
...all of the intelligence right out of the students you just taught this year. Research has shown that the risk of losing ground academically during summer break affects all young students. Where math is concerned, nearly all children are at risk of losing two months of computation skills, possibly more. Brain drain is a real problem. Getting kids back on track in the fall can take weeks, even months. So what can a parent do to shore up the levee of their young student's intelligence, especially in the area of math skills? There are some fun and simple activities you can send home to help parents keep young minds sharp and help children retain the math skills they developed during the last school year. Here are just a few examples: TouchMath^® in the Sand: When parents and children go to the beach, they have opportunities to reinforce TouchMath principles. ¤ Draw numbers in the sand; then have the child draw the TouchPoints^® in their correct location on the number. ¤ Draw large numbers in the sand and have the kids step where the TouchPoints should be. A single footprint could be a single TouchPoint and a crossed footprint could be a double TouchPoint. ¤ Kids love to destroy sandcastles. Parents could make a series of sand pail castles in different TouchPoint patterns then have the kids stomp on the sand castles as they count the pattern. Parents could use the sand castle idea to reinforce addition and subtraction, too Dishwasher/Washing Machine Math: Parents can get kids to help load the dishwasher or washing machine. Children could count the number of items-cups, plates, forks, etc. for the dishwasher, pairs of socks, shirts, whites vs. colors, etc. for the washing machine. They could then help unload and compare the counts. Unloading could be a great lesson in subtraction. When it comes to pairs of socks, children can practice multiplication and division skills! License Plate Math: This can be as easy or as difficult as a parent desires. Younger children can look for numbers they recognize on a particular license plate. Older children can add, subtract, multiply or divide the numbers. Make a game of it—the first to correctly add the numbers gets to pick the next plate problem to work out, or some such reward. Food Math: Food is a great resource for teaching math. It could be as simple as asking a child to count how many chips they get for a snack or grapes they receive in a bowl. Using food is also a great way to teach subtraction. For older children, parents could have them go through the grocery store ads and make up a grocery list that will fit into a pre-set budget. Sign Search: During summertime driving excursions, there's a variety of different math and counting tools available right on the side of the road-signs. Look for shapes: count the rectangles or "How many different sign shapes can you find?" Count how many cars of a particular color there are. Use license plates to count from one to…whatever, depending on the counting skills of the child. Do a number search: look everywhere along the road for numbers, "That sign says 'Uncle Wally's Water Wonderland is only 53 miles!'" You get the picture. These are just a few suggestions. There are many opportunities to reinforce kids' education this summer. Suggest that parents be creative and look for ways that will fit into their planned activities. See what kind of creative math exercises kids can come up with on their own. Here are some links to other articles on the topic of summertime brain drain: http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/summertime.fun.html http://www.discoverthis.com/article-summer-science.html http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/localguide/kids/ny-entlockids30jun,0,3055418.story