So far, my summer-themed blogs have mainly focused on reading and writing, and have also included suggestions on how, when, and where you can find ways to continue on your study skills journey while enjoying your well-earned break. In this post, I will turn my focus to math. Though summer math work doesn’t have the same long tradition that summer reading does, it has increasingly become an important part of summer learning, and just as with reading and writing, spending time on math in the summer is a great way to build confidence for the year ahead.
Whether or not you have assigned math work to complete over the summer, it is a good idea to review any concepts you found particularly challenging. Since math is cumulative, making sure you are comfortable with where you left off at the end of this past year is an important step to take toward being ready to learn new content. If you kept any of your work or materials from this past year, or are able to access them online, check to see what you might need to review. If you didn’t keep any of your work, weren’t assigned any work, and are not sure what you might need to review, look online for practice problems or programs. If your school has assigned you a particular program and you have access to it over the summer, you can either practice specific concepts you know you need to review or do a little of everything. If you don’t have access to your particular program, you can look up general reviews based on course title and/or grade level, and find plenty of practice material. In addition to actually completing problems online, you can download materials and complete problems on paper. Even if you do stick to online work, though, make sure you have scrap paper or a whiteboard handy! You might not need to show your work as much as your teachers require, but unless you are sticking to mental math activities, always make sure you are prepared to work out your answers!
If you can’t find what you’re looking for online and didn’t receive assigned work, you can also purchase either course-specific or skill-specific workbooks. If you are able to follow directions and use the answer keys, you can review the work on your own, but if you get stuck, you can always get help from a family member, friend, or tutor. Make the commitment to spend a certain amount of time each day or each week on whatever you need or decide to do, but just as I’ve already said about reading and writing, plan your study time around your summer activities. The better you are at working consistently through whatever remains of your summer, the more able you will be to also enjoy the time you have you have left. Whether you have assigned math work or not, waiting until the very end of your summer to review is not the answer, because you will either miss end-of-summer activities to get the work done, or head into your new year unprepared. Better to do as I said in a previous post, and work the amount of time per day or per week in the summer that you would spend on your extracurricular activities during the year – so you are left with the remainder of the time, all those hours you would normally spend in school and doing homework, to enjoy your summer break.
You may recall that in the title of this post, I said you should be creative about working on math during the summer. Whether or not you need or wish to do summer math work in any of the ways suggested above, you should still take every opportunity you have to use math this summer. You can play math games, teach basic facts or other math concepts or skills to younger kids, cook or bake, look up statistics or follow analytics when you watch baseball or any other sport that provides them – the list goes on and on! The more you look for math all around you, the more comfortable with it you will become.
Whether you’re required to or not, make math a part of your study skills journey this summer. Formally or informally, online or on paper, in coursework or in the real world, anything and everything you can do to review and practice math will prepare you to enter your upcoming math class with confidence. Take the time you have to be creative and have fun with it – you’ll be glad you did!