– Children are in real danger of learning loss over the summer holidays. Research has shown that students who “veg out” during this period benefit from little or no learning development, even being at risk of losing between one to three months of academic knowledge. According to Duke University education professor Harris Cooper, the learning loss is bigger in math than in reading.

– Cooper hypothesizes that this difference is due to the fact that while many parents encourage their kids to read, many of them tend to overlook math – which can have serious consequences when school resumes. Pam Evans, a teacher, recommends that children practice even math skills they have not mastered yet. “If kids don’t know their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts fluently – meaning “by heart” – then summer is the time to nail them,” she says.

Image: Boy studying, Lewis Hine – Wikimedia Commons

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