The Durango Herald – Ann Butler
“As the countdown reaches the final week to summer vacation, kids can only think of one thing: freedom. But too much freedom may mean a loss of learning over the summer. Called summer setback or “summer slide,” students who don’t keep challenging their brains over the long break will need from six weeks to three months after school restarts in August to bring their level of skills and knowledge back to where they were when school ended in June…“Staying on top of academic skills is kind of like working out,” said Darren Choppa, an English Language Learning and interventionist teacher at Riverview Elementary School. “It’s a lot easier to maintain your academic fitness than to try and start from scratch. The key to maintaining this academic fitness during the summer is to create short, daily learning opportunities for your kiddo.”…Being active and learning new sports and skills is also important in the summer…“Summer is a time to engage students in different types of learning, using different parts of their brain,” said Lynn Mather, chief academic officer for District 9-R. “Reading for pleasure, writing for pleasure, art projects, musical activities, engaging the mind through games and puzzles, physical and mental activities that stretch and use the brain all help to grow students’ brains when school is not in session and to prepare them for the upcoming school year.””(more)