- Hi, and welcome to another Ohio Learns 360 webinar.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

And today we'll be speaking with Lauren King, a principal with Whitehall City Schools near Columbus and we'll be talking about preventing the summer slide.

No, it's not a dance move.

It's the learning gap which results from the time students, especially K through five students are out of school.

We'll discuss daily strategies and resources to help parents promote academic, civic, and social emotional growth in the home.

Lauren King, welcome.

- Thank you.

I appreciate it.

- How long have you been at Whitehall?

- So this is my fifth year as a principal in Whitehall.

- Okay, interesting.

And before that were, you were a teacher, I imagine?

- Yes, I was, yes.

I taught in a couple different places.

Mostly third grade.

- Mostly third grade.

Okay.

So that's right in the heart of where the summer slide is an issue is something that comes up.

Tell me a little bit, first of all, what you noticed when kids returned to school in the fall and the summer slide had been happening for three months.

- Yeah, absolutely.

We, we definitely noticed it.

I just, from a data standpoint, we noticed a huge regression in data from, for us benchmarking.

We do benchmarking three times a year.

So we've got a fall benchmark, winter benchmark, spring benchmark, and the spring benchmark skills for one grade level are essentially the same skills that we test 'em on when they come back.

What we noticed was when we tested students, you know, the first or second week that they were back, we actually saw a huge regression in the percentages of essentially the skills that they had mastered at the end of, for example, kindergarten.

So at the end of kindergarten last year we had 82% of our kids that were considered on track for reading.

When they came back in the fall, that number, which was mostly the same kiddos, had now dropped to 55% that were on track and reading.

So the good news is within a couple weeks, we're usually able to recoup those skills and, and that's where I think it's important to talk about things that we as parents can do at home to be able to just keep those synapses firing and keep the kiddos learning over the summer so that it's not as steep of a learning curve to get back into school time.

- Well you mentioned reading and you mentioned what parents can do.

Every library I know of has a summer reading program.

They have prizes, try to make reading fun.

What are some strategies parents can use to make summer reading 'cause reading's enjoyable, but to make it more attractive during the summer?

'cause it obviously, it sounds like that's a very important thing to keep up on in the summer.

- Absolutely.

I think the, the key to any sort of anything that you do in the summer is being able to integrate it as much as possible with the other fun things that you're gonna do.

So for example, if you're gonna cook with your kiddos, have them read the recipe out loud to you.

That's an easy way to integrate that reading practice reading street signs is a great thing to do while you're in the car for car trips and, and the library is such a great resource.

They have so many great programs over the summer and, and not just the library, there's other places I know at the library you can check out a cultural pass where you can get free admission to the Museum of Art.

There's all those plaques that they can read there.

Just any sort of environmental reading.

'cause that gives them the opportunity to not only engage with reading but see that reading is a skill that everybody uses all the time and really give that some meaning.

Even writing, writing a grocery list is something that I always, you know, kids love to be helpers.

So having them write down the things that we need to get from the grocery store and then checking them off as you go through.

Any sort of integration like that.

In terms of actually sitting down and reading, I've had success with my own daughter with being able to do sort of a pseudo book club.

So she, and I'll read the same book at the same time.

She loves that.

Then we can talk about what we're reading And even, even if you're not reading the same book, I think that having a dedicated time, you know, in the evening where you can, for us, we have a cup of tea and then we read together and modeling that behavior as an adult, especially reading for, for pleasure.

'cause a lot of times as adults we don't take time for that and then we ask kids to take time for it constantly.

So it's like, why are you asking me to sit down and read a chapter book when I've never seen you sit down and read a chapter book in your life, mom?

So I think that modeling piece is really important too.

- As you're, you're modeling this for the kids if it's, if it's something that they're like they prefer to be in their room reading, that sort of thing.

Is there, I know this is a slippery slope, but is there a sense of okay if you want to go to the pool, you've gotta read a chapter of your book, the the, the prizes for doing reading.

How well does that work?

Or is that something that can become a very slippery slope?

- So I think that if it's used in moderation, that it's a great incentive.

You know, we, it's the same as I do the same thing with chores.

You know, we can go do this fun thing when you empty the dishwasher because in life there are responsibilities and it's okay if that responsibility is reading a chapter before you go to do something fun.

As long as it's not, you know, once you finish this entire book then we can go because you don't want it to ever seem punitive.

We want it to still be enjoyable.

- That's a good way to put it.

You don't want to do that for sure.

And reading, as you mentioned, you, you sit with your daughter and read.

There's the library that has thousands and thousands of books.

What about though something like, well math not only, there's not a math lab in every city of course and sometimes the math maybe not so much in in K through five, but as they get older the math might be beyond the parents' understanding or they might not remember how to do certain things.

What do you do in situations like that where it's a subject like math?

- Math?

Absolutely.

And I will say as a parent of a fourth grader, sometimes her math, I'm like, I'm gonna have to ask the math coach at my school.

Like I'm not, things are a little different than when I went to school.

But math, you do have to be a little more creative to integrate that.

But again, when you think about those real life applications of math, you know, again, going back to the recipe, that's a great opportunity to look at fractions or even converting things back and forth.

Or for older kiddos, helping them set a budget if they've got something that they're trying to earn money to be able to buy, helping them track that they've got the addition, subtraction, a little bit of budgeting, that's a great experience for them.

And you can make, I mean you can make almost anything a game flashcards, if you're doing math facts, you can play it like the, the game war like that card game.

I think a lot of times we don't realize because we're in such a technological age, how much our kids crave just spending one-on-one time with us.

So a lot of times that it doesn't really matter what we're doing, they're kind of willing to buy in whatever as long as they have your undivided attention.

So - Flipping flashcards, that's certainly going to engage the two of you and, and have you be together.

Is that something that, that it's good and I guess this might depend on every child might be good to do that after lunch every day at a certain set time or is it something that, you know, we haven't done flashcards in a while.

Let me grab those.

Is it, is it, is it, is there something like that that should be on a schedule, whether it's math or a different subject that really benefits from being at the same time every day?

- So I do think schedules are really beneficial as much as kiddos tend to push back a little bit about scheduling when you first set them.

Kids really thrive on routine.

It's something that makes them feel safe.

And it's something that we talk about at school a lot.

And in fact I think part of summer slide is the lack of routine that we have over the summer.

And I'm not saying, you know, wake 'em up at school time, then it's time for math, then it's time for it's summer.

They gotta be kids, they gotta play.

But if there is some predictability in terms of, like I said, reading before bedtime or maybe like you said, we do math after lunch, just a little activity and giving the the kids, I almost said students 'cause I'm so used to that, giving them some authentic choice in what activity they want to engage with is really helpful too.

So I've, I've used popsicle sticks where there's a bunch of different activities we can do when they're on Popsicle sticks.

Maybe it's a menu choice of things we can do.

I do that even with dinner because I don't want to put forth the brain power of what all the options are that we could cook.

So kiddos buy in a lot more when they get a choice on what they're doing.

- That's a good point.

If there are kids though who they just, they just don't want, they want to be in front of the device playing the video game or they just wanna ride their bike.

How do you, how do you reach out to a, a child like that when that, when, when your child is doing that, is it time to call on reinforcements from a neighbor?

I mean, what are some strategies you've come up with that might work - Absolutely.

Well, if they wanna ride their bike, I definitely think that that's really important.

'cause that physical energy is, is it's important to get that out.

And when it's nice in Ohio, which is very small windows of time, you gotta be outside.

I'm, I'm lucky that I'm inside right now because I, I thought about taking this call outside 'cause it's beautiful today.

But I think finding sort of, I think those sneaky ways to sort of get them engaged, whether it's while we're on the bike ride, we're going to read some of the numbers on the mailboxes or, and, and also it does help to have a buddy that's doing it too.

If you've got a kid in the neighborhood who might wanna do a book club with your kiddo or might want to do something like that, or even with the video games, make 'em turn the captions on.

- That's a good way to put it.

- Like if we're gonna do the video games, that's fine, but you're gonna read what it says rather than listening to the audio.

- And this, by the time they get to kindergarten, this next question may not apply as much, but for younger kids, a lot of times if they wanna watch a show, they don't have quote unquote schoolwork that they're not doing in the summer.

'cause they're not really in school yet.

When they wanna watch the TV shows, do you find the, at, at kindergarten or later it's helpful to maybe change it to a different language, change it to Spanish or something, or by then is it too late for that?

- You know, I really haven't experienced anything with that, but I'm really intrigued by the idea.

I mean, they really are, even in kindergarten, even in first grade, even in second grade, they're sponges still.

I mean a lot of, we have a lot of English language learners in my building and the amount of students that English is their first language, that they pick things up from their peers that speak Spanish, for example.

It's, it's really neat to see how they figure out how to communicate.

There's a lot of, if if your kiddo's a TV kiddo, that's okay.

There's a lot of really great programming.

PBS has tons of great shows that really lend themselves to organic conversations about topics.

And they've, they've got shows for, for all different grades.

I mean, I showed my third graders, oh my gosh, I can't think of what it's called.

There was a robot and like an evil guy and they were solving math stuff.

Can't think of what it was, but I would show them that.

I mean, and, and there were fractions in there and decimals and so there's all sorts of, there's, there's things that they can watch.

And even just regular movies and, and for kiddos that are pre-reads, having conversations about what they see happen in the movie or just sort of reviewing, you can start retelling, getting them to tell the story, to get that sequencing in order with your pre-reading kiddos, just playing with words is a great thing to do.

So what sound do you hear at the beginning of the word cat and having them just say that's something you can do in the car, you can do that everywhere.

And just getting them to be listening to language really helps with those foundational skills.

- And since you were talking about the, the power of words, the interest they might get in, in words.

We've discussed reading a little bit, we've discussed arithmetic, writing, getting them to write, whether it's tell me about your day or tell me about write a book report essentially, what are your thoughts, any of those other of those more effective than the other?

Or are there other other things that maybe would spur them to wanna write a little bit, maybe a paragraph a day?

- Sure.

I I think writing about their personal experience is gonna be more engaging to them.

And if you're able to, for example, I think on Sundays the Columbus Art Museum is, is free for those two living Franklin County.

If you go on a trip like that and you ask them to write down three things they learned there, that's a great entry into nonfiction writing, informative writing.

I've also, another idea that I've seen is journaling between you and your kiddo.

So writing each other notes back and forth can sort of give that shared ownership.

And then again you can do some modeling of, of writing structures when you're writing a response to, to whatever.

And you know, if you, if mom and daughter have a secret journal that they write in, like they might really buy into that.

- That's cute.

I like that.

A secret journal that they, that they write about.

That's very, that's very cool.

As the kids are, are going through the summer, let's say that, you know, you give them a week after school is out to sort of decompress and then you start introducing some light schoolwork, but then you hit, maybe there's a trip in the middle of summer, you come back and you just cannot get back to the routine.

You actually sense maybe they're, they're sliding back a little bit.

What, what are your thoughts?

Do you, do you change text completely and say, okay, we're not gonna read together now we're gonna do verb flashcards.

I mean, I don't know, I'm just thinking of something.

Is that a good time to completely change course or give 'em another week to decompress?

Or what are your thoughts?

- I think the balance is really important in the summer and it, it is important.

They do need the break from school truly.

And giving opportunities to take those breaks I think is, is great.

Probably shorter duration breaks is going to be easier to slide back into the routine.

So maybe if we're on vacation for a week, we do one or two things on vacation, whether it's counting the shells that we pick up on the beach or reading a sign that is posted near, you know, the, the monument we're at, I don't know, whatever you're doing on vacation, continuing to sort of integrate it and, and I think is easier than having taken 2, 3, 4 weeks off and then school starts in two weeks and okay now we're gearing up to go back.

I think that can be a little jarring for them and is a little harder to get buy-in.

But I think also letting the kiddos take the lead and for older kiddos, just having a conversation with them saying, you know, I wanna make sure that we're ready when we go back in the fall.

Here are some things I think would be good to practice.

Do you wanna practice today or do you wanna practice tomorrow?

Again, giving that choice is, is really important so they can, summer's kind of the time that they get to be the masters of their own destiny.

So it's important to, to give them that space too, to be able to explore and that's good for their, being able to make choices and being able to, to solve problems is good for their growth too.

I mean those are, those are integral things for them being to be able to, to grapple with - As they're sort of masters of their own destiny during the summer.

And, and you know, you always see the, the list go around on the internet that things we did when we were growing up in the seventies and eighties and we would go out all day till it was dark and come home.

That's not quite as as viable today.

But as the kids are masters of their own destiny now and they go out to play in the yard, in the neighborhood.

Talk about the, the value of discovering new skills, new new ideas through just play as opposed to we've discussed, you know, flashcards and books but not having those school materials in front of you but still learning while they're out there with their friends in, in the environment where they spend most of their time.

- Absolutely.

And sometimes that's when the most rich learning really happens for, for one, anytime they're able to interact with peers or older kids or younger kids, those social skills that they learn from being at the playground, whether it's taking turns on the slide or you know, solving a little squabble that'll come up on the playground.

Being able to solve those things and giving them the opportunity to solve them.

I think sometimes as parents, and I know I've been guilty of this, we are so quick to try to swoop in and take care of a situation because we don't want anything negative to happen to our kids that we don't always give them the space to take risks and be able to work their way out of a situation.

So often I'll, I'll sit back and sort of just watch something play out, see if I need to intercede.

'cause a lot of times they'll work it out themselves and sometimes just an empty playground or a park or even my backyard, my daughter will have the most imaginative games going on and being able to, I'll just ask her questions about like, oh, what do you have over there today?

Is it a castle today?

Or she's made a restaurant out there a couple times and then I'm like, oh, make a menu so I know what I can order.

They're just brilliant.

I mean kids are so brilliant and such special tiny humans, they, they'll surprise you if you give them the space to really create and discover things.

- Good point, good point.

As far as kids, a lot of what we've talked about, pretty much all of it relies on parents to be there to, to encourage to work with them, that sort of thing.

But if there's kids who, who aren't able to be home during the summer or they, they have maybe a sitter who's only three, four years older who isn't in a position to, to teach for lack of a better term.

Is that where, where maybe it's the weekend trip to the library to load up on materials or apps that maybe the child has a device and you know, I'd like you to do this much and this app or what are, what are some things that you can suggest when, when that's the case where the parent can't be there during the day for a big chunk of the day?

- Yeah, absolutely.

And as I work year round, so that's kind of my reality a little bit with my daughter.

I think having options that you, I always find that during the summer I always hear, I'm bored.

Like I've run out of things to do.

I'm bored.

So having a list of options of activities just to, to different games they can play.

I know from my experience when I used to be a tween babysitter, like when the parents were like, here's some games you guys could play together or you can take this card to go there like that, I was like, thank you for giving me ideas.

So when they say I'm bored, I don't have nothing to to help them with.

But yeah, I think over the weekend, truly there's no, there's no, I think the other thing that's really important that I, I wanna make sure I express is anything is good enough.

Any sort of activities, any, even if it's one trip to the park, I, everyone has such busy lives and being a parent is so stressful.

I certainly don't want the summer slide to be something else that parents have to worry about.

Anything is good enough.

Any, any time that you can devote to it.

Any little trip you take it, it doesn't have to be school 2.0 over the summer for it to be effective.

So if during the week they're, you know, with the babysitter or with grandma and they spend both of the time on the tablet and that's what works, that's okay.

And there's apps you can put on there that are a little more educational, it might help but you know, there's no guilt associated with that.

Just keeping, keeping the conversation going I think is the biggest thing.

Having, just talking to your kiddos a lot because developing those language skills and sort of seeing their thinking process and letting them see yours is, is just a really great experience regardless of what the activity is you're doing.

- Good point, good point.

And every community I know is different.

Every school district is different as far as what they might offer during the summer.

Some might have the buildings open for kids if they want to come play basketball or, or there's a pool.

What are your recommendations for parents who wanna reach out to the schools and either ask, you know, for suggestions or, and I don't, again, I don't know if this is even allowed, but ask, can we, can we sign out a textbook from the previous year and maybe they can, you know, once a week do a couple pages, whether it's the previous years for review or the upcoming year to, to get ahead talk about any of those.

'cause again, I don't know how you're in education.

I'm not, I don't know how viable any of those are.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So our district, we're really lucky that we do have summer school offered over the summer.

So our kiddos can come half day for five weeks and they get instruction with our teachers.

So that's, that's a great option if it's something that they're invited to.

But I will tell you as from my seat as a, as a teacher, as an instructional coach, as a principal now if any parent ever reached out to me or any parents that have reached out to me and said, I want some ideas on what to work on over the summer, I am so happy to give any ideas.

So reaching out to your child's teacher would be my first suggestion 'cause they will likely be more than happy to give you that information in terms of, and, and that could vary.

Sometimes they'll send a packet for us.

We always end up with extra workbooks at the end of every year 'cause of move-ins move outs and, or we're switching curriculums.

This year we have, we were told by the district, like, send home as many workbooks as you can 'cause we're not using 'em next year.

So I, you never know.

I mean there's, there are so many resources available or even they could, your teacher could make suggestions of books to check out in the, from the library or local library reading programs.

A lot of times they send that information to the district.

So sometimes we have some insider information about what's going on that we're more than happy to pass out.

- Excellent, excellent.

And talking about the, the school year as we have that, you know, ends right around Memorial Day picks up right before Labor Day.

What are your thoughts, and I'm kind of putting you on the hot seat, but what are your thoughts on the year round school where some districts around the country have done that?

A lot of times it seems like just for climate reasons because it's, it's it's, well we won't go into the re it's different and hotter climates than here, but talk about the idea of year round school, which I guess we're kind of broaching that by, by assigning a little work during the summer, but something like that.

Is that at all you think an idea that would ever catch on?

- I don't know that it will catch on, but I am certainly a supporter and proponent of it.

I actually would love to my, if I ruled the world, we would have four day school weeks year round and of course breaks for, you know, a couple weeks for spring break, a couple weeks for winter break, a couple weeks for summer break and maybe some, you know, fall break, something in there.

But I think that allows families to have a little bit more time on the weekends to recoup.

I think three days.

I've seen, when we have three day weeks, weekends, the kids seem a little more ready to come back and really engage again.

Four days gives us still a lot of instructional time or even if I've seen where districts, the fifth day is optional.

I've seen districts where the fifth day is asynchronous and we're doing, you know, a work over the computer.

Again, we learned a lot from the pandemic as difficult as that time was.

So I'm actually really into the idea of year round school.

But I, I do understand there's, there's a lot, there's a lot that would go into that.

I do think it would help for childcare though, for a lot of families.

- That's a good point.

And there's also the issue a lot of times where the school lunches and school breakfast, they're relied on suddenly for three months.

They're, they're not available.

So that's, that's a good point.

Since you mentioned the pandemic, what have you seen as far as the summer slide or, or learning in general even change over the last three years since we have been coming back out of quarantine?

- Absolutely.

I think the biggest, the biggest change that I've seen is students' preparedness when it comes to their social emotional skills.

We have a lot of students coming in who haven't, they didn't get the opportunity, especially I work in a K one building, so a lot of my kinders haven't, didn't get that opportunity to play at a park or go to a daycare because everything was shut down.

And knowing how to interact with their peers and problem solve in a healthy way is something that we're teaching more explicitly than we ever have before.

So it, again, that's a, I always suggest to parents like if, if nothing else, if they can come to kindergarten, being able to know how to ask for help, know some basic self-care skills and know, you know, how to solve little problems in between themselves.

Like and, and how to take turns.

Oh my goodness, if kiddos can do those things, I don't care whether they know they're alphabet or not, I can teach them that.

But being able to take turns or being able to not have a meltdown when you're not the first one picked to do something, that's where, if it's weight and gold.

- So since you do have the full day kindergarten and it's not just the learning but it's the, I assume art, music, that sort of thing, you have time to, to offer that sort of thing.

Talk about offerings in those realms during the, the summer that parents can maybe take advantage of, whether it's something online or something to look for in your community.

Like we have the public movie night once a week downtown.

What are, what are your thoughts on any of that sort of thing?

- Absolutely.

The first place I would look would be your community's parks and rec website or however their information is, like the outdoor movie night that you're talking about.

That kind of stuff is always on there.

There tends, there can be farmer's market some places, all that kind of stuff.

The cultural pass that you can check out from the library that I'd mentioned earlier is great.

That gives you free admission to a number of different things, including the zoo and the Columbus Museum, the Columbus Museum of Art and all sorts of, of different things there.

A lot of times there's days where it's reduced price or completely free to do things and any of those experiences are, are great and, and even things at home you can take chalk outside and do sidewalk chalk.

That's a great art experience.

Listen to music, teach them some of the songs that you loved when you were a kid.

Just sharing that kind of stuff or singing together, being silly or online.

There's a lot of tutorials for how to draw things.

So that has been something that my daughter and I really enjoy.

There's a whole series where it teaches you to draw Disney characters, which we're super into.

So there's a million different ways to engage with the arts or even, you know, going for a walk.

That physical education, getting some some physical activity is, is really great too.

And building up, there's so much, I I found out recently there's, there was a study about students' core strength and how much their core strength can impact their ability to be successful at school because it takes a certain amount of core strength to sit up straight in your chair.

So kiddos that don't get that gross motor when they're younger, those are the kids that will see that are like slumped on their desk, are always having to support themselves with their hand or can't sit comfortably on the carpet.

And it's truly 'cause physiologically they're not developed enough.

So that outdoor gross movement is really, really important.

And just going for walks, climbing a tree, going across the monkey bars, you know, anything like that is really important too.

I mean that's, that's also learning.

- Yeah, that's true that so many different subjects that, that come under the heading of learning that that we've touched on.

Going back to to reading and and math, something I just thought of, and this would be wildly different from Kop two through five.

How much, how many books would you say kids should be reading in those different grades?

- That's a great question.

I, I think my instinct is actually kind of to say as much as they will joyfully tolerate, I think that I, I some kids are very motivated by a challenge.

So for some students that summer book challenge where if you read a certain amount of books from the library, you turn your card in, you get a prize super motivating for them.

Other kids, if they read one book over the course of the summer, that is a celebration.

So really knowing your kiddo and knowing how much to push before it's too much.

'cause the last thing we want is for them to resent anything learning based.

So I, you know, you just kind of have to know your kiddo and say okay, I know that for some kids reading is a struggle if you make it through this Amelia pad book this summer, like awesome, I'm so proud of you.

Other kids like read half the Harry Potter series 'cause that's what you're capable of.

So you know, it, it all depends on the kiddo.

But I think that just, just knowing them and and making sure that it's a good balance between, yes we still need to read this summer but let's make sure it's something that you enjoy is really important.

- And then specifically for fifth graders, 'cause that's usually the threshold right before middle school.

It seems like in most, most districts, are there specific things that the parents for their rising sixth graders should be consider?

Because you're very quickly gonna be hearing about college prep and sort of thing before, before you know it.

Are there specific subject areas or spec specific things you can think of like maybe really hit, you know, European history?

What are your thoughts on, on specific things they can hit?

- I think that the summer between fifth and sixth grade is the perfect time to really start having conversations about students' interests and what they might be interested in pursuing once they graduate.

Because you're right, it does come up really quickly.

You know, they're in sixth grade and then they're walking across the stage.

It happens very fast and the more that you can figure out what they're interested in and give them opportunities to explore that interest, whatever it may be, even if it's, you know, being a YouTuber, my daughter is not in fifth grade yet, but she went through that phase and so we had a conversation about like, okay, it's not just shooting a video.

You've gotta edit it, you've gotta plan it.

We have, and we ended up doing, we worked together on one video and it took us all day and we finished the video.

She was like, that was a lot of work.

I said yeah and it doesn't even have that many likes.

So like it's not, I think giving her it, it sort of shifted her perspective of what that career would look like in reality.

So I think part of it is really exploring those interests and those career options for them so they can start looking at what they're interested in or exploring things that they've wanted to at a time that it's still really safe to do so.

'cause they're still young, they still got the parent support.

I think the other thing that's really important over that summer is having conversations about the tough stuff, peer pressure, bullying, how to be a good friend, how to deal with friendship, breakups, all of those things that happen in middle school.

It's a little easier to to deal with when you've already had that conversation and you've laid the groundwork for I am a person that you can talk to when things get hard, when the peer stuff gets difficult, when someone offers you something that you know you shouldn't take.

I think that that's a really important thing to do during that time too.

It's not the most fun conversations to have, but being able to have them upfront will help your child feel more at ease when inevitably situations come up that they may not be anticipating but we as adults know happened during that time.

- Yeah, good point.

Good point.

As far as the other end of the spectrum, kindergarten, you mentioned several skills earlier that kids coming in if they've got that, you know, you can teach them the alphabet as as you said, but the kids even taking all of that outta the equation and possible pandemic slide we'll call it.

What are some things academically that parents maybe can, can think about as the kids are heading into kindergarten?

Because when they come that first day they might have had a year of pre-K, they might have had three years, they might have had none and and I know you do the assessments but it's really down to the parents a lot of times to prepare them in some way.

So are there any academic things that, that you can think of that maybe would be good to work on that summer before kindergarten?

- Absolutely.

So aside from obviously the health, the self-help skills and the social emotional that we talked about in terms of academics, really exploring the English language and exploring sounds when you're talking.

So being able to identify the first sound in a word or the last sound in the word or the middle sound in a word or taking a word and being able to break it apart.

So if you have the word rat, being able to say er act, all of those are foundational things that they don't even need to be looking at the letters to engage with that.

And those, I mean working on letter sound correspondence is great.

So knowing that this is an R and it says is really important, however, playing with those words is just as valuable.

Getting them to listen really closely to the way sounds come together in speech is super helpful.

In terms of math count, everything, just anything you have, you can have 15 m and ms count 'em out, you can have, how many dogs do you see in that park?

How many, just that one-to-One correspondence is really the cornerstone.

And then if you've got extra time and you wanna help 'em with some of the numerals, there are numbers everywhere.

They're on mailboxes, they're on, you know, your postage that you get it, there's, there's a million places where numbers are and and just using that kindergarten's so fun because there's so much environmental opportunity to engage with academics 'cause it is those foundational skills.

So yeah, those would be some suggestions that I would have.

- Excellent, excellent.

So we just finished talking about strategies going into kindergarten and then what about generally looking across the spectrum K through five when there're students with IEPs, what happens to them during the summer?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So in, there's a lot of programming specifically for students with special needs.

So if you look around even a quick Google talking to your local department of developmental disabilities is a great place to start for any sort of programming that they may have in terms for parents, the progress reports that you get with the student's, IEP.

So saying exactly what they're working on with those objectives, that's a great place to look to see sort of what they're working with.

And if you have any questions about any of it, I, I know I used to be an intervention specialist myself.

I know that I would be more than happy to to share anything with parents for things I could work on over the summer or clarify.

Sometimes IEP language can be really obtuse and just kind of hard to, very wordy.

So talking to the intervention specialist, talking to the teacher, they'll be able to give you guidance on not only programming but also just things you can do at home that are gonna align with those IEP goals - And when the students come back, all, all of them in, in the fall.

Right, right At the beginning you mentioned how they, there is the review for the first several weeks.

A lot of times that that helps get things back on track.

If we could somehow eliminate or really dial down this, this summer slide, what are your thoughts on what those three weeks could look like?

The extra time essentially?

- Absolutely.

Yeah, I think that's exactly what it could look like.

It could, and it would take a lot of pressure off of teachers I think in what some really beautiful things could happen if we didn't have the pressure of feeling like we had to catch up before we moved forward.

Including, you know, spending some of that time building community within the, the classroom and getting those foundations really settled.

But also being able to maybe at the end of first grade I can start touching on some second grade skills if we can get started right from the jump, which again is just gonna continue to, to propel us forward and, and close any gaps that need to need to be closed.

- Overall, the sense I'm getting from our conversation is that now over the summer it really depends on a partnership, kind of a, a meeting of the minds of the kids and the parents, but also the schools are just really happy to provide input, provide resources, provide any help that they can here for this last month before school ends.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

And I truly would encourage any parent that's thinking about, I'm not sure what I wanna do this summer or I don't know how to stay on top of summer slide or even, you know, if you know you've got a kiddo that has really struggled in a particular subject and it's gonna be like pulling teeth to get them to do it over the summer.

Teachers are really good at knowing some sneaky workarounds to be able to find fun ways to integrate it.

'cause we have to do it every day.

There's always someone who doesn't like the subject that we're teaching, so please, please reach out to the schools.

They will be more than happy to help you because we, the partnership with parents and community just in general through the whole year, not just the summer, is the key to making sure our kids are successful and we love, love, love partnering with families.

So please don't, don't hesitate to reach out.

Anyone would be happy to help.

- Excellent.

All right, well there's a lot of great information about preventing the summer slide.

Thanks so much.

Lauren King, principal with Whitehall City Schools for speaking with us.

- Absolutely.

Thank you so much for having me.

- And this has been another Ohio Learns 360 webinar.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.