As the summer makes way for fun in the sun, it might not leave enough room for practicing mathematics.  Math has a tendency to take quite a long vacation from your child’s everyday life in the summer time.  This leads to the dreaded “summer slump” or the “summer slide”.

What is the Summer Slump?

Researchers claim that on average, a child loses 1.8 months of math skills during the summer vacation period.  As a result, your child will have to play catch-up before being able to move forward in the new school year.  Not an ideal start.  

Reading is naturally integrated into your child’s life, through summer reading lists and various everyday activities.  However, math is not as easily entwined into daily life at such a young age.  Banking, planning a vacation, or other activities we adults do, are not yet part of your child’s life.  So, what happens when your child spends the entire summer without partaking in “math exercise”?  Like any form of exercise, if you don’t exercise your math skills, you get out of shape.    

But the great news is, there are a lot of fun ways to stay in “math shape”.

How to Fight the Summer Slump

Summer is a time for fun and games.  As we’ve proven with DragonBox games, learning math can be fun too! In addition to our math games, there are a variety of activities the whole family can enjoy.  These activities will help keep your child ahead of the game, in terms of scholastic progress.  

1. Family vacation, family planning

Planning a vacation is usually left to us adults.  But why not get your kids involved in planning the family vacation this summer?  It’s a fun activity the whole family can enjoy.  Your kids can help calculate vacation costs, gas mileage, airfare, or even coordinating an entire day's worth of activities.  They will feel proud of the exciting summer day they’ve planned for the family, while exercising those vital math skills. 

2. Math-athalon

Is your family into sports?  Sports are a great way to get your students involved in summer math exercises.  Follow your favorite team’s statistics and compare them to another team.  Create a chart for the kitchen or family room showing where your number one team lies in the ranking.  How many points has your favorite player scored?  What’s the average amount of points scored per player?  How many points does the team need to beat the other team?  All of these questions stimulate your children’s mathematical skills, while further engaging them with a hobby they already love!

Sports are not the only summer hobby with the ability of becoming mathematically “hands-on”. Math offers so many exciting activities we often overlook, such as cooking summer picnics. 

3. Summer Cookout

With all this summer fun, it’s easy to get a little hungry. Cooking summer dinners or picnics can become a way of incorporating math in a fun and family orientated way. Measure the ingredients with your kids.  For example, ask them to measure a cup of flour, use different measuring devices and ask which holds more of the ingredient.  Volume and fractions are at the core of cooking.  Having a summer party? Need to double or triple a recipe?  Have your math star do the conversions, and then cook the dishes together! 

For more information on math and cooking activities, click here! 

So, there you have three fantastic (and fun) ways of incorporating math into your child’s summer vacation.  Math is everywhere, but as parents and teachers, sometimes we just need a little help and inspiration to find new ideas for keeping our children involved in mathematics.  

From all of us here at DragonBox, "Have a great summer!"