Here's how you can help your children keep their brains in shape throughout the summer break and make them better prepared for the upcoming school year.

It's important to make sure your kids are using their brains throughout the summer vacation. If they don't, they could lose a lot of what they just learned in school.

According to the Center for Summer Learning at The Johns Hopkins University, students usually lose one to two months' worth of reading and math skills during their summer break. So, teachers often spend four to six weeks at the beginning of each school year re-teaching material that students have forgotten.

Summer learning doesn't have to be a huge chore for children or parents, since favorite warm weather pastimes like backyard cookouts and trips to the beach offer perfect opportunities to learn something new. Summer is also a great time for educational adventures such as trips to museums, public libraries, and parks.

The Center for Summer Learning offers these easy-to-implement suggestions for fostering summertime learning.

For reading and writing:

• Read aloud to your kids or have them read aloud to you.
• Let your child see you reading for pleasure.
• Visit the local public library and participate in special summer reading programs there.
• Subscribe to magazines and newspapers and talk about current events with your child.

For math and science:

• Visit a local park and observe different types of rocks, animals, insects, and leaves. If you grew up in a different part of the United States or in a different country, talk about the differences between the types of plants and animals you can find where you live now and those where you used to live.
• Hang a thermometer outside your home to track the temperature.
• Observe weather patterns and make weather forecasts.
• Plant a garden to show how seeds develop into plants and how fertilizer and weather can affect growth.
• Participate in a local recycling program and talk about what would happen to the empty containers if you didn't.

For social studies:

• Interview older community members about their lives and the history of the neighborhood. Ask them to compare the neighborhood they live in now to the neighborhood where they grew up.
• Learn capitals, countries, and continents by playing games and taking virtual field trips online.
• Take field trips to museums, gardens, zoos, and local historical sites.
• Make maps of your neighborhood and places you want to visit with your children.

Once you get in the habit of adding enriching events to each day, ask your children to come up with some learning activity ideas of their own. Always make sure to demonstrate that these learning opportunities can be fun and interesting. Not only will you help your children avoid a summer learning slide, but you will also foster a lifelong passion for knowledge, answers, and new ideas.

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