Benefits of Studying During Summer Holidays

School’s out! What will your kids do now? Summer break brings visions of lazy days and lots of fun, but parents might have different ideas. After all, children will need to go back to school in a few short months, which means they can’t exactly turn their brains completely off. Much like taking a break from physical exercise can lead to a loss of fitness, taking time off from studies can lead to a loss of academic skills. 

While you don’t have to put your children on a strict study schedule over summer break, some studying during the holidays can have big benefits for your little scholars especially once school resumes, including: 

1. Improved skills and knowledge

If your child struggled in a particular area during the school year, summer offers the ideal opportunity to brush up on those skills. Sign him up for a tutoring program, enrichment class or independent study program to get the most out of this time.

2. Chances to focus without distractions

School can be overwhelming for some children. If yours is one of them, summer offers a great opportunity to learn without all the distractions of school. Your child can enjoy the peace and quiet of reading, learning and studying at home.

3. Reviews of what they’ve learned

Kids tend to forget a lot of what they learn over the summer holidays, which means that the first weeks back at school can involve a lot of reviews. Weekly reviews of essential skills and facts will keep everything fresh in her mind so that your child will go straight to the head of the class when school starts up again. 

4. Hands-on opportunities to try out new skills 

The classroom involves a lot of theory but not necessarily a lot of practice. Summer gives your child plenty of time for building, experimenting and exploring. Create a learning-rich environment that allows her to develop her interests at her own pace. That could mean ensuring she has plenty of art materials, a laptop for writing or creative building toys for engineering whole new worlds.

5. An opportunity to prepare for the new term

Each new school year builds upon the skills and lessons learned in the previous school year. Summer offers not just a good opportunity to review the skills your child already knows but also lay the groundwork for acquiring new skills. If he has any weak spots, now’s a good time to address them so that his foundation is as strong as possible.

Kids can lose as much as two months of math and reading skills over the summer holidays, and they even score lower on standardised tests when they come back to school in the autumn. This means more time spent re-teaching material and less time working on new concepts and skills. Think of academics like exercise or music: Those skills need to be practiced in order to be perfected. Taking several months off with no practice at all will invariably lead to a loss of ability. Your children don’t have to spend the entire break working for hours at a time, but an hour or two a day brushing up on the essentials will pay off in higher achievement, improved performance and greater confidence in when school resumes.​