WHO SAYS SUMMER LEARNING CAN’T BE FUN?

This summer, 50 kids stretched their minds and had a blast at the YMCA's new Summer Learning Academy (SLA). For 5 weeks, these kids did more than sit on the couch playing video games or watching Netflix at home. They spent their time at Roger Q. Mills Elementary school near Fair Park.

The goal of SLA is to help prevent summer learning loss, which is the regression in learning and tends to occur more among lower-income students during the summer. These household aren’t always able to keep learning alive in the house during the summer – parents are busy making ends meet or might not have learning materials at home – and the child loses what they’ve learned the previous school year.  The Summer Learning Academy seeks to stop the loss that happens to so many children over the summer months. The goal is to keep the learning going so that children won’t spend as much of next school year playing catchup and can advance throughout the year.

The first half of the day was dedicated to traditional kinds of academics. Teachers, who are in fact from the same school, guided the kids through curriculums involving literacy and math, and the kids also did work on computers. Part of the curriculum is intended to help with preparation for the STAAR, and another part is for helping the kids with their English, as a significant number of the participants are immigrants. Additionally, the children were served both breakfast and a hot or cold lunch every day, provided by DISD, and then at the end of the day were given snack bags in case they didn’t have a meal at home that night. On Fridays, everyone goes to Moorland YMCA to swim and have fun with more activities.

The second part of the day includes the fun! After lunch the program is designed to feel more like summer camp and less like school. The camp has a curriculum of its own and they continue to learn but in a fun way for the kids. One such activity this summer was the camp’s lemonade making contest – each grade level makes lemonade (from scratch!) adding an extra ingredient (strawberries, raspberries, etc.) They had to brand it as well and sell it to the judges. The kids from all grade levels were enthralled by what they were doing and were excited when it was time to be judged. On other days, the kids made slime, exploding boomerangs, bridges, ice cream, jelly bean structures – the list goes on!

With the success of this year’s SLA the Y plans to expand the program next summer.  It’s an opportunity for kids to continue their academic learning throughout the summer when they normally would stop on the last day of school, forgetting everything by the time August rolls around. Not only did they learn, but they also just got to have fun with the Y. After all, this isn’t summer school. And most importantly, the camp is free for parents and fun for all.