Avoiding the Summer Slide

Summer! A time for our kids to have fun! Swim, play, camp, enjoy! Schoolwork?! My own children say NO WAY! But - their mom is a math/science teacher & so yes - we do schoolwork at my house all summer long. My kids do schoolwork everyday during the summer for a short period of time (anywhere from 5-30 minutes).  I make sure we do this everyday so they don't fall victim to the "summer slide".  Research shows that the summer learning loss is real and if kids are not engaged in learning over the summer - they can lose some of the math & reading skills they worked so hard to achieve during the school year.

I found a great math website for young children called Bedtime Math:

It was created by Laura Overdeck & she is on a mission to make math fun for kids! (Just a side note- I don't know Laura & I'm not being paid to blog about her! I just think her idea is a great way to keep our kids interested in math/science!) Here is the idea behind Bedtime Math: get your kids in their PJs-ready for bed, read their usual bedtime story & then on top of that - read a "bedtime math" story that leaves them with a math problem to figure out. Laura posts a math problem on her website (http://bedtimemath.org) everyday - most of the stories have a science component to them as well  so I of course love the idea even more! She has an app & has also just written a book filled with fun math riddles, Bedtime Math: A Fun Excuse to Stay Up Late:

Her idea for leaving our kids with a math problem to contemplate at night is based on a recent study that shows when we learn at night, we retain more. I love this idea! Just one fun math problem per night - my kids can't complain about doing that, right?!   Here is an example of one of the math riddles from her website:

The answers are on the Bedtime Math website. 

Make sure your kids are doing some schoolwork -even if it's just 5 minutes a day- at least it's something! But of course - above all - have FUN this summer!!