In a few days’ time, Malta’s schools will close their doors; schoolbags will be packed away and children will start enjoying three months of freedom. Parents, meanwhile, are bracing themselves for 90 days of heat and their children complaining “I’m bored!”
It is tempting to let summer be a total brain-off season for children: no homework and no pressure; just sun, sunscreen and snacks. But there is a quiet risk lurking – one that parents often do not see the consequences of until September.
It’s called the “summer slide”; and no, it’s not the ones found at water parks.
Meet the family
Take Georgia, a nine-year-old girl who has just finished Year 4. She did well this year – nailed her times tables, loved her science project and
even started reading on her own; but come September, something strange happens: at home, they notice she is rusty: the maths she had mastered in May is suddenly shaky, her vocabulary has shrunk, and her attention span is shorter.
Georgia does not fall behind because she is lazy. She just spends three months not retrieving what she has learned and there lies the danger.
What the science says
A 2021 study (Broekman et al., 2021) found that children’s maths performance can drop by as much as seven percentile points after just a six-week summer break – equivalent to nearly two months of lost maths progress. And this summer slide hits hardest in mental maths, a core foundation for more advanced learning.
This is not just about memory loss – it is about how the brain works.
Our brains store information like a messy storage room. If we do not go back in and pull out what we have learned, it gets buried. Retrieval – the act of remembering – is how we keep that knowledge from fading. And the more often we retrieve something, the stronger it sticks.
That is why summer learning is not about cramming or worksheets. It is about bringing old knowledge back into the sunlight – in fun, natural ways.
What the brain needs
Neuroscientists (Dubinsky & Hamid, 2024) tell us this: “Learning sticks when it is active.” When children retrieve, rework and reuse information, their brain’s neural pathways strengthen. Think of it like this: every time your child remembers how to solve a problem, reads a tricky word or explains how plants grow, they are ‘watering’ those brain connections.
But if those mental muscles go unused all summer? They shrink. They weaken.
So what can parents do?
Now let’s be realistic. No child wants a quiz on the beach and no parent wants to spend their summer running a mini-school. But they do not have to.
Summer learning works best when it looks like it is fun, is enjoyable to do and forms part of everyday life – especially for Generation Alpha kids, who learn through play, tech and interaction.
Here are some brain-boosting ideas for the summer:
• Let your child turn their favourite online game into a bedtime story – they will build language, memory and sequencing without even noticing;
• At the supermarket – let your child tally the cost and, in the car, let them time how long it takes to get from one destination and another. Real-life maths is sticky maths;
• At the beach, talk about how sunscreen works and wonder aloud why the sea is salty. Curiosity enhances learning;
• Reverse roles – let your kids ask you what they learned during the year – they will have to recall the answers to test you;
• Not all screen time is equal. Download apps that include logic and reading. Even Minecraft and Surviving Mars have learning tools.
Don’t fear the slide, prevent it!
Summer in Malta should be fun. It should be sandy, splashy and silly. But it should not be a full stop for thinking. A child’s brain needs what a body needs: exercise, rest and play.
So, as you plan outings, holidays and activities, build in short bursts of fun, meaningful learning. Your child will not just remember what they learned, they will come back stronger.
Just ask Georgia – this summer, she will be building Lego models and creating a digital storybook or a slide show to explain how each one works. Her brain will not be on holiday; it will be on a field trip.
What adventure is your child’s brain going on this summer?
Erika Galea is founder and director of the Educational Neuroscience Hub Europe (Malta), which aims to raise awareness of evidence-based strategies, with the goal of enhancing the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process, placing students at the centre of their education. To contact her, e-mail erikagalea@educationalneurosciencehub.com.
For more education-related articles, click here. For more Child stories, follow this link.
