Summer is a blessing and a curse. When students finish exams, parents face a new problem. What is their child supposed to do for the next three months? Summer creates a problem with unstructured time. Freedom in moderation is wonderful, especially after nine grueling months of homework, tests, and projects. However, too much freedom often creates problems. Without the metronomic force of the school routine, many students fall out of rhythm, and the results can be catastrophic. Summer isn’t just about the summer; it affects the start of next school year. The academic calendar is much more cyclical than many people think. This blog explores the ‘“fifth quarter” of the school year, how parents should handle unstructured time, and the best ways to improve Executive Function (EF) during the summer months.
Two Ends of the Summer Scheduling Spectrum
There are two types of students over the summer: the underscheduled ones and the overscheduled ones. The paragraphs below show the problems with both and one potential solution. Ultimately, the key to boosting a student’s EF skills over the summer while ensuring rest and recovery is properly calibrating unstructured time.
Underscheduled students sleep too much or way too little. Videogames and social media soon dictate the schedule, as many students watch their summer days dwindle without growth or advancement. Decades of studies show that students fall victim to the so-called summer slide. Particularly in the areas of mathematics and verbal reasoning, students lose as much as 15% of their accumulated school-year learning during the summer months. Why? Inactivity. The lack of routine and lack of academic enrichment cause students to atrophy, and it’s more than academics. Many students suffer debilitating losses in their executive function skill development over the summer months due to the lack of routine. All of the gains in organization, time management, learning skills, and impression management are too quickly forgotten when the days become a slew of pool parties, video games, and sleep. What a pity!
Overscheduled students follow a rigid routine. Some parents opt for a summer activities schedule that would put a Fortune 500 CEO’s calendar to shame. With standardized test prep, summer camps, family vacations, and resume-building commitments, many students remain just as overscheduled as they were doing the school year. This is pretty merciless for a student who powered through final exams with the dream of not setting an alarm during the first week of June. In a flash, June and July are over, and it’s time for back-to-school shopping once again. Without an opportunity to refresh and recharge, these students start the year off at a motivation trough rather than a crest. They’re just kids. After all, don’t they deserve a break – some time away from the structure and stress of a daily schedule? Then, there’s the third option.
The Third Option & an EF Opportunity
To help students build EF skills, they need some unstructured time. The summer is a unique opportunity for students to practice organization, time management, learning skills, and impression management outside the confines of the normal school year. By intentionally building in time for rest and relaxation while also providing opportunities for enrichment and skill-building, students can strike a balance between structure and freedom. The key is to choose the right activities and the right amount of free time for the summer months. So what should your child focus on during the summer?
One way to build executive function skills is through self-directed learning. Students finally have the time to pursue subjects or passion projects that just don’t fit the normal school curriculum. Choosing a topic or project, designing a project plan, and executing it is a great way to build some structure into the summer. It’s also a great way to improve a student’s EF skills. This is one of the many summer services Illuminos offers. Students will learn important skills like planning, time management, focus, research, outlining, writing, and presenting, proving to themselves that they can achieve their goals. At the end of the project, students will showcase their learning in a creative way that aligns with their interests.
Learning loss is another consideration. Every summer, students lose about a third of the knowledge they gained during the school year. Because of pandemic-era educational closures, many students are even further behind. Although math and science subjects are the most affected by learning loss, students also show deficiencies in social-emotional learning, compensatory skills, and executive functioning due to learning loss. Saving some time over the summer for readiness and enrichment preparation is a wise move.
High school students can also get a jump on college applications, essay writing, and SAT/ACT test preparation. This can help with the summer slide, but it also provides a goal to focus a student’s academic attention. Much like self-directed learning, students who engage in college application writing and standardized test prep will learn important skills like planning, time management, focus, and recovery. All of these are pivotal to long-term EF development.
These are just a few of the many options students have over the summer. Again, it’s important not to overload a student’s schedule. If possible, plan the summer during the school year. If a student struggles in a particular subject, schedule enrichment and readiness for the summer period. If a student expresses an interest in a particular subject, carve out some time over the summer to pursue it. Ultimately, the activity is not determinative of summer EF success. Striking the right balance between structure and freedom is the key to developing EF skills over the summer.
Illuminos Is Here to Help This Summer
At Illuminos, we believe that executive function skills are critical for academic success, and we offer one-on-one academic coaching programs that focus on developing these skills. Whether it's time management, organization, or study skills, our coaches work with students to identify areas of weakness and provide targeted support to help them improve.
We offer summer enrichment and support for students where they need it most: retention, understanding, or acceleration! We help students balance the need to relax and have fun with the need to keep their brains sharp. Summer is the time when students lose skills they gained during the school year, known as the “summer slide,” which we can help students avoid!
Our expert coaches can help your child build learning and writing strategies, develop Executive Functioning skills, support Summer assignments, bolster subject matter knowledge, and feel prepared and confident about going back to school this Fall.
So if you're looking for ways to help your child grow and develop their executive function skills this summer, we're here to help. Reach out to us today to learn more about our coaching programs and how we can support your child's academic success.