Local View: ‘Afterschool approach’ transforms summers
By Dayna Krannawitter
One of the many ways in which family life has changed in the Lincoln area over the past 25 years is the advent and growth of afterschool programs. For working parents in particular, afterschool can be a real godsend, keeping children safe and constructively engaged during a time of day when parents otherwise would have good reason to worry about what their children were up to.
Just as important, afterschool programs put children’s time to good use, supplementing the regular school day’s lessons with homework assistance and other academic support, as well as exercise, nutritious snacks and enrichment activities designed to fill gaps in the sometimes test-score-driven school curriculum.
But what do kids do in the summer, when classrooms go quiet and school bells stop ringing? In many cases — where funding and circumstances permit — afterschool programs morph into summer programs and go right on keeping kids safe, inspiring them to learn and sparing their working parents worries about their children’s whereabouts.
Summer programs are nothing new, of course. But the afterschool-to-summer program transition has been around only as long as the afterschool movement has been. And it turns out that the kind of “summer learning” programs that afterschool-turned-summer programs employ are an outstanding way to prevent what researchers call “summer learning loss.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, children lose academic ground if they don’t exercise their academic muscles from mid-June to late August. Studies find that children score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer than they do in the spring when schools close. According to extensive research compiled by the Center for Summer Learning, this “learning loss” is worst for low-income students, who often lag behind middle- and upper-income children to begin with.
But summer programs can boost academic achievement, motivate students to want to learn and help them develop new skills and talents.
That’s exactly why the Lincoln Community Learning Centers (CLCs) offer educational enrichment and recreational activities from the time school is out at the beginning of June to the time school begins in late August. The Lincoln CLCs enrich kids’ summer learning through field trips to museums and zoos, fossil-digging in state parks, exploring the prairie, examining bugs and other living things outside, and other explorative expeditions.
Kids are practicing their academic skills through fun, interactive enrichment activities, such as learning math skills while exploring space, experimenting with science in Kitchen Chemistry, and participating in the Summer Reading Program at the libraries. Kids also are exercising their muscles through weekly swimming and other recreational activities. Kids not only are learning and having fun, they are being engaged and supervised by caring adults.
Such activities have benefits beyond being fun, according to studies. For example, by providing opportunities for exercise and furnishing nutritious snacks and meals, summer programs help combat the obesity problem now reaching epidemic proportions among American youth. Programs’ snacks and meals also can play a critical and underappreciated role in the lives of children from low-income homes.
In 2006, some 7.7 million children were eligible for free or reduced-price breakfasts at school, and 16.1 million ate free or reduced-price lunches. During the summer, those kids’ economic circumstances don’t change, but because school’s out, they lose what may be their best shot at a healthy meal every day. Participating in summer programs are an important way to ensure that low-income children get at least one healthy meal five days a week, giving them access to federally supported feeding programs during the summer months.
It’s for all of these reasons — preventing learning loss, keeping kids safe, helping working families, creating opportunities for exercise and good nutrition — that afterschool-turned-summer programs are such an important service to this community. It’s also why they’re such sound investments, even in these difficult economic times.
Dayna Krannawitter is the site supervisor at the Arnold Community Learning Center, and an Afterschool Ambassador for the Afterschool Alliance.
One of the many ways in which family life has changed in the Lincoln area over the past 25 years is the advent and growth of afterschool programs. For working parents in particular, afterschool can be a real godsend, keeping children safe and constructively engaged during a time of day when parents otherwise would have good reason to worry about what their children were up to.
Just as important, afterschool programs put children’s time to good use, supplementing the regular school day’s lessons with homework assistance and other academic support, as well as exercise, nutritious snacks and enrichment activities designed to fill gaps in the sometimes test-score-driven school curriculum.
But what do kids do in the summer, when classrooms go quiet and school bells stop ringing? In many cases — where funding and circumstances permit — afterschool programs morph into summer programs and go right on keeping kids safe, inspiring them to learn and sparing their working parents worries about their children’s whereabouts.
Summer programs are nothing new, of course. But the afterschool-to-summer program transition has been around only as long as the afterschool movement has been. And it turns out that the kind of “summer learning” programs that afterschool-turned-summer programs employ are an outstanding way to prevent what researchers call “summer learning loss.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, children lose academic ground if they don’t exercise their academic muscles from mid-June to late August. Studies find that children score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer than they do in the spring when schools close. According to extensive research compiled by the Center for Summer Learning, this “learning loss” is worst for low-income students, who often lag behind middle- and upper-income children to begin with.
But summer programs can boost academic achievement, motivate students to want to learn and help them develop new skills and talents.
That’s exactly why the Lincoln Community Learning Centers (CLCs) offer educational enrichment and recreational activities from the time school is out at the beginning of June to the time school begins in late August. The Lincoln CLCs enrich kids’ summer learning through field trips to museums and zoos, fossil-digging in state parks, exploring the prairie, examining bugs and other living things outside, and other explorative expeditions.
Kids are practicing their academic skills through fun, interactive enrichment activities, such as learning math skills while exploring space, experimenting with science in Kitchen Chemistry, and participating in the Summer Reading Program at the libraries. Kids also are exercising their muscles through weekly swimming and other recreational activities. Kids not only are learning and having fun, they are being engaged and supervised by caring adults.
Such activities have benefits beyond being fun, according to studies. For example, by providing opportunities for exercise and furnishing nutritious snacks and meals, summer programs help combat the obesity problem now reaching epidemic proportions among American youth. Programs’ snacks and meals also can play a critical and underappreciated role in the lives of children from low-income homes.
In 2006, some 7.7 million children were eligible for free or reduced-price breakfasts at school, and 16.1 million ate free or reduced-price lunches. During the summer, those kids’ economic circumstances don’t change, but because school’s out, they lose what may be their best shot at a healthy meal every day. Participating in summer programs are an important way to ensure that low-income children get at least one healthy meal five days a week, giving them access to federally supported feeding programs during the summer months.
It’s for all of these reasons — preventing learning loss, keeping kids safe, helping working families, creating opportunities for exercise and good nutrition — that afterschool-turned-summer programs are such an important service to this community. It’s also why they’re such sound investments, even in these difficult economic times.
Dayna Krannawitter is the site supervisor at the Arnold Community Learning Center, and an Afterschool Ambassador for the Afterschool Alliance.
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