Stopping the Summer Slide with Just 2 Books!

What do you think of when you hear “summer slide”?

Is it a super cool water slide at Adventure Island? Or how about sliding into home plate during a summer Rays game?

Actually, the summer slide has to deal with learning loss over the summer. Research suggests students lose about a month’s worth of learning, on average, over the summer.

It makes sense. They go from having school five days a week, to two-and-a-half months of nearly nothing.

MyON is a personalized digital library that gives students access to more than 7,000 digital books.

Its stats show that in 2023, kids in Hillsborough County read nearly 600,000 books in May. In June of 2023, that number dropped to approximately 117,000 books.

Ask any teacher, especially an elementary school teacher, and they’ll tell you the first month of a new school year is often spent “reteaching” skills from the previous year.

That’s because of the summer slide.

Stopping the Summer Slide: All is Not Lost!

There is a way to prevent the summer slide. Children must read over the summer. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but they must read.

Hillsborough County Public Schools has teamed up with MyON to encourage children to keep reading over the summer.

It only takes two books to stop the summer slide.

That’s right! By reading just two books over the entire summer, you can stop the summer slide.

Just two (on level) books are enough to keep those skills sharp enough to not lose any reading learning loss over the summer.

MyOn.com is a wonderful source to find books as well as activities you can do with your children to encourage them to read. Our local libraries are another amazing resource. Many public libraries have events and classes which are a great way to beat the heat over the summer.

Beating the heat and beating the summer slide: Sounds like a plan!

Watch: Our Hillsborough County Public Schools Superintendent (along with some really enthusiastic kiddos) encourages us to read #Just2Books!

Originally published in the June 2024 issue of Tampa Bay Parenting Magazine.