thebadgetsnormal
definingdeviancydown

-- CatherineJohnson - 03 Sep 2006

Lynn

oh yeah.....

same here

except for the last few Fs Ms. K managed to bestow upon her class

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Jun 2006

I agree with Lynn about the last few weeks of school.

I've found my children start regressing then with all of the field trips, assemblies, parties, etc. It's almost a waste of time. Between that and how much your teacher is out of the classroom for various reasons you might as well take your kid out and homeschool the last month.

-- SusanS - 20 Jun 2006

Meg's Reading teacher had the kids in the advanced class tackling Animal Farm the last few weeks of school. What was interesting is that it was Meg's favorite book for the year. The teacher did a great job with teaching it. For some reason, it really held Meg's interest.

Then, coincidentally, during the first two weeks of the summer, Meg participated in a theater camp that staged Fiddler on the Roof. Since she had just read the book and they had talked about the overthrow of the Czar, it provided a nice connection to Fiddler--I think it helped give her a context.

-- KarenA - 20 Jun 2006

Our school system has decided to get a head start on summer brain drain. There was no math homework and very little school work for the past 3 weeks. Instead, we had a solid week of half days, we also had field day, then we had a couple of field trips. Grades were in about two weeks before the end of school, so the teachers decided they really didn't need to teach anything any more. (Except for my son's 8th grade Spanish teacher -- bless her heart -- she started Don Quixote even though there was no reasonable chance of actually completing it. She was determined to work right up to the end. I like that teacher). The brain drain starts long before school is out. No wonder we lose 1 to 3 months of knowledge. I know we lost 3 weeks before the last day arrived.

-- LynnGuelzow - 20 Jun 2006

Our junior high math department has prepared a summer math booklet for each of the grade levels (6th, 7th and 8th). The booklet is great for Megan--it serves as a review of the skills she learned in 7th grade and keeps her doing math.

It also serves as a checkpoint for me to see if she needs any extra practice in any of the areas.

The math department lead teacher (who was also Meg's 6th grade math teacher) initiated this program several years ago.

-- KarenA - 20 Jun 2006

summer brain drain

Yes, folks, it's that time of year again......time for parents to take responsibility and prevent summer regression.

Stop the Summer Brain Drain!


Kids Lose One to Three Months of Learning

Did your child's brain shrink last summer? Probably not, but it may have shifted into reverse, according to a study by [ famed homework expert ] Dr. Harris Cooper, professor of psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The study found that when students return to school after a long summer vacation, they've lost one to three months worth of learning.


Kids Lose Most in Math

The decline is more detrimental for math than it is for reading. "All students lose math skills," says Cooper. It may be because community and home environments give kids more opportunities to practice reading than math. The study also found that income has an impact on how much a student loses or gains in reading. Middle-class children actually gained in reading over the summer, while lower-income students experienced losses. Cooper attributes this to the enrichment activities that many middle-class kids participate in over the summer, such as camp and trips.