Parents take note: Stop your child's "summer slide" with games
BROOKFIELD (WITI) -- 10-year-old Elayna Pasqua and her friends love to play games.
"Because it's a game, games are made to be fun and they are fun," said Elayna.
But games can also be educational -- providing the perfect way for children to avoid the summer slide.
"In both math and other subjects kids will lose somewhere between 1 and 2 months during the summer because they're just not exercising those skills," said LearningRx Executive Director Kevin Pasqua.
Teachers can spend anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks just trying to catch kids up at the beginning of the school year. This lost time can be prevented by parents engaging their kids in activities that create a mental sweat 20 to 30 minutes a day.
"We have a game we like to do called mental tic-tac-toe, where you just make a grid and instead of using a pencil and putting in x's and o's you mentally place it in the right box when you're playing against somebody," said Pasqua.
You can also play memory games with a deck of cards or play dominoes to work on math and strategy skills. Elayna has noticed the results.
"It's helped me improve memory, thinking, getting an image in my head when I'm trying to figure something out, and it's helped me with numbers a lot and math," said Elayna.
Proving that learning really can be fun.
"It's learning something new, it's a surprise, it's kinda cool," said Elayna.
The educational organization, LearningRx, is hosting an event called "Stop Summer Slide with Brain Exercises" on Tuesday, August 5th at 10 a.m. It's a free event held at The Learning Shop in Brookfield.