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With the summer vacation just around the corner, it will be important to implement some mathematics over the break to avoid the "summer slide." The "summer slide" is a term used to describe the loss of academic skills and knowledge over the course of the summer holiday.  In fact, young learners can lose from 2-6 months of instruction. How Do We Entice Young Math Learners to Keep Their Skills Sharp? When I work with students over the summer months, the key to my success is to integrate fun activities and games into all of my lessons.  I not only want to maintain each student's current knowledge, but the summertime is a wonderful opportunity to review concepts students that may have missed or preview topics to get them ahead.  Here are a few simple options that can get you up and running: Create a fun and creative math manual that implements memory strategies. Use online math tools, sites, and apps such as Nessy Numbers , and  Math Playground . Use the free ...

This week I have a guest post by Nancy Platt. Nancy is a early literacy specialist and worked as a children's librarian for 15 year at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Connecticut. Nancy is passionate about multisensory and play-based early education.  Currently residing in the Dominican Republic, Nancy is furthering her expertise in language acquisition and bilingual education. --------- Each year as schools close their doors for summer vacation, a familiar scene plays out. Students joyously, rapturously careen into vacation mode without a thought to the summer reading lists and “enrichment packets” that likely made their way home in the final days of the school year. The ten weeks that make up most schools summer break is a deceptively dangerous time academically for many kids, as studies have shown that during this relatively short break, students lose significant ground and forget crucial skills learned throughout the school year – at least a month of reading gains, on average...