Stephanie Landis and Meredith Krimmel: Preventing the Summer Slide | Season 6, Episode 9

Parents and children all have the same dream – to spend their summer days having fun without the stress and pressure of the school year. However, many parents also worry that too much fun could cause a loss of progress or skills gained during the year, or as some call it, the dreaded “summer slide.” Luckily, there are many ways to have fun while still preparing for the school year ahead. In this episode Meredith and Stephanie discuss various activities families can do to practice  academic, fine motor, and executive functioning skills to keep kids sharp and ready for school. Activities include joining your local library summer reading program, cooking or baking, starting a travel journal, visiting local museums, and even letting your child get bored! This list will help families mix learning with fun throughout the summer.

Helpful Links:

Parish Blog on Preventing Summer Slide

Houston Public Library Summer Reading Program

HPL Flip Kits (interactive book kits)

Harris County Public Library Summer Reading Program

Transcript

Stephanie Landis (00:06):

Hello and welcome to UnBabbled, a podcast that navigates the world of special education, communication, delays and learning differences. We are your host, Stephanie Landis and Meredith Krimmel, and we're certified speech language pathologist who spend our days at the parish school in Houston helping children find their voices and connect with the world around them.

(00:26):

For my family, Tex-Mex is the way to go. It pleases everyone in the family and that is one of the reasons we are so excited to have this episode sponsored by the original Mexican Cafe. The original Mexican cafe is the longest continually operating restaurant on Galveston Island, still at its original location. It's located on the corner of 14th and Market in Galveston's, beautiful historic district. They have two stories of dining area perfect for casual dining, business lunches, large groups, or a night out on the town. They also offer a full bar and catering. To learn more about the original Mexican cafe, visit their website at www.theoriginalgalveston.com or come and visit them in person for some delicious Tex-Mex. Your family will leave happy as well. Gateway Academy is a unique school in Houston, Texas, serving sixth through 12th grade students with academic and social challenges. Gateway's committed to teaching traditional academics while also meeting the social and emotional needs of their students with learning and social differences.

(01:28):

Over the last 15 years, their work has been to provide students with opportunities for identity exploration, learning, self-awareness, and practicing self-advocacy, opening a path to personal significance in college, career and community. For more information, visit their website at www.thegatewayacademy.org. It's summertime and parents and children all have that same dream to spend their summer days having fun without the stress and pressure of the school year. However, many families also worry that too much fun could cause a loss of progress or skills gained during the school year or as some call it the dreaded summer slide. Luckily, there are many ways to have fun while still preparing for the school year ahead. In this episode, Meredith and Stephanie discuss various activities families can do to practice academic fine motor and executive functioning skills to keep kids sharp and ready for the school year. Activities include joining your local library, summer reading program, cooking or baking, starting a travel journal, visiting local museums, and even letting your child get bored. This list will help families mix learning with fun throughout the summer. Welcome, today we have a special episode, no guest. You just get to listen to Meredith and I and today we'll be talking about how to help your child prevent that dreaded summer slide. And this can be tips not just for the elementary kids but for some of our younger kids as well. All of these activities will help students across a variety of ages and academic level and ranges, and hopefully they'll be easy for you to implement this summer.

Meredith Krimmel (03:10):

And when we say summer slide, we talk about losing any sort of skill academically, socially, or in our language development. So we'll talk about different activities to address all these different areas.

Stephanie Landis (03:20):

I think that parents will often feel like their summer slide, and for some kids there really is a summer slide, but for most students when they get there at time to decompress and go and enjoy and have free time, they can then start showing areas of growth in other ways. So maybe their academics won't be growing as fast as it was during the school year, but they might be able to grow socially, like you said, or they might be able to grow their executive functioning skills or maybe they even just physically grow and mature.

Meredith Krimmel (03:52):

That's what I was thinking. Summer is a big time for growth with physical development. Maybe that's when your child learns to ride a bike or learns to swim. So there are areas of growth that are really common in summer, and then there are areas where you might be more at risk for losing skill, but also, you touched on this a little bit, but balance is also super important. In summer, our goal is not to bombard you with activities and tips so that you over schedule your summer and feel like you are your child's teacher for the whole summer. It's just ways to work in some fun activities to help your child continue to progress or at least maintain skills in a variety of academic areas or language areas.

Stephanie Landis (04:29):

And if you're currently seeing a tutor or a therapist, then go on and continue doing that. That'd be one really great way to make sure that you don't have that summer slide is to continue to go regularly, see the tutor, the therapist, and engage in those activities. Now, if you take a few weeks off to go travel and have fun, go for that too. Your child's not going to lose that many language skills or speech skills with having a two weeks off from a therapy session.

Meredith Krimmel (04:58):

Really, one of the most important things you can do in the summer is just read and read often and you can read books you have at home or you can visit your local libraries.

Stephanie Landis (05:07):

Yeah, last summer we have a whole episode and you can go back and listen on last season talking about different activities that you can do here in the Houston area at their public libraries. But every public library is going to have some sort of summer reading program, and it's not just reading. They also usually have fun activities that they have to go along with it. For younger kids, they'll have crafts and song and dance time and a story time for older kids, they'll do chess club or Lego things. There's a variety of activities that are still really engaging and learning for students and that bring them into the library so you can get them interested in reading. One of the biggest things that I took away from the episode last summer was letting your child now choose what they want to read and reading for and pleasure, even if it's not on their quote reading level is just whatever they are really interested in.

(06:04):

The other day, my son went to the library and he came back with a whole bunch of travel books and I was like, okay, we were really heavy into Dog man and Captain Underpants for a long time. So it was actually kind of a nice change of pace. But ever since on spring break we went to Santa Fe. He's been really obsessed with maps and the fact that Santa Fe is in New Mexico. New Mexico is a different state from Texas and what does that abstractly mean? And so he's been way into learning about different states and maps and these travel books and he's read three travel books or had me sit down and read him travel books, which is not what I would've thought that we were going to pick at the library, but it's been really engaging and he's learned more like reading social studies, math, geography, all of that at home during these times where we've let him kind of follow his quirky little interest, then he would've if I would've forced him to sit down and pick a topic. So once you get to the library, letting them choose which area they're into, whether it's travel or maybe they're really obsessed with hamsters or dogs or something, let them dive into whatever interest they're into during the school year. We don't always have the time or your school might not be set up in a way that is supporting that diving deep into quirky interests, but during the summer you have nothing but time to really dig into those self-interest and that can be really great learning experience

Meredith Krimmel (07:41):

And research projects. I mean, not that you're presenting, but just your own self-paced research project. Oh,

Stephanie Landis (07:46):

He is presenting us the information all the time. I'm bombarded now with information about what the largest city in Nevada is.

Meredith Krimmel (07:55):

Well, and when you're doing all this research, then you can build in executive function skills and all these, how do I organize this? How do I share this information that I've had or how do I compartmentalize what I'm learning and how do I use it functionally? There are so many different things you can do with that. And we talk about reading often. I think when I think about reading every day, I think about younger kids, but it's also really important for older kids, older elementary, even middle school kids to be reading regularly and like you said, choosing something that they enjoy and just maybe some fiction or nonfiction books that follow their interests.

Stephanie Landis (08:30):

And last summer, again, the librarians that were on, they wanted to reinforce the idea that listening to audio books is reading. So maybe if your student isn't at a point where they're reading to themselves, there are all sorts of audio books or things out there where they have those cute little products that you can buy that you can put a little figurine on top and it'll read a story to you. Or you can download audio books from the, but audio books and podcasts, that's still reading,

Meredith Krimmel (09:00):

Accessing that same part of your brain.

Stephanie Landis (09:02):

And I know plenty of adults that will also say the same thing. They're like, yeah, I listened to the book on tape that counts as reading too. And I'm like, yeah, A lot of times if you're too busy, listen to the audio book. That's definitely reading. And for our students, they're still picking up on listening to the fluency of it. They're still picking up on the vocabulary, they're still learning the oral language, they're still getting the perspective taking that happens in it and all of those things. They might not be decoding the words themselves, but especially for students who might be struggling with reading, it's a great way to help work on those skills in a low pressure way. And if they're just playing at home, then pop on the audio book or you're stuck in traffic going to a summer camp, put in the audio book,

Meredith Krimmel (09:44):

It still requires you to make that mental picture and imagine what characters look like. It works on all the same stuff. So we talked about reading a little bit a way that you could really work on your math skills through the summer is cooking, cooking and baking together. There are so many built in math skills and cooking and baking, and we find that a lot of children really enjoy being in the kitchen when they're involved measuring and counting and time. You can work on so many different things when you're cooking in the kitchen with your children

Stephanie Landis (10:15):

And the executive functioning skills as well. Our upper elementary students here, which are about fourth, fifth graders, they've really gotten into the idea of chopped and chopped challenge and they love watching it and then they love actually doing it. And you can present that cooking just as an everyday activity for you guys together. Or if they're old enough, give them a fun little chopped challenge where they have to use their creativity and their executive functioning skills and plan out a meal and figure it out and learn how to cook it. Or you can give them the challenge of like, Hey, now that it's summer and you have more time, you're in charge of figuring out what we're going to eat for dinner on Wednesday nights or Saturdays, whichever day you might have some time. So Saturdays might be a good idea a day where you're like, Hey, on Saturday you get to pick dinner.

(11:04):

What do you want? Now you have to figure out what food we need, what do we need to buy with what we already have here? Let's make a list, which is also reading and writing, and then the math of what's the budget? What's it going to take? Okay, well here's your $50, let's go to the grocery store with your cash and you can buy the ingredients. And it sounds like it's very time consuming, but the kids get into it and they have a lot of fun with it, and they are working on all of those skills, the planning, the math, they're writing things down. If they're too young to write, then they can tell you and you can write it down or they can draw pictures. But even just involving them in that aspect of cooking will also give the buy-in for them to maybe want to get in the kitchen and try more things and build those skills.

Meredith Krimmel (11:49):

I mean, not just the skills of math and reading and following directions, but also it might help your child try new foods, which I know is a goal for a lot of kiddos out there, including one of mine. And when you can get involved in the kitchen, you're much more likely to try it, maybe not the first time, but down the road, as all my OT friends say, the first step is just handling it. Once you handle the food, you're more exposed and you're more likely to try it down the road.

Stephanie Landis (12:15):

Any exposure such as handling counts as an exposure. So I am big on those executive functioning type skills, and if you're not all in and we haven't convinced you to do cooking with your kids, you can just start with, Hey, it's summertime, you're around more. Now it's time for you to pick up, undo some of these chores. Or in my house there are chore lists and things that we have to accomplish before they get that screen time or running outside time or going to bike with their friends is that first we're going to do some of these chores and now you are going to help out with it. So you can start the laundry, you can make your bed, you can empty the dishwasher. There's a variety of chores out there that are age appropriate. You can pick up the toys and put them back where they go, and there are all these great lists online that'll give you chores per your child's age. Even just sweeping the floor was

Meredith Krimmel (13:06):

I sweeping, you

Stephanie Landis (13:06):

Can vacuum

Meredith Krimmel (13:07):

Scooping the dog poop in the backyard if you have a dog, we use that one a lot.

Stephanie Landis (13:11):

Yes, and small things end up having a big impact and bringing them in on just figuring out what they can do, putting their own clothes away and folding all the towels,

Meredith Krimmel (13:24):

Matching socks, that's a good one. And it takes a long time. Have your child match their own socks. It's a good activity for a lot of different reasons. It is, especially for our younger kids, recognizing similarities and size, color patterns, things like that. So matching socks is a good one. Honestly, I can't speak for everyone else, but for me, myself, I was surprised when I started pushing a little bit of more chores on my children, how much they could really do. It felt like making the bed seem like a skill for maybe a little bit of an older child, but I have a child who makes her bed better than I make my bed. I mean, she's really good at it, so you never know. And I like the idea of giving 'em a choice of what chores they can pick up because there might be things that are easier, better they're better at, or it's easier for them. So giving them choice and time management. If you want to watch your screen timer, if you want to join your friends for a bike ride, you've got to get these things done within this amount of time. It's a good skill for that

Stephanie Landis (14:18):

Too. And out of those skills translate into things that they need in the classroom and at home and when they have the time is a great time to work on those skills, which will help them with their academics in the classroom.

Meredith Krimmel (14:31):

The one tour I will not allow my children to do is to fold their own clothes because it drives me mad, but matching socks that we will do,

Stephanie Landis (14:39):

They can't be any worse than me some days. Some days I'm really careful at it. Other days I just shove it in the drawer and pretend that I didn't do that.

Meredith Krimmel (14:47):

Yeah, well that's fair.

Stephanie Landis (14:50):

And speaking screen time, especially for the younger kids, if they're going to be watching screen time, which we are not against, and for even more information about screen time, we have a previous episode this season talking about how to manage and handle screen time at home. And if you are feeling a little anxious about how your child might be getting more screen time this summer comes up, I highly recommend going and listening to that. But one of the things that I end up doing is turning it into an interactive time and I'll talk to my kid about it and I'll ask them questions about it or pause it and be like, Ooh, what would you do if you were that character? What do you think is going to happen next? Or I'll jump in halfway through and I'll be like, wait, I missed the beginning of this. Explain to me what happens. And then they have to work on their narration skills and who's that again? And answering questions and just spending that time with them and making it an interactive experience ends up making it worthwhile. There is also a time and place for just sitting and watching, but if it's something you're interested in, having that back and forth in the conversation, you can learn a lot from just watching whatever TV show they want to watch.

Meredith Krimmel (15:57):

One of our favorite shows as a family is, is It Cake? And we watch it together, but it provides so many opportunities for discussion or making smart guesses because every time it's like, no, no, it's number two. We're battling within ourselves on the couch. Which one is cake? Which one's not? So that's a really fun one if your kids like that, and it's really silly, so everybody usually seems to enjoy it

Stephanie Landis (16:21):

And they have some fairly educational TV shows out there. I swear my children have learned more from wild

Meredith Krimmel (16:27):

Crafts. And then we

Stephanie Landis (16:29):

Go to the zoo and I'm like, how did you know that? And they're like, duh, wild crafts. And I was like, yeah, I totally watched that and learned that too. And Daniel Tiger is amazing and there's a social story in almost every episode, and I still sing some of those songs, calm My Kids Down.

Meredith Krimmel (16:45):

Bluey. Yes, I love Bluey.

Stephanie Landis (16:47):

Even the nine year olds this year in my class have been like, can we watch

Meredith Krimmel (16:50):

Bluey? It's such a good show. I'm an adult and I like bluey.

Stephanie Landis (16:53):

Love it. And it's a great way to spark imagination. You can take, if your child maybe is struggling with figuring out how to play and use a imaginative play, you can just take their ideas and be like, Hey, let's do that. Let's have a magic wand day, or why don't we pretend to be grannies? You can take their ideas and turn it into play, and that's another great way where you can take their interest and their TV shows and then extend it into play and be like, okay, let's go be those characters. Let's go act out that scene and you can extend their play. You're doing drama, you're doing role playing, you're doing perspective taking. You need language to do that, so really screen time can turn into a very productive language-based learning experience.

Meredith Krimmel (17:38):

Yeah, I mean you talked about going out and playing, expanding the play that you might see on a TV show, but just getting outside and playing is really important for the summers. Spending time outside moving your body, learning new skills like we talked about earlier, biking or swimming, but lots of language goes into play outside, play with friends or play with when your children are playing with their friends or when they're playing with you as the adult, a lot of negotiating, problem solving. Maybe they even need to start voting between their friends. Are we going to play hide and seeker? Are we going to play tag or whatever games that they're trying to decide. There's a lot of social and emotional skills that go into playing outside.

Stephanie Landis (18:11):

My kids with the neighbor kids have found a bunch of random loose parts and it's just junk that they've collected from our homes. I don't even know where some of this junk has come from, but they're having a grand time with it and they get the most imaginative play, but you're right, there is so much negotiating that happens with that in between it and they're really growing their social emotional skills and they're maturing and they're learning a lot during that time of how do we work through conflict? What does it mean to be a friend? If I disagree with the neighbor or the neighbor, it hits me because let's be honest, kids sometimes will swipe at each other or the neighbor accidentally while we were playing Nerf guns hit me in the eye. Are they your friend forever or are you never going to talk to them again? How do we repair? And those things are really worthwhile, useful things that are helpful in the long run. Yeah,

Meredith Krimmel (19:06):

A phrase we use in our house a lot is what's more important, this friendship or playing the idea you want to play or this friendship or winning this game or your friendship or that the fact that they were cheating. What's more important? So we start talking about what we value more, and that's not just with little kids. I mean my 9-year-old, this is a big part of his play too, and they are mostly playing sports and ball activities now, but you'd be surprised how much conflict and how many disagreements arise in what seems like a friendly backyard game of basketball,

Stephanie Landis (19:38):

And that's great way to work on perspective taking for young kids when they're turn taking or sharing all the way up to 9, 10, 11, 12 year olds of like, okay, well, is their perspective really to cheat or were they just doing this? Did

Meredith Krimmel (19:53):

They not understand the rules? Did they

Stephanie Landis (19:54):

Not understand the rules or, okay, well, were they really trying to turn everybody against you or did they just have a different idea? There's a really great job of also what could we do differently next time? What did you say? What did they say? Is there a difference going on here? How can we see things from this perspective? How can we see things from that perspective? Or when you then grab your ball and stomp off and be like, fine, I'm never playing with you again. Are there going to be social consequences to that? Maybe, maybe not. Yeah,

Meredith Krimmel (20:23):

It depends.

Stephanie Landis (20:25):

Some kids are like, cool and they're fine again in five minutes and other kids you've got to work through

Meredith Krimmel (20:29):

It and all of these things. I mean, it's so hot in the summer, so I understand that this might not all be outside all the time, but you can work on all these things playing inside too, like board games or other indoor activities too. You can work on all the same stuff. Board games is actually a really common one I find where there's a lot of disagreement and frustration about cheating or not understanding the rules or changing the rules. So board games is a good way to work

Stephanie Landis (20:52):

On that. Have you watched My family play Monopoly?

Meredith Krimmel (20:55):

No, but I imagine it looks similar to a lot of the board games that happened in my, we're really into cooperative games right now.

Stephanie Landis (21:02):

We had to do cooperative games, but then I realized that I was just avoiding helping my children figure out how to be good winners and losers, so there is a time and place for us playing Monopoly, although most of the time it's my husband convincing the kids to team up against me and then it's them regulating my frustration. But it is a great way to learn the language, the negotiating skills. There are a lot of really great language and math-based games and board games out there,

Meredith Krimmel (21:32):

And it's a great way for us as adults to model good winning and good losing and negotiating problem solving. I know Merediths

Stephanie Landis (21:39):

Looking directly at me because she's seen me and me not model

Meredith Krimmel (21:42):

Talking to myself too.

Stephanie Landis (21:45):

But yeah, games inside are a fantastic way to carry that on, and even you can take these games and turn them into quick little math games. My son was really into the card game war, and as a first grader, young first grader, it was a great way for him to work on numbers and figuring out which one was bigger and which one greater than or less than in his numbers and all of that. I know in math classes they'll do the same thing, but it's like the first one that can pull out cards that add to 10, or there's fun little games out there where you can make it more specifically for learning, but there's still a lot of learning going on when you play basic board games. I spoke a little bit about traveling and how traveling sparked my own child's curiosity. I think if you are traveling, even if you're just taking mini trips around your own town to maybe a new playground or new a park, that's a great way to, one, give them a map and show them where you're going, even if it's wind through your own city, have them navigate on the map and tell you where you're going.

(22:49):

But one of the things that my daughters really started enjoying doing in taking pictures either on my camera or we eventually gave her a Polaroid camera and she loves then documenting where she's gone. And so we made her for our last trip, a little travel journal, and she took pictures that she really enjoyed and then she taped them into just a regular notebook and she wrote what we did that day, which is huge because my daughter hates writing, and so I was like, oh my gosh, it's finally working. I've been trying to get her to do this for years and trying to kind of force it, but she really enjoyed it and documenting it and making her own little journal and travel book. And so in past years I kind of forced it by me doing some of the writing and them telling them what we wanted or I'd have them sit down and write down one or two sentences about it at the end. But having a little travel journal can be a fun way for kids to keep up those writing skills to keep up the spelling and the language and do it based off of something that they're enjoying and having fun with

Meredith Krimmel (23:55):

Any kind of journaling and like you mentioned, they can do the writing if they're older, works on spelling writing grammar. If they're younger, they can just draw pictures and that's still working on the fine motor, which is important for pre-writing. So there are lots of different, journaling is a great

Stephanie Landis (24:07):

Idea, and if you can't get them into the idea of doing it old school, you could always just tell them they were doing a blog and do it on Word or set up a private Instagram account that you're never going to share with anybody and they can write the Instagram captions or you can video them giving a travel vlog where they're still verbally planning out what they want to say and describing and learning something about the town or the park or the city or wherever there is or what they did. Having them retell the story of what they did on their vacation is a great way to work on language and narrative skills. So many of the kids that I work with are into YouTube channels and they're like, I'm going to have a YouTube channel with subscribers. You could video them and tell them that they're making a YouTube channel about something or they could make their own YouTube channel and just keep

Meredith Krimmel (24:58):

It on

Stephanie Landis (24:58):

Private and just keep it on private or have nobody do it, and maybe they teach kids something, maybe they teach kids how to make certain Legos or they teach kids how to code. Or there's a student in my class that loves making claymation and clay figures and you can teach them how to do claymation. So starting your own little YouTube or blog or travel Instagram account, those are things that might have more buy-in from the older kids and still really work on a lot of those

Meredith Krimmel (25:30):

Same skills. Yeah,

Stephanie Landis (25:31):

That's great. Like you said, younger kids can do it with just drawing pictures or if you take the physical picture, they can tell you what they wanted to write or you could write out one word and highlight marker and they can trace over top of it to still work on those letters. Yeah. There's also a ton of really wonderful people who are on Instagram that we've had either on past podcast episodes or had come and speak, that their whole job is to sit here and tell you activities that you can do at home. So if you'd more ideas, we've had Beth from Days With Gray on, and I know she has a lot of really great ideas for younger kids and older kids that helps have them have fun interactive activities. She sets up her morning so that it starts the day off with those so that it kind of kicks off the day with the idea of play and learning and going and then moves on. But there are tons of places online to be able to find things. So as a parent, you don't have to sit there and think of all these activities. And on top of that, I know this is going to sound counterintuitive on an episode about how to keep your child from having summer slide, but letting your child get bored.

Meredith Krimmel (26:43):

Yeah, bored. It's

Stephanie Landis (26:45):

Okay for them to be bored.

Meredith Krimmel (26:47):

It's okay to have some free time. It's okay to have some downtime. It's okay for them to say they're bored. They'll usually figure out something to do.

Stephanie Landis (26:54):

When we talked with Sarah Ward, she was like, if they really can't, that's an area that is really hard for their brain. You can make them a little jar that has activities listed on it that are quick activities or a different jar that has long interactive activities, and then they can go pick from it and kind of set it up. I think that's also kind of why Beth from Days With Gray talks about just setting up an invitation to play where you just simply set out a few things and then let them go with it. And once they're kind of in the practice of play, then they get bored less frequently. But some of my kids', coolest play has come from me writing out them being bored, and then I look over and they've figured out something to do, and it was way more interesting and engaging and learning for them than something that I would've come up

Meredith Krimmel (27:42):

With planned or scheduled. Yeah, yeah. It's

Stephanie Landis (27:46):

Fantastic what they can come up with or they get bored enough, they'll go

Meredith Krimmel (27:49):

Read a book.

Stephanie Landis (27:51):

I choose reading a book first because I love reading a book, but there have been times, especially before my children really started enjoying reading where if they got bored enough, they'd be like, oh, fine, I guess I'll read this book. And then 15, 20 minutes later, they're still reading the book because they found that it's fun and engaging.

Meredith Krimmel (28:07):

It's always such a fight to get started reading, and then it's a fight to stop. At least for my son, it's always, it's a fight to get started. Then when he gets started, I'm like, okay, maybe it's time to go to bed. And he's like, well, I just want to finish one more chapter, one more chapter. So it's always just that initial getting started, ripping the bandaid off for whatever activity they want to do.

Stephanie Landis (28:24):

Summer's a great time to just explore different interests and areas and dive into something that your child may be really wanting to do, swim team or learning to ride a bike or suddenly becoming a travel enthusiast, learning all about the different states. You just never know what your child might be really into. Like I said, last summer for my daughter, it was hamsters. She got way into hamsters and we learned way more than I ever really wanted to about hamsters, but I was like, fine, go for it. It's your free time. If that's what you want to use to learn about, then go and do it. And so many of our students here have very passionate interests.

Meredith Krimmel (29:06):

Yeah, I mean, most children do. I know way more than I ever wanted to know about football than I have no desire to know about how much I know about football, about college football, about the NFL, about every player, about their stats. It's a lot, but there's a lot of learning that happens when you're researching an area of interest. So he's learned a lot, not just about the football players, but there are stats, a lot of numbers, a lot of fractions or percentages, things like that come up. So learning is everywhere. You're

Stephanie Landis (29:32):

Right. And even just going to sporting events, football games, baseball games, all over the city, sporting events are a great way to learn math as well as if you have more free time to join a swim team, join a basketball league, do a little summer camp, and getting that practice on being a team and following directions and working together and learning a new skill this summer is a great time, especially if you don't have all of those hours filled up during the day with school that your kids can then go and spend their extra time doing a sport interest. Although for my family, the summer is when we do not do sports because I'm so burnt out.

Meredith Krimmel (30:16):

We do sports, but trying to find sports that are really good for confidence building because sometimes that is a good way to spend your summer is finding something that you're good at or something that builds your confidence, like being part of a team and having success or learning a new skill and whatever that is for you. You don't have to be the best on the team to build confidence. You are learning, you are making growth, or you are growing and making progress. So that is a good way to build confidence over the summer.

Stephanie Landis (30:43):

Yeah. Summers for my house tend to shift more toward, for my daughter now, she has free time to work on playing the cello. She loves the cello, and now we have time where instead of doing homework in the evenings or running to our sporting activities that she can spend practicing the cello. And we have a neighbor that comes back from college and gives her cello lessons down the street.

Meredith Krimmel (31:05):

Yeah, absolutely.

Stephanie Landis (31:06):

So music classes and education are another great way to build that up, or we have so many kids here, at least at our school that are gifted in drama or music and going and finding a drama camp or somewhere where they can get involved that way is still really worthwhile and builds on all of those skills and gives them that outlet. And I think what you said about building their self-confidence, sometimes if school can be hard for them, then summer can be a really great way for them to reset mentally and emotionally and build back up their confidence and

Meredith Krimmel (31:41):

Find something they can shine in. Yes. Yeah,

Stephanie Landis (31:44):

I agree. And that is just as worthwhile as making sure that you don't lose a few math skills.

Meredith Krimmel (31:50):

Absolutely. Well, I think we covered a lot of things today. Hopefully some of you guys can pull a few things out of this that will help you maybe keep your kids busy and active and learning this summer, but also important to remember that it's okay to be bored and it's okay to have downtime. And

Stephanie Landis (32:05):

I think that's mainly my big thing is that I was like, well, we're talking about summer slide, but really parents can be rest assured that most of the things they're probably already doing are helping their child in some way or another over the summer, and what they're doing is worthwhile.

Meredith Krimmel (32:21):

Yeah, we do a lot of things without even knowing what we're doing, and that sometimes when you put a little bit more intentionality behind it, it can be even more beneficial. But a lot of these things people already are doing with their kids.

Stephanie Landis (32:32):

Alright, enjoy your summers everyone. Have a

Meredith Krimmel (32:34):

Good summer.

Stephanie Landis (32:36):

Thank you for listening to the Unled podcast. For more on today's episode, please see our episode description. For more information on the parish school, visit parish school.org. If you're not already, don't forget to subscribe to the Un Babbled Podcast on your app of choice. And if you like what you're hearing, be sure to leave a rating and review. A special thank you to Andy Williams, Joanna Rissmiller, and Molly Weisselberg for all their hard work behind the scenes. Thanks again for listening.