For me, the words conjure up childhood images of going to Upper
Silver Lake, swimming at the pool, riding bikes around the
neighborhood and spending countless summer nights at pony league
baseball games under the bridge at Fitzgerald Field. The only
academic thing I can recall about my childhood summers is
visiting the bookmobile, which my mom made sure we did every
week. I read a ton in the summer, but math and science were
definitely on hiatus (hmm... maybe that explains why I became a
writer!). Things certainly have changed since then. Summer for
our children is still filled with the kinds of things mentioned
above, but today's parents are also being encouraged to keep
kids working on academics — to avoid summer brain drain.
Research now shows that: - All young people experience learning
losses when they do not engage in educational activities during
the summer. Research spanning 100 years shows that students
typically score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer
vacation than they do on the same