All year long, kids look forward to summer vacation. After approximately nine months cooped up in a classroom and doing homework before bed, summer break provides a chance for them to sleep in, play, and give their brains a rest.

Although it’s a lot of fun, summer vacation may actually be detrimental to your child’s academic success. There’s a growing concern about summer learning loss among parents and teachers alike. Keep reading to discover more about what summer learning loss is and how signing your kids up for summer camp can help combat its negative effects.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Each year, we hope to see children making progress, both academically and socially. This progress can be loss over summer break, however. According to ThinkStretch.com, “most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in reading and mathematical computation skills over the summer months – what educators and researchers refer to as “summer learning loss” or “summer brain drain.”

What Causes Summer Learning Loss?

The brain is a muscle and like all muscles it needs exercise. During the school year, children are actively thinking, solving problems, and overcoming social challenges. This “exercise” grinds to a halt in the summer, allowing the brain to “atrophy” and eliminating some of these new skills.

According to a 2004 study cited by ThinkStretch.com, “Parents consistently cite summer as the most difficult time to ensure that their children have productive things to do.” Likewise a 2007 study found that “about two-thirds of the ninth-grade achievement gap between lower and higher income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities during the elementary school years.”

How Can Summer Camp For Kids Combat Learning Loss?

We’ll talk more about this in a follow up post, but for now it’s important that parents realize summer camp can be a great way to help their kids slow the effects of learning loss. Summer camp activities keep the mind active, keep social skills moving in the right direction, and prevent kids from just sitting in front of the television for three solid months.

Contact Just For Kids about our summer camp offerings in the Chicago area!