In June, I almost wish I were a kid again. It might be worth it just to experience that last day of school, with its delicious sense of freedom, ripe with the promise of carefree days.

I remember one June day in particular. There was a new baby at my house, and second grade lessons seemed frightfully uninteresting by comparison. I recall dancing away from the world of routine and into an oasis of lazy mornings and an at-home summer school on child development.

My younger brother shared my glee, though not my fascination with infant psychology. He was far more interested in the regeneration of severed earthworms and the laws of speed and motion. In one experiment, he explored how deeply a pebble can embed itself into the forehead of a small boy as he falls from a speeding trike. The answer: Deep enough to require a trip to the emergency room.

Amazingly, his interest in physics survived. He spent most of that summer studying the effects of gravity and force on the downhill momentum of skateboards.

No one could have convinced us we were losing brainpower that summer, but apparently we were. Math and spelling skills are the quickest to suffer when we fail to practice each day. In fact, researchers say that some kids lose up to 60 percent of their math and reading skills over the summer.

“Often the students who have the toughest time learning concepts during the school year are also the students who lose information most quickly over the summer,” says Kristin Schavey, an elementary teacher and tutor from Lowell. “These students need to be active year-round in order to keep up with their peers.”

Some schools try to prevent vacation losses by operating year-round or by providing summer programs. High-quality summer school programs that boost the skills of struggling students can be highly effective in schools that can still afford them.

Balance Fun With Structure
With all this emphasis on summer learning, parents sometimes worry about losing the magical days of summer. The answer, say teachers, is to balance the fun with some brain-boosting exercise.

“Keeping kids from losing ground doesn’t mean you have to hold summer school in your basement every morning,” Schavey says. “Try to think of ideas that will help practicing seem like play.”

Shirley McMillen, a media specialist in Lake Odessa, agrees that preventing “summer slide” does not have to be complicated.

“I think the best thing is to have a schedule,” she says. “There are many kids who literally do nothing but watch TV the entire summer.”

Start with a few teacher-tested ideas:

• Connect as a family. Use these unstructured hours to read together, cook, play spontaneous games, attend special community events or help others in your neighborhood.
• Give everyone, even little ones, summer jobs at home. Jobs teach valuable life skills that will help in school and beyond.
• Limit TV time, and schedule at least some viewing time for high-quality channels like Discover or History. Then talk about what you see.
• Send your kids to camp. Scouts, YMCA, local communities and churches all sponsor summer camps that teach anything from outdoor life and sports to music and computers.
• Recruit some pint-sized “travel guides.” Before family vacations, encourage children to visit the library or use the Internet to find activities, events and/or history in your destination city. Later, give each child a disposable camera and “document” the trip in a photo journal.
• Rent foreign-language movies or watch favorite movies in a new way. Many standard English-language DVDs have the option for Spanish or French dubbing and subtitles right in the DVD menu. (Note: It’s a good idea to preview foreign-language films first, since they are not rated by U.S. standards.)

Start Strong, Stay Strong
Another key, says Schavey, is consistency.

“Kids need to see those math facts, books, and writing practice all summer long!” she says. “Camps and other one-week learning programs can be fun—and might jump-start your child’s interest in a subject—but they will not provide the frequency needed for the best learning.”

Try these low-energy, high-impact brain builders:

• Ask questions, and explore answers. Imagine new inventions.
• Have math facts races outside with sidewalk chalk.
• Get or make a number ball; play catch and wherever your thumbs land, you need to add, subtract, or multiply those numbers.
• Estimate distances while you travel in your car.
• Post a family message center: write notes, share ideas and log memories of special events.
• Let kids do the cooking. Kitchens are great places to read, practice math and experiment with elements. (Plus, it can be a great confidence-booster to share the results with family.)

“If all else fails, read, read, read,” says high school teacher Erin Stepek. “Join summer reading programs. Find books that have been made into movies. Read the book first and then rent the movie, comparing the similarities and differences between them.”

With a little planning, your children can go back to school a little smarter, more caring, and more creative.

If they’re anything like my brother, they might also gain a little more courage. And a lot more scars.