10 ways your kids can avoid summer brain drain

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

photo Alec Watts-Windham, a Cedar Bluff Elementary school student, plays ninety-nine or bust at Mathnasium to practice addition, subtraction and strategy.

Summer slide. Brain drain. Amnesia. It's called different things but adds up to the same thing: Young brains slow down during the long, lazy days of summer, causing some kids to backslide, forgetting valuable math and reading skills.

No need to crack open the textbooks. Local educational experts have tips and tricks parents can sneak into the family summer schedule to keep kids of all ages from falling behind.

"One great thing over the summer is to have projects," suggests Mike O'Hern, director of math learning center Mathnasium of West Knoxville, "such as building a model and studying nature and making a chart. There are all kinds of ways to sneak math in."

Read more at KnoxNews.com.