for all budget categories, paying the bills online, balancing the bank account, and ordering groceries online. If you’re going on vacation, they can help figure how many miles your car is getting per gallon of gas, how long it will take to get to your destination, and if driving or flying is more cost effective.

Writing

Preventing summer slide for homeschoolers in writing is probably the most difficult area to cover in a fun and engaging way. Younger students can practice writing by writing you notes about what they want from the grocery store, or places they want you to take them. Grab some fun writing supplies like sticky notes, fun pencils, and markers and let them go for it! You can also do Mad Libs on the daily with your kids to create a silly story and keep grammar concepts fresh. They even have Mad Libs printables on their website!

The whole family can get involved in creating a family newsletter that gets emailed to family and friends. You can task your older students with being the editor of the newsletter.

Wrapping up

Preventing summer slide for homeschoolers doesn’t mean sitting at a desk for hours each day instead of enjoying typical summer activities. It just takes a little bit of intentional planning around things you’re already going to be doing.

Start planning now and you’ll be ready to have a fun and educational summer! Happy Homeschooling!