Veteran Virginia teacher shares tips to avoid ‘summer slide’

WISE, Va. — National Summer Learning Week between July 15-19 highlights the importance of keeping kids learning throughout the summer to ensure they return to school ready to succeed.

Educator and mother-of-two Adena Laney hopes parents and guardians take the “summer slide” very seriously.

“I tell my students all the time that I want them to go in and relax and rest their brains and get ready to have another year. But I also want them to still go read a book,” Laney said.

Laney serves as a 6th grade language arts teacher for the online public school program Virginia Connections Academy. Over her 20-year career in education, she has substituted long-term and was a homeless program coordinator in schools.

Experts say the cumulative effect of summer learning loss can leave some students up to three years behind their peers when they reach the fifth grade.

Laney tells parents they don’t have to enroll students into summer school, but instead, be intentional about putting learning opportunities and skills practice into everyday activities.

“You don't have to go get the worksheets out and get the flashcards out because we don't want that during the summer,” she explained. “There are fun things you can do that you can prevent this learning loss in the summer slide so that your students can come back and be ready to learn the new material.”

Those fun, learning opportunities include allowing your child to have a more hands on approach to grocery shopping. Have your student write down the grocery list, weigh produce, and use a calculator to add up the bill as you go.

In the kitchen, follow a recipe, use tools like a scale or measuring cups, and learn fractions through cutting fruits and vegetables.

At home, play board and card games and complete puzzles like crosswords.

In the backyard, plan a scavenger hunt or buy a rain gauge and keep track of the weather.

“You can have a family book club, or you can create a book club for your middle schoolers to get together and read different books together and talk about them,” Laney stated.

Curbing learning loss also helps out your rising student’s teachers.

“This is a difficulty for teachers, because we are having to take that time at the beginning of the year to relearn from the last year instead of just jumping in and learning the new material for that new year,” Laney recalled.

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