Today I had a peach for breakfast which means summer time! My kids are 4 days from summer break.
They are excited to sleep in for a week and NOT think about deadlines, papers, projects, tests. But, they’ll start to get bored. Luckily for them, they’ll be moving right into their next set of adventures and learning opportunities. From rock climbing to animal camp to spy club – they’ll be stretching their brains and their legs all summer long. Of course, every kid should have these opportunities, but we know too well, that summer learning LOSS, not summer learning, is more often the reality.
Addressing the Summer Slide
Thanks to many of you, California has made huge strides towards stopping the summer slide, and creating thousands of spots for kids across the state to be learning, playing and growing all summer. The recent 21st CCLC funding results – with a new priority for year-round programs – created more than 14,000 six hour, five week spaces for California kids. And, school districts aren’t leaving summer learning up to supplemental funding. They are increasingly building summer into their Local Control Accountability Plans. 95% of the 58 LCAPs we analyzed included summer programming, and 49% of those specifically call out summer learning or enrichment (instead of summer school). These statistics keep growing every year.
Seeing is believing!
Every year, we invite dozens of superintendents, principals, school board members and teachers to see summer programs in action. And in almost every case, those leaders have decided that summer learning is the way to go. They get inspired by the engaging and intentional projects, the enthusiastic and talented staff, and most importantly, the excited and happy children. So, we strongly encourage you to sign up for a summer learning site visit this year, and bring along someone from your school district or community who can take action for summer learning.
Here’s the 2017 Summer Matters site visit list – brought to you by partners, advocates and providers across the state:
| Program Name | Date | City | RSVP |
| Super Power Summer Camp
Gilroy Unified School District |
June 28, 2017 | Gilroy | RSVP Gilroy |
| Expect Success Summer Camp
Glenn County Office of Education |
June 28, 2017 | Orland and Willows | RSVP Glenn |
| Extended Learning Summer Program
Pajaro Valley Unified School District |
June 29, 2017 | Watsonville | RSVP Pajaro Valley |
| Jump Start Summer Program
Whittier School District |
July 10, 2017 and
July 11, 2017 |
Whittier | RSVP Whittier |
| Kerman Enrichment Summer Adventures
Fresno County Office of Education |
June 22 | Kerman | RSVP Kerman |
| The Summer Academy
Monterey Peninsula Unified School District |
July 14, 2017 | Monterey | RSVP Monterey |
To RSVP, please click on the link. Once we’ve got your RSVP, you’ll get more information about specific locations and times.
Also, there will be more summer visits coming on-line, so please check the Summer Matters website for regular updates or sign up for our e-newsletter.
If you have questions, please contact Summer Matters Director, Nazaneen Khalilnaji-Otto at Nazaneen@partnerforchildren dot org.
For breakfast, as you know, I ate a peach!
Author Profile: @katiebrackenridge