With summer vacation just around the corner, your child may be ready to toss his or her backpack and school books out the window for three months. While every child deserves a break from the hectic routine of the school year, research shows that most students experience some amount of regression when they are not in school. Help your child retain important skills during his or her summer vacation in order to smooth the transition back to school in the fall.

First, talk with your child’s teacher to gain an understanding of your child’s proficiency level in various subjects. Your child’s teacher will be able to identify risk areas for regression in your child and offer suggestions for summer exercises that will help your child practice and enhance skills learned throughout the school year.

Here are a few ideas for fun “anti-regression” summertime activities:

Math activities: 

•  Card games – Start with simple games such as High/Low, Crazy Eights (UNO) or Blackjack (21). As your child becomes more interested in cards, try introducing more challenging games such as solitaire, Rummy, Hearts or Bridge.

•  Online games – Visit www.KidSites.com for a list of kid-friendly, educational websites. Find dozens of approved sites for math games and other math activities that your child will enjoy.

•  Make graphs – Have your child track the time he or she spends reading, exercising, watching television, hanging out with friends and doing other activities, and develop weekly and monthly pie or bar charts to analyze the results.

•  Practice fractions – When cutting pizza (or other foods) into sections, challenge your child to tell you what fraction of the pizza is on his or her plate, on your plate, and remaining on the baking dish.

•  Track sports statistics – Is your child a baseball fan? Have him or her track a favorite player’s bats and hits for a week or month and calculate a batting average by dividing “at bats” by “hits.”

•  Plan your vacation – Taking family trip? Arm your child with a map and a ruler to measure the distance you will travel. If you are driving, have your child calculate the cost (and amount) of gas you will use depending on the route you take. Your child can help develop the vacation budget, too – tell your child how much you’ve set aside for the trip and have him or her help you determine what to allocate to hotel, airfare (or gas), meals and entertainment.

Reading and writing activities: 

•  Visit the library – Most libraries offer summer reading programs, book clubs and other reading activities for children of all ages.

•  Enjoy pleasure reading – Don’t force educational reading on your child in the summer, but rather, encourage him or her to pick out books he or she will enjoy. Remember – magazines, cookbooks, comic books and other reading material are great alternatives to books.

•  Try audio books – Let your child pick out a story to listen to in the car, whether on a week-long road trip or as you drive around town together.

•  Keep a summer journal – Journaling and freeform writing are great ways for your child to explore his or her mind and develop a regular writing habit.

•  Get a pen pal – Does your child have a cousin (or aunt or uncle, grandparent, other relative or friend) in another city or state? Perhaps he or she would enjoy staying in touch – and receiving personalized mail in return – through letters.

Other activities: 

•  Take fun classes – Check out summer activities and programs for kids and families at the zoo, cultural center, or art, nature and science, history or other museums in your area.

•  Head to summer camp – There are hundreds of camps for children of all ages across the country – from day camps to overnight camps, from art camps to science camps. Search camps on a wide variety of criteria at www.acacamps.org.

Summer learning is an important part of your child’s scholastic achievement. Don’t let your child lose academic skills he or she has worked hard all school year to develop. Find enriching experiences and activities for your child to enjoy during summer break that will help him or her continue to build knowledge and succeed in the next grade.