summer vacation is certainly the
highlight of the year for most kids
right ah most kids all kids I think
between sleepovers and beach time it's
important also to keep your child
mentally stimulated to prevent a serious
risk to their education so it's called
summer learning loss yes it's something
that really does happen according to the
National summer learning Association
students can digress
two to three months in their academic
skills during vacation join me now to
discuss the impacts of summer learning
loss and how parents can really work
with your kids during the summer months
to ensure that they retain academic
skills its Communities in Schools of
Jacksonville director of case management
Dane Gilbert good morning to you thank
you for being here always good to see
you always good to see you
so I think that this is interesting too
because you know there probably are a
lot of parents out there say oh my son
or daughter worked so hard during the
school year let me just give them a
break so that they're refreshed and
ready for the beginning of school there
are certain things we've got to do yeah
they can kids can lose two to three
months of their vital academic
information so now they go back to
school and they're already behind and
they've lost some really important
information and some learning so there
are some things that they can do
communities and schools we operate 20
summer camps during the summer most of
them are over this week unfortunately
but we still have to high school camps
one in ed white and one today Phillip
Randolph that have available seats and
still running for a few more weeks of
anybody's interested so and for those
who are interested and it's probably
harder with high school kids it is
alright you know cuz maybe some of them
have summer jobs or how do you register
them and is there a cost there's no cost
they actually receive lunch every day
there the ed white camp is focusing on
college prep and the a Phillip Randolph
camp is focusing on stem and workforce
readiness so they can contact us at
communities and schools or go onto our
website at CIS Jax dot org and so of
course regardless of whether or not cuz
you know parents may have already had
their kids enrolled in camp and that
might be something that they just can't
you know get a child to but it just in
general for parents of all ages what are
some things then that we should be
focusing on is it just learning you know
reading comprehension is it math is it
science we've got to make it kind of fun
for
during the summer and just kind of build
it into your everyday activities so if
you're having a cookout with family or
something maybe your kids can help plan
the menu you know we have 10 people
coming what what kind of food do we need
to order or if they have an interest
maybe they're interested in baseball you
can take them to a jumbo shrimp game and
follow statistics there's a lot of math
involved in that and also just build
reading time into like we are talking
about with your kids build reading time
into their schedule every day and try to
make it some kind of reading that they
enjoy yeah it's interesting too because
I know that my daughter is in elementary
school in public school and there is a
suggested sort of reading list but you
know if if she doesn't find anything
interesting on that list which which we
have encountered it doesn't really
matter what they're reading as long as
they are really I think as long as
they're engaged and keeping sharp you
know it's like anything else if you stop
doing it for a couple of months you're
gonna you're gonna get rusty and lose
things yeah and I think that it's also
interesting too and your suggestion you
know we're seeing now with the FSA that
there's this real push of course
specifically on reading comprehension
are there any things that we can do then
as parents after their to our child has
read something to kind of quiz them to
make sure that they don't think I don't
think they want to make it a test quiz
really since they have so much that
during the school year but yeah I think
you can just discuss it you know you
read the book as well and you just kind
of discuss it in an informal way and
kids want to learn they're not going to
tell you that but they really do
inherently want to learn and and so yeah
I think we just read it and discuss it
and I think the message here this
morning also is is this not if this
isn't about quizzing or making our kids
sit down for hours upon hours right
right this is about maybe even you know
15 20 30 minutes a day every other day
and you can encourage him by having okay
if you read this many books then you get
to choose a family outing or something
like that as a reward to her and you
know what it seems like there's always a
money instead of in my house that's 20
dollars in a book and it's things we do
as parents to just try to get our
alright Dane thank you for being thank
you very much for having us and if you
would like to find out more information
about specifically communities in
schools of Jacksonville and all the
wonderful things that they do to support
our children here in Duval County
you can visit as Dane mention
see is communities in schools jacks org
will have that information also posted
on our website with this interview later
this morning on news for Jax calm