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The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) and Child Care Aware do not endorse nor are we responsible for the information or materials posted on any of the resource’s websites.Summer's Coming... Now What?
June 02, 2008
The school year is nearing an end. You may find yourself thinking that your school age child needs something to do while on summer break. She may feel too old to go with a sibling to a child care program, but you don't want her to sit at home every day during her break either.
The Center for Summer Learning, based at Johns Hopkins University, works to create high-quality summer learning programs for young people. The center believes that children need ongoing opportunities to learn and use the skills they've learned throughout the school year. The Center for Summer Learning takes into consideration research based on "summer learning loss". This loss can be thought of as the undoing of what the previous year's school has done, or when your child loses the mastery of information she learned during the school year.
The Center for Summer Learning notes that research indicates:
- All children experience this loss when not engaged in some type of educational programs throughout the summer.
- On average, children lose up to 2 months' worth of math skills over the summer.
- There are significant differences in opportunities for high-quality summer learning programs among various income levels.
- Children not only lose skills that they've learned the past year, but many children also experience weight gain during this time.
The center also says that parents state that summer is a time in which they have more difficulty keeping their children productive. So what can you do to prevent, or at least decrease, summer learning loss for your child? Below are some ideas for locating summer programs for your child:
- Explore all options available: while your child may not want to go to a child care center, some centers offer various summer programs that include field trips and many opportunities for learning. Don't forget to check family child care programs, local park and recreation programs, community-based programs, and any programs offered by your child's school.
- Make sure you check how long the program has been running. Ask how many children return each year and whether or not the program has any special certificates or accreditations. As with all child care programs, ask for references so you can visit with parents who have taken their children to the program.
- Be sure to look at the adult to child ratio. Ask how many children each adult will be supervising. You want to make sure there are enough adults supervising the activities.
- Talk with your child to see what types of programs she might be interested in doing during the summer. Let her be a part of selecting the program she will attend. You want to make sure the program offers activities that are interesting to your child.
- Make sure you talk with staff and/or the director of the program you child will be attending. Ask what type of training staff have had; if staff are CPR and First Aid certified; what the discipline policy is; and what the staff do to encourage individual development in children.
- Keep informed with the efforts in your community that are taking place to improve and support summer programs available to children.
To locate summer programs for your child, you may talk with the specialist at your local Child Care Resource & Referral agency. To locate this agency, call Child Care Aware at 1 (800) 424-2246 or TTY: 1 (866) 278-9428, or go to the Child Care Connector to the right hand side of this article and enter your zip code.
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