The Summer Slide: Simple Strategies To Prevent Academic Losses Over The Summer

Summer is upon us which means all sorts of excitement: hot weather, flip flops, pools, vacations, beaches, parks, watermelon – the list goes on and on! Unfortunately, there is one pitfall to summer: the summer slide. I’m not talking about that playground slide that is ALWAYS too hot (why can’t these be produced in a different material that isn’t potentially butt burning?) but the fact that most students lose some of what they’ve learned over the school year during the summer.

I’ve asked expert Laura Reber to share some concrete tips for avoiding summer slide. Laura is the founder and CEO of Chicago Home Tutor.

Image: ComicPhonics.com

By: Laura Reber

Estimates vary on how steep the summer slide is but the consensus is unanimous about the fact that a loss happens.

Here are some of my favorite tips and tricks to help you slow down or even prevent the summer slide.

If your child is learning to read, I’d recommend the website Starfall where kids can work on letter names and sounds as well as basic phonics and sight words. If you’d prefer an offline version, I also like the Sound Partner’s Program which is a great and effective program that anyone can use to teach their K-2nd grade students how to read. The lessons can be done in about 15-30 minutes per day.

If your student is already reading, but you’d like to maintain their reading skills over the summer (or improve their reading comprehension), you can use the summer reading packets from Readworks.org. If you’re more adventurous and want to explore the website more, Readworks.org also has a limitless number of articles with comprehension questions to keep your child reading all summer. You can even let your child pick the genre or topic to help keep them engaged!

While the summer slide tends to focus on the importance of reading during the summer, don’t forget about math! Xtramath.org makes math fun by including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division into fun games.

For additional math skills (did you catch the pun there?), check out IXL.com which has the skills broken down both by grade level and skill set, so you can focus on the skills that were most difficult for your child to master during the school year. You can do 20 problems per day for free or create a paid account to track progress and gain unlimited access.

Executive functioning are those skills dealing with planning, time management, organization, and flexibility. Some children can benefit from professional coaching in these areas over the summer so they are ready to tackle the school year. For those of you who’d like to work on executive functioning skills on your own over the summer, check out Habitica.com which allows you to create a virtual game world out of your child’s every day tasks and chores. If you’d prefer a print version, check out one or more of the Smart but Scattered series of books -you’ll find many practical guides for supporting your child’s executive functioning skills at school and at home.

That should be enough to get you started on your summer study plans! When you click on each of these websites, you’ll find a plethora of content to explore and share with your child. Of course, if you want more specific help with any academic-related skill, please check us out at the Chicago Home Tutor. On our team of school psychologists, special education teachers, and other highly specialized educators, we’re sure to have someone who can help no matter what your needs.



Marylynne is a mom, wife, newly minted entrepreneur, recovering attorney and community enthusiast. She is currently building a website to help Chicago parents find full semesters or single day sessions of classes for their babies, toddlers, and children to attend. On top of all that, she blogs to share her parental musings and insider tips for making the most of (aka surviving) kid-centric things to do in Chicago on ClassCrasher. You can also follow Marylynne on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest