Have you heard of the “summer learning slide?” According to studies, in a typical school year children lose about two months’ worth of educational knowledge over the summer months if they don’t engage in some type of academic activity.

And this year has been anything but “typical”. A recent report in the Washington Post says, “school districts across the country are planning to return to full-time, in-person classes this fall.” Some school districts are planning a hybrid plan that combines in-person with some remote learning. While they debate the merits of those kinds of programs, plus many other decisions they need to make, one thing they all agree on is that learning has suffered some major setbacks over the past year.

COVID learning loss combined with the summer learning slide make a compelling argument for having students engage in some kind of academic activity over the summer.

Summer Vacation Plus Learning

Summer is a great time for kids to unwind from a particularly stressful school year, but many parents want their children to have a little bit of academic activity to keep their kids’ brains engaged and hopefully prevent more learning loss. Summer tutoring could be the perfect solution.

An hour or two a week throughout the summer could help most students maintain their current proficiency or even improve so they start the next school year ahead of where they ended this year. And teachers who work with students over the summer also keep their skills sharp while they enjoy the one-on-one interaction that they get with private tutoring.

An hour of time spent one-on-one with a certified teacher who not only knows the academic content inside and out, but is also a trained educator who knows how to help students, can achieve results far beyond spending hours in a classroom with dozens of other students.

Benefits of One-on-One Teaching

At TutorUp, all of our tutors are certified, experienced classroom teachers who have gone through our thorough interviewing/vetting process so we are confident that every tutor we match with a student is capable of making a significant contribution to that student’s academic achievement. And our summer tutors are the same top-quality teachers we work with all year. Here are just some ways that a learning experience that involves one student with one teacher is a superior teaching environment:

• The student has the teacher’s undivided attention
• It’s a safe space where the student does not have to be concerned about what his or her classmates might say or think. They are free to be themselves.
• Related to that, a one-on-one session helps eliminate distractions and helps the student focus
• The teacher is able to adapt tutoring sessions to suit the individual student’s needs and learning style

In-Person Summer Activities May Still Be Restricted

It’s looking like many summer programs, summer camps, summer sports, and other “normal” summer activities are still going to be somewhat restricted or even on hiatus this coming summer. Plus there are many parents who are not quite ready to have their children sign up for group activities. Summer tutoring can help give your child some structured activity over vacation.

Summer “school” shouldn’t be your child’s main activity. It’s important to make sure your kids have free time, and spend time soaking up vitamin D outdoors. But if you’re looking for a little learning support to avoid summer learning loss and bridge the gap until school starts back up in the fall, take a look at summer tutoring.