Nationwide, research is consistently showing that over the course of their summer break, our kids are losing some of the critical skills they have previously learned. One study showed that when students are given a test at the beginning and end of their summer break, they score significantly lower at the end of their summer break, even though it's the same test. It’s what experts call Summer Learning Loss.
According to Reading is Fundamental, “the greatest areas of summer loss for all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, are in factual or procedural knowledge.”
Summer learning loss has some serious consequences, which is why many parents and educators are asking school districts around the country to consider changing school calendars to accommodate differences in student learning.
While discussions about what changes should and should not be happening to school calendars, we, as parents, can do our part to ensure that our kids continue learning throughout their summer break.
I recently came across the 
“All children are born artists; the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.” – Pablo Picasso
Leave a comment on this weekly challenge post with the following:
Over at tauday.com, Michael Hartl makes an impassioned argument for why pi, which is the universal circle constant that describes the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, was wrongly defined. Instead, Hartl says the universal constant should have been defined as the ratio of the circumference to the radius, and thus should be twice the value of pi. He calls this number tau (another Greek letter), and his Tau Manifesto lays out his argument.
Would you believe me if I said art education promotes self-directed learning, improves school attendance and sharpens critical and creative skills? What if I told you that new findings in brain research and cognitive development embrace a variety of approaches that use the arts as a learning tool (i.e. musical notes to teach fractions); incorporating arts into other core classes (writing and performing a play about say, the gold rush); creating a school environment rich in arts and culture (listening to Mozart while doing schoolwork or throughout the day) and hands-on arts instruction? Even the late Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple stated when introducing the iPad 2 in 2011, that “It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”
You can & do use Math everywhere! Here's a fun video featuring LeBron James as he calculates the probability of making ten free throws in a row.
I probably don’t need to tell you about 
Subscribe
Connect