If your student is looking forward to Spring Break, they are not alone. After tests, exams, homework, and assignments, a week off is a welcome reprieve from the school grind. It’s the time when students have a school-sanctioned chance to rest, relax, and recharge.
However, Spring Break is also a time when learning momentum and academic motivation can falter.
How can students strike the right balance between rest and staying on track?
Striking a Balance
Research shows that, like longer breaks from school, even shorter breaks can affect learning progression.
But it’s not all bad news. The data also suggests that learning outside of school doesn’t have to be structured to be effective. By balancing fun and enrichment-based activities, students of all ages can keep their skills sharp and return to the classroom after the break ready to learn. Students must strike the right balance between relaxing and maintaining skills.
Breaks & Brains
Even short breaks from learning can be linked to a drop in skills such as math processing, reading comprehension and study skills. Like longer breaks from school, such as summer, this process is known as “brain drain” or “learning loss.”
While the effect is often temporary, it can be avoided by having students stay engaged in hands-on learning activities during a school break. Activities that focus on problem-solving, reading, or math can make the difference between returning to school feeling behind or entering class after the break feeling ahead and ready to learn.
Easy ways to prevent learning loss during school breaks include:
- Playing a new or challenging board game
- Regular puzzle time
- Daily reading time
- Writing or journaling
- Simple school work review
Learning on breaks doesn’t have to be long to be effective: as little as 15-20 minutes a day can make a difference.
The Importance of School Breaks
Like the rest of the body, the brain is a muscle that requires occasional rest to maintain peak performance. In academics, time off is beneficial to help students avoid burnout and maintain their learning motivation.
A short school rest can help students:
- Reduce school stress
- Complete tasks and assignments
- Feel reenergized
- Catch up on sleep
- Feel ready to learn
School breaks should help students find balance.
Make Spring Break Hands-On
When students don’t have activities to fill their time, it can lead to boredom, which can affect motivation. Whether students are involved in Camps for Spring Break or are just looking for something to do, choosing the right activities can make all the difference!
Beating boredom is easy when students partake in engaging and hands-on activities that offer some challenge:
- Science activities that involve experiments
- Creating with technology, such as robotics
- Writing or reading challenges
- Playing math-based games on apps
- Role-playing activities that involve planning and acting
Check out these 10 Spring Break Activities.
Choosing activities that develop critical thinking skills is key. For students who have been struggling in school, Spring Break activities can help them connect the dots between school learning and real-life application.
Spring Break Tutoring Programs
Spring Break also offers students a chance to get extra support in key subjects through targeted tutoring. For students who are behind, the extra time off is especially valuable, helping students catch up in a variety of ways, including:
- Building confidence in an area of struggle
- Having a chance to ask more questions
- Having an aha! moment in a challenging concept
- Developing independent learning habits
- Catching up on missed work
- Making key connections
Reframing Spring Break less as time off and more as an opportunity to catch up can help struggling students make the most of their time away from school.
Let GradePower Learning Help!
Let GradePower Learning be your Spring Break Headquarters! Our learning programs offer a personalized approach that helps students of all ages stay engaged and learning during school break, and most importantly, have fun while learning!
Find a GradePower Learning Spring Break program near you and enroll today!
