Beating the Summer Slide with Daily 7

Every teacher fears it:  The Dreaded Summer Slide.  It is well-documented that children can lose many of their gains in reading and math during the long summer months off of school.  Sadly, those losses can have long-term effects. (See the “Did You Know?” section.)  The Daily 7 is a routine we came up with to help our kids continue to learn and spend their time in meaningful ways all summer long.

Request the free Super Summer Starter Kit for ideas, tips, and templates to help you create your family’s ideal summer. It includes Bucket List ideas, boredom busters, summer slide prevention, a parent-child interview, and more.

Where it Came From

Establishing routines is one of the best ways to help our kids accomplish important things. Instead of fighting with and nagging our kids, we can set routines that help our children understand and follow-through on expectations and meaningful tasks. I recognized that an intentional summer routine would help us make positive gains during the summer.

Related: How to Start Family Routines that Transform Life from Chaos to Calm

At the beginning of the summer, I came up with seven activities that I felt would help my kids incorporate balance into their summer and keep their minds active.  During the school year, my kids enjoyed using the Daily 5 in class to work on their literacy skills.  So when I introduced our summer plan as the “Daily 7,” they were immediately excited about it.

How the Daily 7 Summer Routine Works

Each of my kids had a chart with a checklist of the Daily 7 activities, some other reminders, and a calendar.  Feel free to use this Free Printable Daily 7 Checklist and Template.  We used packing tape to cover the portion of the chart containing the checklist.  (Alternately you could laminate the whole paper or put it in a page protector.  Tape was cost-effective for us.)  This allows the checklist to be reusable.  Dry erase markers are also more fun for kids (and adults!) to use than regular paper and pencil.

Each day the kids would check-off the activities they accomplished.  If they completed all 7 activities, they got to put a sticker on the calendar.  We decided to not do the Daily 7 on Sundays and out-of-town days, but we used other activities to keep reading and mentally active.  We also agreed that if we had a busy planned day, the kids could “make-up” the activities on another day and still get a sticker.

Alternatives

For my kids this summer, trying to fill their calendar with stickers was motivating enough.  However, I have a friend who uses a similar system and the kids earn screen time as they complete the activities.  You could also award small prizes for completion or have reward levels depending on how many times the list is completed.  You can adjust the activities you want your kids to do using the blank template included in the Free Download.

The Daily 7 Activities for Summer Slide Prevention

1.  Read Scriptures

• We read and discuss scriptures together as a family almost every day.  The older kids are encouraged to read on their own sometimes as well.  I haven’t found a better way to help us consistently learn about the most important things in life.

2.  At Least One Helper Job or Service

• Sometimes the kids chose what that helper job or service was, and sometimes I did.  It ranged from folding laundry or making someone else’s beds to doorbell ditching a friend with cookies.  (See here for why we call them Helper Jobs and our approach to teaching kids to work.)

3. Practice Piano

• My six and eight-year-old both take lessons from me, although we took some weeks off of lessons in the summer.  My four-year-old was excited to have the same list as the big kids, so he spent some fun time at the piano making up songs or playing simple ditties.

4.  Read for 20 Minutes

• Read to yourself or to someone else, or be read to.
• Here are some other great ideas for increasing summer reading.

5.  Write, Do Math, or Complete a Workbook Page

• The kids cycled through these three activities.  Writing and math both had a lot of freedom to them.  Writing activities included making up stories, writing in their journals, writing letters, and practicing writing spelling words.  The favorite math activities were answering story problems created by mom (especially Harry Potter themed problems for my slightly obsessed eight-year-old 🙂 ) and math games on the computer.

6.  Physical Exercise for 20 Minutes

• Exercise activities included running around the house, making up your own exercises, doing Go Noodle, a family run when Uncle Scott came to town, playing soccer, riding bikes, and more.

7.  Clean Bedroom

• How does it get so messy everyday?  🙂 I find the bedrooms get messier in the summer when we’re spending more time at home, and the daily tidying is helpful.
• If your bedrooms are not as clean or organized as you’d like, try this.

Success

Your Family’s Summer Routine

Think about what activities will prevent the summer slide for your kids. Decide which expectations will provide balance and help develop your whole child. Use our Free Printable Daily 7 Checklist or Template to craft your personalized summer routine that leads to meaningful summer days.

Related: If you’re looking for a less-structured, more child-led approach to prevent the summer slide, check this out: S.M.I.L.E. to prevent the Summer Slide.

What does your family do to beat the Summer Slide? Share your success stories or challenges in the comments.

Request the free Super Summer Starter Kit for ideas, tips, and templates to help you create your family’s ideal summer. It includes Bucket List ideas, boredom busters, summer slide prevention, a parent-child interview, and more.

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