Is summer about relaxing or a chance to catch up on school work ?
Summer can be a time of mixed emotions for both parents and children, and we see this often with students who have learning differences. It is meant to be a time for a break, to relax, to unwind and put the stresses of school behind, however, summer itself can bring a lot of pressure to kids and their parents.
There are often lots of messages that scream:
Get your kids registered in extracurricular activities
Make sure you get into enriching summer camps
Fill your summer with outings and educational opportunities
Watch out for the “summer learning loss”
This leaves many feeling unsure of how to plan out their summer. Do you see it as an opportunity to relax and destress, or as a chance to catch up on school work and enrichment.
Families need to do what is right for them, and while there may be no one right answer, here are some things to consider as you try to figure out what is best for your individual child and your family.
For many students with learning differences, the school year can be riddled with…
Anxiety
Stress
Trying to fit in
Uncertainty
Working to keep up
Cognitive overload
That is a lot, right? It is a lot for kids to deal with, especially on an ongoing basis with no time to recharge. Downtime is no doubt an important part of summer break for those with learning differences such as dyslexia, ADHD or learning disabilities. The opportunity for them to be able to step back and take some deep breaths from the hustle sounds pretty tempting, right? So what about that summer learning loss???
We like to see Summer as a great opportunity for learning but in more organic and creative ways. Let’s take a look at some of the learning that summer can provide:
More opportunity for child-led or curiosity-led interests: Do they love comics? Maybe they attempt to write and illustrate their own. Science experiments? They need to calculate the ratios for ingredients and write out a shopping list of what needs to be purchased. Follow their interests to help get buy-in and engagement from them in the learning process.
More opportunity for exploring: Exploration, whether around the neighbourhood or somewhere in nature is a great learning tool in itself. The learning from this can be academic (environment, geography, biology!), but it can also be about gaining confidence and developing independence.
Creativity: Busyness does not often play well with creativity. Summer offers the space to work those muscles of imagination, expressiveness, and innovation
Social practice in different situations: Summer often brings kids to new environments, often within multigenerational contexts. Practicing interacting with a variety of people is.a.very.important.skill. Lean into this and see the value in these interactions.
Interest-based reading: So many students’ timetables are full of “required reading” that often the things that they may WANT to read fall off the list. We totally understand that it is hard to love reading in and of itself if the topic is not high on your interest list. Remember that reading is reading. All the rage right now in my kid’s school is the Guinness Book of World Records and Joke Books. Hey...great. You love to read it, and you are getting in practice, we are all happy.
So how do you decide what is right for your family in terms of balancing the much-needed downtime with that lingering worry in the back of your mind about summer learning loss? Here are a few questions to help you with your own reflection:
Do you feel like your child needs downtime?
What do you feel like your child needs a break from?
What do you think is the most emotionally draining thing for your child during the school year?
What skills do you feel like your child needs to “boost” the most?
Are there ways that together you can make working on these skills more fun and interesting?
Are there certain ways that your child needs to recharge?
What strengths do you want to foster in your child? What do they want to foster in themselves?
What additional skills would make the next school year a bit easier for your child?
A few things to keep in mind...
Small chunks of time working on skills every day adds up to a lot over the course of a couple of months. If you worked on a skill for just 15 minutes a day, after two months this would be 15 HOURS of work on those skills.
Meshing learning activities into your daily flow throughout the day can make it seem less intimidating. Read-alouds from chapter books at lunchtime, family math questions and math games while driving in the car, writing letters or in journals after dinner, reading practice at bedtime. We have found that this creates some rhythm and flow to the activities and they feel less like “school”.
Learning does not have to be all about textbooks, flashcards and worksheets. There are many more opportunities to find creative ways to gain knowledge and skills.
Don’t try to do it all or the “downtime” aspect will be lost. Pick the most important skills and focus on those.
The “perfect balance” of summer downtime vs working on learning skills DOES NOT EXIST. Give yourself some grace and don’t try to find it (we have tried...it isn’t out there!!!). So our take on it? Do your best to listen, reflect, relax, fit in some learning activities and most importantly connect!
“Take a rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.” - Ovid
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