You all know what summer slide is, right? It’s a cute name for something a lot of teachers find horrific: the academic decline needlessly suffered by children over the summer months. If only these sweet babes would stay in the classroom where they belong, this wouldn’t be happening!
Ahem.
Allow me to weave for you an alternate narrative.
So what if the 36 weeks of the school year are enough? What if children have other business to do, and they were actually allowed to do it? What if summers are for other things — for play, recreation, bonding with family, and more?
My thought is that we need to be really, really careful about intruding about a child’s free time.
This loss of reading and math skills isn’t actually permanent. The cultural assumption is that while they are engaging in seemingly nonacademic play, they aren’t learning, and that is the assumption I want to dispute.
When my children were babies, I remember noticing a fascinating thing: when they were learning one new skill, they would often drop another one. So, for example, when my third child — who had been a chatter box from the time she was well under a year old — started learning to run, she decided she didn’t have much to say. When she was into puzzles, she stopped practicing her running. And so on and so forth.
My point is that there is an extent to which this is a completely natural progression of learning.
The children shift their focus from one thing to another. In our lesson times, we keep them diligent, yes. We make them come back to it day after day, long after they would have switched gears. But this doesn’t mean we need to invade their personal time with our own ideas about how things need to happen.
I am reminded of a story James Taylor tells about a Thomas Shields in his wonderful book Poetic Knowledge. Thomas Shields was a self-proclaimed “dullard.” He couldn’t understand math. It didn’t connect in his brain — that is, until he performed thousands of hours of farm labor. It was in his work with, for instance, the pitchfork {which works upon the principle of the lever} that he came to understand it, for he was forced to embody the principles of math and physics in order to work well at his duties. He counted bags of wheat and knew by feel and look how much they weighed, how many bushels they were.
It would have been easy to watch Thomas Shields using his pitchfork over and over and think it had nothing to do with his academic or mental development. And yet, it was the physicality that allowed the ideas of math and physics to finally seep into his soul.
When little children are playing with water or sand or balls or sticks, we adults have no idea what connections are being made in their brains. It is important to remember that reading readiness has to do with the BODY. I don’t think we can emphasize the connection between mind and body enough, for it is this connection which makes play so important.
So what is my solution to summer slide?
Well, I do have my older children do a bit of math. They read on their own now, so I have no requirements in that regard, but there was a time when we set aside a time for reading during the hottest part of the day.
We read aloud a lot.
I have always left the Bob Books that we’ve already done out in a box for easy access — so that someone who really wants to can easily practice their skills.
But mostly, I let them play.
And I highly recommend this, especially if your child is under eight. Let him play. You can play catch up in the fall if need be. It’s really not that big a deal. Let summer be summer.
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The graphic for this post really says it all! What if *this* were our mental image for the phrase Summer Slide. Fun, adventure, refreshment? That sounds like Summer!
♥ Ha! And amen — here’s to summer sliding. 🙂
I agree completely! We are so reluctant to let children just play and that is their work. Off to the pool!!! 🙂
Enjoy the water! (We finish lessons on Friday and I can’t wait!)
I wonder what your thoughts are for older children? We have been doing a week off after every 6 weeks, but I would like to have a summer. Me. I would. In the past it has been so detrimental. My son literally came back from one summer and it was as if he had never seen addition. It took over a month in the fall to make up that ground, so I can see keeping Math and Reading. I find it so hard to take the time off though as mine have struggled with various learning issues. This year we have turned a corner and I don’t want to lose steam, yet we all (mostly me) need a break.
I do 6 weeks on, 1 off as well! We call it Sabbath Schooling. 🙂 I still take a summer break. (I need it, too.)
Starting at about 8, I continue a bit of math — mainly because we only do four days of math per week and so if I’m not careful, we get further and further behind. Starting at 12, I have a few summer schoolish things I require. My 14yo has to keep going with math and Latin over summer. I really think keeping teen boys busy is a positive thing. 😉
I created a summer ticket system that I’m planning to use. You have to scroll down to see it. Anyhow, it has math on it, which is mainly for my 9 and 11 year olds. 🙂
So my youngest just finished up his Bob Book lessons — he’s 7. This means there are still a few rules he doesn’t know. I plan to keep up his reading with just having him read and then do new lessons in the fall.
I think that while what I said is generally true, it doesn’t mean that you can’t continue something that is on your radar — maybe your mommy instincts are telling you something! For math facts, maybe use Xtra Math? It’s fun, free online, and only takes a little tiny bit of time.
With that said, YOUR SANITY is really important. You know that, right? So I would say: make sure you get at least four weeks really and truly off. I mean, yes — enjoy reading aloud to them and that type of thing, but you need to rest up so that you don’t start next year depleted. ♥