What Teachers Wish Parents Knew About Summer

Learning Doesn’t Take a Break

Every May, teachers see the same thing happen. Children who spent nine months building vocabulary, learning to love stories, and creating a positive relationship with books and language walk out the door for summer. And every September, teachers spend the first few weeks reteaching what was already covered.

This isn’t a criticism of parents. Summer is supposed to feel different, and children need that. But many families assume that skills children learned during the school year will still be remembered in the fall. Teachers know it doesn’t usually work that way, but the fix is easier than most families expect. It doesn’t require worksheets or flashcards or anything that feels remotely like school.

What Teachers See in September

Children who had rich language experiences over summer come back ready. They’re curious, talkative, and comfortable with books. Children who didn’t often come back quieter than they left, with a little more reluctance around stories. Sometimes they’re even less willing to take the verbal risks that learning requires.

The difference rarely comes down to ability, as parents may think. Instead, it’s about exposure. Language is a use-it-or-lose-it skill at this age. When children spend the summer weeks with limited conversation, limited access to books, and limited opportunities to hear complex vocabulary in context, some of what they built starts to fade.

Educators call this summer slide, and while the term sounds alarming, it’s more manageable than it implies. Children don’t lose everything over a few months. What they’ve learned can be maintained by continued exposure to language and stories, in whatever form fits naturally into family life.

Strategies That Families Can Use

The strategies teachers recommend aren’t complicated. They’re the same things that teachers do in the classroom, adapted for home.

Read together every day, even for just ten minutes. It doesn’t have to be a big production. It can happen before bed, during a quiet afternoon, or while a child winds down from an activity. What matters is consistency and conversation. Don’t just read the words. Pause. Ask what they think will happen next. Talk about the pictures. Let children tell you what they notice.

Talk more than you think you need to. Narrate what you’re doing while you cook. Ask real questions during errands and actually wait for the answer. Introduce words your child hasn’t heard before and explain them naturally in context. Young children learn vocabulary through conversation with the adults around them, and summer offers more unstructured time for exactly that kind of talk.

Keep books visible and accessible. Children interact with what’s in front of them. A basket of library books on the coffee table, a small shelf at their level, books in the car for waiting time: these things matter because they create invitations. A child who can reach a book and flip through it on their own is practicing something important, even if no one is reading with them.

Don’t underestimate audiobooks and storytelling. Listening to stories read aloud builds comprehension, vocabulary, and a sense of narrative structure. So does telling stories together: taking turns making up what happens next on a long car ride, or asking a child to tell you a story about their favorite thing that happened this week.

Animated stories count, too. Summer is a great time to let children revisit their favorite vBooks on NoMeLoMe* or explore new ones. Hearing stories read aloud in English, Spanish, or French builds the same listening and comprehension skills as a physical book, and children often engage just as deeply with a story they can watch as one they hold in their hands.

Small Habits, Big Difference

Summer doesn’t have to be like school. Children need time to play, to be bored, and to move through their days without a schedule. That kind of unstructured time has real value. But language and literacy don’t have to be casualties of that freedom. The two things can coexist without much effort at all.

A few books within reach, a lot of conversation, stories shared at bedtime or on a long car ride: none of that feels like work to a child. It just feels like summer. And yet those small, consistent moments are exactly what keep language alive and growing during the months when no one is officially teaching anything.

The families who come back in September with children who are curious, talkative, and excited about stories have almost always spent the summer doing exactly those things. No drilling, no worksheets, and no formal lessons. Just talking and reading together, in the natural rhythm of everyday life.

**Click here for information about the NoMeLoMe digital library**, where children can hear stories in different languages at the speed they prefer. While some resources are freely accessible, others may require a membership.