Widespread concern exists for the trend called "summer learning loss," which is what happens to children when they forget some of the information learned during the previous school year. Sometimes children may take weeks or months to regain the knowledge they lost while hanging out at the pool or playing video games in the basement for three months.
Across the United States, some schools have adopted year-round academic schedules, and many communities have developed camps, library events and fun educational activities to promote learning in active and creative ways during the summer months.
Although it is wonderful that this problem has garnered national attention, what research has been done on the phenomenon that I like to call the “Parental Summer Beatdown.” What inquiries have been done to discover what happens to the parental spirit every time a child says, “I am bored,” “There is nothing to do here,” or “This is boring” ? How much self-esteem do parents lose every time they pack up a picnic, sunscreen, an array of balls, Frisbees, and kites to take to the park only to have their children say “I don’t want to go”? Even worse than the children not wanting to go is taking the whole family to the park and having them want to leave after 20 minutes, six pushes on the swing and three times down the slide.
After a one week luxurious beach vacation, a trip to grandma’s house five states away, a soccer camp, a few festivals on the weekends, swimming at the neighborhood pool for a couple hours a day and a little Vacation Bible School for the religious types (although I find that many of non-pious friends are happy to lie about their church going habits and expose their children to dogma they don’t believe in just to get their kids out of the house at a low cost), what else is there to do? Yard sprinklers are so 2002; sidewalk chalk is also passé, and the concept of kicking your children outside after breakfast and allowing them back inside at dinner time is no longer considered to be safe or politically correct. Too much sun exposure is harmful, but excessive videogame playing and T.V. watching isn’t so good either.
What are exhausted, frustrated parents who don’t have degrees in early childhood education suppose to do? Every parenting magazine in the world is chock-full of fun ideas that allegedly will keep children busy and squealing in delight for months. These activities work on laboratory rats, not real children.
The only option is to pack their backpacks, fill their lunch boxes, give them a map to the school, and send them on their way. Eventually, teachers will return and let them in.
