Summer Learning Loss

Story by Alexia Smith/Staff Intern

Children lose up to 40% of their gains over the school year while on summer break. It is also said that higher-achieving students forget more over the summer than average students. Without an element of active education, the summer break has the potential of setting back a variety of the progress your kids have made during the school year. Some studies say that students can lose 1-3 months of learning throughout the summer. There are many benefits to enrolling your kids in a program during the summer months. First, it’ll minimize the danger of learning loss while they’re not at school. By working and practicing their reading skills over the summer, you’ll be helping them develop great reading habits. Luckily for us, we have two local organizations in Ponca City willing and able to help and support children. The Ponca City Public Library The Ponca City Public Library offers many wonderful things in its Summer Reading program, such as setting goals for the kids. The library has broken down the students into three groups: Early Literacy group, Children and Teens. The Early Literacy group covers 0-4 year olds; it provides activities that mom/dad, etc., can help with, such as drawing, storytelling and observing. The Children’s group reads for a minimum of 20 minutes; in doing so, children receive a sticker on their log. Teens read thousands of pages of any books of their choosing. At the end of this program, July 25, they receive a prize if, and only if, they complete their mark. “A significant way to encourage a young mind into reading is to read in front of your kids,” says Kathleen Auschwitz, Manager of Ponca City Public Library, who also oversees the program. “They say kids fall into a summer slump; this is a way to keep their brains active and is a way to keep them interactive with others. That way, once they go back to school, they are semi-ready.” This year Mrs. Auschwitz turned the young minds of Ponca toward the outdoors, making Summer Reading into something more educational, as well. This year’s theme for the library is Tails and Tales. However, Mrs. Auschwitz took a different tactic, naming it Trails and Tales. All classes are entirely free through the Ponca City Public Library; they hold classes and allow kids to go home and complete tasks by themselves with Summer Reading. If you want to do this at home, you can pick up a log or print it offline. Classes are held on Mondays at 11 a.m. Picking up a brochure at the library will help you know all the dates and times for events. Classes are around an hour long; if your child is under 8, a parent must stay. If your child is 8+, you may leave your child there, but she encourages you to stay because the class may run shorter. Brace Books & More Brace Books also gave us some insight into its Summer Reading program. “By encouraging kids’ reading, Brace Books hopes to help close the gap on ‘Summer Lag’ so kids are ready to head back to school in August,” says Tara Smith, owner of Brace Books & More. “Brace Books’s summer reading challenge at our local, small-town business is an at-home program that does not require you to keep a log yourself. Brace Books has an Honor System for each child to verify that they have read the book, and they trace the number of books you take home,” says Tara. After reading 10 books, the child gets a $10 Brace Books coupon that can be spent on anything in the store, or you can save it and collect more money along the way. At the end of each month, the child who has read the most books for that month will get a gift basket with goodies and gift cards from several local businesses. Sun ‘N Fun and Farha Wholesale have teamed up with Brace Books to give these children the perfect end-of-the-summer prize, while also offering discounts on their book purchases and a coupon program that they can exchange for books. Brace Books and More offers trained staff members to help children find the right book that makes them want to continue reading throughout the summer. They offer books and other learning materials that are geared toward any child’s needs and abilities. Kids have through August 31 to read as much as possible, and since it’s an at-home program, you can read at any time. For Brace Books to accurately track your kids’ reading, they require the books to be purchased from inside their store, and luckily Brace Books has children’s books starting at just 45 cents. Brace Books holds amazing deals in its store for ages Pre-K-12 grade. The Ponca City Public Library and Brace Books and More both offer incredible deals and experiences. Summer reading should be about helping the young minds of our up-and-coming generations find ways to be encouraged to read and learn.