Well, we are getting to the time of year when everybody starts asking me, “What are some summer math activities that I can give my students to do over break?” Today, I’m going to give you my unpopular opinion about what math activities to have students do over the summer.

Now I totally get this request because there is such a thing as the summer slide, where kids’ understandings will slide back down during the summer when they’re not engaging their brains in math and reading and science, and social studies. And I gotta tell you, my thought is, let’s have them do nothing.

Watch the video or read the transcript below:

Let Them Be Kids

I know all of the research about summer slide, but I also know they are kids. Now, this might be totally different if you’re a high school teacher or whatever. But today, I am talking about our elementary kiddos. They have so much time during the school year that they are doing school. And I gotta tell you, just like us teachers, our students need a break as well.

So, my short answer is, give them nothing.

Now, if you can’t do that because you’re required to give something. The parents are expecting something. Whatever the case might be, I’m going to give you my two recommendations, and this is coming from an educator, from that lens, but also as a lens of a parent of four kids who does not want to spend the time that they have with their kids during the summer helping them fill out those 30-page packets of worksheets.

These two things are things that I would love, because it’s things that I feel like I could do as a parent. And because it helps bring me closer to my kids. Typically, those packets of worksheets just split us apart because it’s like beating our heads against each other when we’re trying to help our kids with that homework and doing the packets, okay? I want things that are fun to do with my kids because I want them to have fun over the summer.

Games

Alright, my first recommendation is to tell them to play games. Now, I’m not going to give you a list of games because it just depends upon what your parents have access to. If you come from a higher SES kind of school, you can maybe guess that parents have access to decks of cards and dominoes, and maybe they have dice to be able to play Yahtzee, all of those kinds of things. But if you come from lower SES, you may not be able to assume that parents have access to these things.

You need to decide activities and games that they could play that don’t require parents to go out and buy stuff. So keep that in mind. The other thing I want you to think about when you’re trying to give them ideas for games is to try to make it something that would span the grade level. Don’t send home games that are just for your grade level.

Don’t create games that are just for fifth grade, because there’s a lot of parents who have multiple age levels of kids, and we can’t sit down and just play the game with the fifth grader and then play the game with the kindergartner, and then play the game with the third-grader, right? We want a game that we can all play together, because the biggest part for me is that it brings my family together.

I don’t mind doing educational things when it also incorporates family time. I feel that my kids are at school so many hours that when they’re home with me, I want to do family stuff with them or just let them do things that they want to do as a child, and a kid who wants to go explore and play outside, all of those fun things. So, when I’m doing schoolwork, I want it to also be doing things that my family enjoys doing. So keep those things in mind.

Encourage Parents To Help Kids See Math Everywhere

My second recommendation is to put together something that would encourage parents to look at mathematics in their daily lives. Encourage the parents to take their kids’ grocery shopping. When they are out on a road trip this summer, encourage them to be looking for mathematical things, even if it’s as simple as, how many cows do you think are out in that field? They might not be able to count every single one of them, but they’re making estimates.

All of those things where we can see mathematics in our daily lives, I know that I see those and I pull out those questions with my own children, but a lot of parents don’t realize to do those things.

So, encourage the parents to find mathematics in their daily lives so that when kids come back to school, they see how mathematics relates to their lives and they’re more eager to want to learn it.

Alright, I hope that this video has helped you build your math mind so you can go build the math minds of your students.

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