Preventing the Summer Slide

August 16th, 2008 at 05:16pm Cari Shurman 1414

Each fall teachers spend a lot of time reviewing what was taught last spring. It can take as much as six weeks or more. This is because of the “summer slide”. We all need a break from our “regular work”. Sports and recreational activities are wonderful. But our minds don’t have to become dormant over the summer. Ron Fairchild, the executive director of the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University, suggests there are many ways to try to reduce the recovery time. Suggestions include visits to museums, the local library, educational trips, less time on computer games and TV, encouraging reading and math problems.

But we need to go to another level. We, and our children, need to practice mind/body activities such as Tai Chi or Yoga.

My experience with children over the summer is that it is hard to get them to want to do math and other review problems. But it is not hard to get kids to focus their minds in meditative movement. This practice helps them to pay attention and concentrate as soon as they get back to school so the materials that were previously learned come back much faster. They arrive at school ready for academic activities again.

There is a Chinese saying: “The only place the mind, body, emotions, and spirit are separate is in textbooks.” We need to remember this when we prepare our kids to be in the best possible frame of mind for the first day of school this fall.

Cari Shurman

Preventing the Summer Slide

Each fall teachers spend a lot of time reviewing what was taught last spring. It can take as much as six weeks or more. This is because of the “summer slide”. We all need a break from our “regular work”. Sports and recreational activities are wonderful. But our minds don’t have to become dormant over the summer. Ron Fairchild, the executive director of the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University, suggests there are many ways to try to reduce the recovery time. Suggestions include visits to museums, the local library, educational trips, less time on computer games and TV, encouraging reading and math problems.

But we need to go to another level. We, and our children, need to practice mind/body activities such as Tai Chi or Yoga.

My experience with children over the summer is that it is hard to get them to want to do math and other review problems. But it is not hard to get kids to focus their minds in meditative movement. This practice helps them to pay attention and concentrate as soon as they get back to school so the materials that were previously learned come back much faster. They arrive at school ready for academic activities again.

There is a Chinese saying: “The only place the mind, body, emotions, and spirit are separate is in textbooks.” We need to remember this when we prepare our kids to be in the best possible frame of mind for the first day of school this fall.

Preventing the Summer Slide

Each fall teachers spend a lot of time reviewing what was taught last spring. It can take as much as six weeks or more. This is because of the “summer slide”. We all need a break from our “regular work”. Sports and recreational activities are wonderful. But our minds don’t have to become dormant over the summer. Ron Fairchild, the executive director of the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University, suggests there are many ways to try to reduce the recovery time. Suggestions include visits to museums, the local library, educational trips, less time on computer games and TV, encouraging reading and math problems.

But we need to go to another level. We, and our children, need to practice mind/body activities such as Tai Chi or Yoga.

My experience with children over the summer is that it is hard to get them to want to do math and other review problems. But it is not hard to get kids to focus their minds in meditative movement. This practice helps them to pay attention and concentrate as soon as they get back to school so the materials that were previously learned come back much faster. They arrive at school ready for academic activities again.

There is a Chinese saying: “The only place the mind, body, emotions, and spirit are separate is in textbooks.” We need to remember this when we prepare our kids to be in the best possible frame of mind for the first day of school this fall.

Entry Filed under: Health, Aspen, Family