April showers bring May flowers, May flowers bring June exams, and June brings SUMMER.

The end of the school year means final tests, assessments, and projects for students of all ages. But while Finals do mean that the school year is winding down, spring is no time for students to slack. The final months of school can be used to boost marks and tackle problem areas, and summer is the perfect time to catch up and get ahead for next year.

All too often students see summer as the time to forget about books, tests, and homework and focus on relaxing and having fun. But forgetting is precisely the problem: students lose learning skills and momentum, and end up needing up to six weeks when school returns in the fall to get caught up to where they previously were the year before. And students who start the year behind have a difficult (if not impossible) time catching back up without extra help.

Think of it this way: professional athletes use the offseason to train and work on skills they want to improve. They continue to work out and practice in order to stay fit and keep their skills sharp for the following season. If athletes didn’t train at all during their time off, they would need many weeks to return to form, and by then, their season could be ruined.

The same goes for students. Two months away from all forms of learning can leave children unprepared to return to school in the fall. Studies show that students taking the same test in June and September score lower after a summer off. We refer to it as “summer brain drain”: two months of very little mental stimulation that leaves students’ brains drained of previous knowledge, skills, and learning habits.

So, what can parents and students do to ensure the summer is as productive as the brain needs it to be? Check these ideas out:

Top 3 Summer Activities

ABCs of Summer Learning

Summer Dos & Don’ts

Twenty Things to do this Summer

Summer Learning Grade by Grade 

Or best yet contact your local Oxford Learning and ask about our summer programs!

Spring may be taking its sweet time to get here in some places, but each day that passes means summer is one step closer! What are your family’s plans for filling the long days of July and August? While family vacations, days at the beach, and lounging by the pool are all likely on your list, summer learning should be as well.

Why?

FACT: Summer learning loss affects ALL students

Brains don’t have an off switch. School may shut down for two months, but brains need continuous stimulation in order to remain sharp. Without keeping the brain active over the summer holiday, students can need up to six weeks to return to the learning level they were at the year before. It is a misconception that summer school is only for students who have failed the previous year: summer learning is essential for all students to be prepared in September to learn new material from day one.

FACT: Summer learning loss is cumulative

The curriculum doesn’t stop because a student falls behind. After the summer, students who need several weeks to get back into their school routine and catch up to where they left off in June can fall behind and stay behind for the entire year. If the problem is not fixed, they can start every school year behind and never properly be at the level needed to be successful. The summer is the perfect time to catch up and get ahead.

FACT: Math skills take the hardest hit

It is no secret that many students struggle with math. Grade nine math is the most failed subject, and studies suggest that 2.6 months of grade-level equivalency can be lost over the summer if students do not partake in some form of learning program.

FACT: All summer learning loss is avoidable

Though studies document the negative effect summer can have on students, there’s good news: learning losses are avoidable. Summer learning programs allow students to focus on trouble areas and keep skills sharp in as little as 2-3 hours a week, which helps them maintain momentum, and head back to class prepared for the new school year. Knowing how to avoid summer learning loss is the first step to making this holiday the most productive yet! Students can head back to class confident and prepared to achieve any academic goals they have in mind!

Now is the time to start researching summer camps and programs that will help maintain learning momentum and get students ready to hit the ground running next school year. Contact your local Oxford Learning Centre to ask about our summer programming, and remember, learning doesn’t stop just because school does!

Just as athletes need periods of rest when they are training, our brains need breaks as well. We all know the feeling when we just can’t read another page of notes or write another sentence. But how does the brain determine when it needs a mental break?

Time magazine reports that according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, we receive a signal when we have reached our peak – think of the way our bodies screams out when we just can’t do another sit-up – and we are prompted by our brains to take a break. Once we have rested and are refreshed, we are able to resume the task at hand because the signal has quieted down.

But why are there days we seem to be able to work hard all day, and others when we seem to need a break every 20 minutes? Apparently the signal is not pre-set, and instead hinges on how much EFFORT is spent and what the reward for the work is. The brain is constantly re-calibrating the point at which it has had enough in relation to the work/gain ratio.

To read the full Time article on the study, click here.

To read more about how the brain influences us, click here.

There’s no doubt everyone feels a little sleepy the first few days back to work or school after the holidays. But routines shouldn’t change drastically when school is not in session: keeping similar sleep and wake times can help your child get into the school routine more quickly than those who spend their holidays staying up late and sleeping in every day.

Children don’t only feel lethargic and tired just after holidays though. Many students have difficulty getting up each morning after staying up late watching TV or texting. This can lead to students falling asleep in class, or being awake but not cognitively alert enough to process and store new information from morning classes. This can have a direct effect on your child’s grades, as lack of sleep impairs the brain’s ability to transfer and store information to long-term memory.

Check out our sleep checklist to help determine if your child is getting the right amount of Zzz’s to get those A’s!

Click the image to download a PDF copy

Looking for a way to spend quality time with the family this holiday season? Want to unplug and have some fun? Books and board games are great ways to get your child to put down the cell phone or video game controller and have some family fun while developing skills that can be transferred to the classroom when back-to-school time comes around.

Books can be a great stocking stuffer and give kids the chance to read material that interests them. Even if your child isn’t an avid recreational reader, comic books or magazines can spark their interest and encourage them to spend some quiet time reading. Reading together as a family is a great way to bond and can inspire discussion on different topics that arise as you read. Take turns reading paragraphs, act out scenes, guess what will happen next, and (if the book is also a movie) watch the film version together once you have finished the book. Encouraging your child to read for pleasure will increase their focus and concentration, expand their vocabulary and literacy skills, and is a hobby the whole family can enjoy.

Board games are also a great way to have fun as a family over the holidays. Although online and video games are often preferred by for our tech-savvy kids, board games are a great way to increase learning skills while having fun. Board games enhance skills such as:

• Problem solving
• Quick thinking
• Vocabulary skills
• Identifying patterns
• Deduction
• Memory
• Decision making
• Teamwork
• Persistence
• Creativity/Imagination

Have some holiday fun with the family this break by dusting off your favourite board game or curling up on the couch with a good book. Who knows, it may even be the start of a great family tradition for the New Year!

If you had to guess what the single most important academic year is for children, what would you say? Junior year of high school? Senior year of college?

Wrong. It’s third grade.

A Time News article states that third grade is the most important academic year because it is the year students move from learning to read to reading to learn.

To read the whole article and to learn more about the crucial academic turning point that occurs in third grade, click here

Reading is an important life-long skill. And, developing strong reading habits from an early age sets the stage for continued good reading habits throughout life. These are the simple facts. But, even if we know WHY reading skills are important to develop from a young age, often the process of getting kids to become enthusiastic readers requires more than telling them that literacy skills are important.

The Importance of Reading: A Quick Review

Good reading habits are not just about developing strong literacy skills in the quest for good grades—reading is a habit that has benefits for students and adults alike:

•    Reading increases vocabulary and vocabulary has been shown to be a key indicator of future school success (Did you know that studies show that vocabulary use in grade one predicts more than 30% of 11th grade reading comprehension?)
•    Reading is THE core skill that is used in learning every subject in school
•    Reading has been shown to activate several different areas of the brain simultaneously
•    Reading can improve social skills
•    Reading books (not EReaders or off a monitor of any sort) can cut back on the amount of time spent in front of media and technology (up to 7 hours a day)

How to Encourage Reading . The Basics:

•    Make books available to kids.
•    Go to the Library.
•    Gifts books as gifts.
•    Lead by example—kids become readers when they have a role model who reads.
•    Read a book as a family—get multiple copies for all members.
•    Read to young children every night.
•    Try a new genre.
•    Read anything—cookbooks, magazines, comics, textbooks…
•    Get a nightlight for your kids’ beds.
•    Put a book on the bedside table.
•    Read books from a series.
•    Read books from the same author.
•    Read books that are becoming movies.
•    Read scary books and up the thrill quotient!
•    Have a school friend recommend a book.
•    Ask the schoolteacher what the other kids in the class are reading.
•    Listen to audio books in the car.

Advanced Tips:

But what if you’ve tried all these tips and your child is still more slug worm that bookworm? We came across these great tricky tips that just might help:

Give kids banned books—or let them read above their level… anything that sparks their interest. Tell them the book is bad (for whatever reason) and they’ll only want to read it more. Sounds like Psychology 101!

Stop reading right a good part—leave the story right before the climax, and guaranteed your child will be curious enough to read in order to find out what happens next!

This tip from blogger Eden Kennedy of the blog Fussy might be the best tip yet: Read something funny to yourself and laugh about it.  When your child asks what’s funny, simply tell him that he won’t get it.  Watch this video of Eden explain how she gets her son, who would rather play video games, involved in reading—tricky!  And awesome!

Do you have sneaky ways to get your kids to read? We’d love to hear them!  Leave us a comment or share them on Twitter or Facebook.

More articles about reading:

POW! Comic Books Punch Up Reading Abilities

Why Phonics Builds Better Readers

Harry Potter is Magic for Kids’ Literacy

You asked. We answered!
This question comes from our archives…

Question:
How do I help my four-year-old son to develop a love of reading? He struggles to sound words out, and doesn’t seem to be interested in reading on his own. How can I help him learn to love reading?

Answer:
Books can be our best friends. But to struggling children, they can also be the enemy. Children are aware of our expectations, and they recognize our desire for them to read. To avoid disappointing us, children with reading issues may just push books aside for activities that don’t require so much effort.

Strong reading skills are the foundation for learning, so they are a critical skill to develop early on. Luckily, an aversion to reading at a young age can easily be overcome.

Sometimes different approaches are the solution to getting reluctant readers to embrace books and reading. Our Little Readers program is developed to help children as young as three learn to become strong, competent readers who love books! We help kids learn the sounds that make up the building blocks of our language. Kids become able to sound out words and develop confidence in their ability to try to read new words.

Remember that learning to read can be a struggle for many children, but if you give your son the skills that he needs to be a successful reader, a love of reading will follow eventually. Continue to make an effort to share reading time with your son, and encourage him every step of the way!

——-

Do you have an education question that you’d like ask us? Leave your question in the comments, or visit us on Twitter to ask your question there!

Kids forget stuff all of the time. Where they left their book bag. What day the next soccer game is. When Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone.

Before writing kids off as hopelessly forgetful, consider that they may have simply never been taught how to remember.

As the World Memory Champions can tell you, there are tricks—simple tricks—that everybody can use to improve memory abilities.

So what’s the secret?

When it comes to improving your memory, the most important secret is … imagination.

And luckily for forgetful students, kids have a natural abundance of imagination.

Telling stories and visualizing details improves the ability to recall details. That’s because visual memory is larger and stronger than logical memory.

The main memory technique involves making visual associations. This is where imagination comes in. The associations do not have be logical or make sense. They only need to be relevant to the individual.

For students, it might be the only instance where being illogical, nonsensical, and random pays off in school.

Here are some of the best tips that filmmaker Josh Freed learned while filming his documentary
Where Did I Put My…Memory?

1. Numbers: Imagine numbers as shapes or common images. For instance, the number 5 could be a snake, the number 8, a snowman. Then, recall numbers by crafting a story around the numbers. This technique could be very helpful in helping young children remember phone numbers.

2. Placement: Always remember where you left something by imagining it blowing up. Rather than dropping off a book bag in the front hall, pause and visualize it blowing up. Or, maybe a less violent image for younger children—perhaps the image of taking a nap would work.

3. Names: Visualize something about a person’s name. Associate the first letter of the name with an object. For instance, the name Laura could be associated with a shamrock because she was wearing green when you met her, and shamrocks are lucky. Lucky and Laura both start with the letter L.

4. Singing. There has been much success with singing instructions and repeating the chorus. The Alphabet Song has been helping preschoolers learn the alphabet for years, while teacher Alex Kajitani has become known as the Rappin’ Mathematician for using rap to teach math skills to students.

5. Making up stories. Making lists and writing things down is a tried and true way to avoid forgetting, but when these sorts of memory aids are not available, making up stories can not only help people remember important tasks and details, it can actually help make the brain stronger, and less reliant on outside tools to aid recall.

Check out the article The Secrets of Mastering Your Memory for more information and for information about how technology will help memory in the future.

When asked by an ambitious high school student what leads to success, TED Talks presenter Richard St. John didn’t know how to answer. But, after 7 years and over 500 interviews of successful people, he finally had his answer.  He shares what he learned about what leads to success in this short video.

Oxford Learning Winnipeg franchisee Alexis Yildir suggested posting this video as a great way to inspire teens to succeed in school.  The tips are simple and easy-to-follow, and they drive home the message that anyone can be successful. Watch this video together as a family as a great way to get motivated about the new school year.