3 Fun Ways to Prevent the Math Summer Slide

According to a research carried out by Oxford Learning, an online program which caters to the learning needs of students of different age groups, math skills equivalent to approximately 2.6 months of learning are lost by kids over the summer vacation. What’s more, if kids and parents manage to put in just 2-3 hours per week towards the subject, this learning loss can be prevented to a considerable extent. Also, Duke University researchers claim that math skills decline more over the summer than academic skills in any other subject.

“Mathematics” by ArtsyBee is licensed under CC by 2.0

Here are a couple of fun math activities that can be used to brush up the kids’ math skills over the summer so that they are able to retain a good part of whatever was taught to them over the past academic year.

Math in the Kitchen

Ask your kid to count how many cookies are there on the cookie tray once it comes freshly baked out of the oven. A good way would be to count the number of rows and columns to calculate the number of cookies, hence helping the kids recall and practice their multiplication tables. Allow your kids to measure out the volume of water that goes into the spaghetti recipe you’re cooking. Younger kids can be made to set the table for dinner and count out the number of forks and knives required for the people at the dining table. The number of pints in a gallon, the number of ounces in a cup, kids can get to know these basics of math measurements like the back of their hand if they help out in the kitchen on an everyday basis.

Math with Games

You can pick from an endless variety of exciting math games to play with your kids and as a family. One of the relatively recent additions to the market is what is known as printable math games – what you need to do is simply download certain e-books from the internet to your computer, print them out and voila! You have a great math game on your hands which you’ve never played before. Alternatively, you could introduce your child to online math games which come in all shapes and sizes and for all ages. Playing card games or board games like the tried-and-tested monopoly are other equally good options which allow you to spend quality time together as a family as well as teach kids the fundamentals of counting, money and otherwise.

Math with Videos

Ever heard of something known as a multiplication rap? Well, it’s an easy and entertaining way to help your kids sing along and learn their multiplication tables in style. Also, doodles are not always just absent-minded scribbles and squiggles drawn on paper. Doodling in math by connecting dots, making binary trees and practicing the Fibonacci series are fun ways kids can practice certain mathematical concepts, be means of watching certain educational videos on sites like YouTube.

Because the only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics, as a parent you just need to make sure some form of math is incorporated into your child’s play – one of the most effective ways to do away with the otherwise inevitable summer slide.