Dozens of children dart from one bookcase to another in the children’s section of the Ashburn Public Library searching for a shelf that has not already been picked clean by fellow story scavengers. This is not a school fieldtrip in October; it’s an ordinary afternoon in July.
Picture books are becoming harder to find these days than school supplies in September, and it’s largely due to the success of Loudoun County Public Library’s annual summer reading program. The program’s rising participation, however, is only part of a larger trend in the ways that children are spending their summers.
Although trips to the pool and imaginative humid safaris are still stalwart activities of summer, parents are increasingly involving their children in some degree of summer enrichment to prevent academic relapse, also known as the summer brain drain.
ONE OF THE MOST successful area combatants of the brain drain has been the public library’s summer reading program. Children under 12 years old can sign up in early June to complete reading logs for prizes and chances to win grand prizes. There also is a reading program for teenagers in which they can win free books and chances for grand prizes.
Heather Ketran, the acting head of youth services at Ashburn Library, said that summer is always the busiest time of the year at the library. Four thousand children, including 300 teenagers, have signed up for the reading program at Ashburn alone. The library also offers many summer book clubs and special summer programming, with a greater concentration on the arts and performances than during the school year.
However, Ketran said that the most enriching program offered by the library is by far the reading program.
"Summer reading programs help kids maintain, if not advance their reading levels," said Ketran.
THE WORDS, summer school, spark shivers and looks of anxiety whenever spoken aloud in the presence of students. But along with participation in the library reading programs, attendance at the elementary-, middle-, and high-school levels of summer school is growing and not only in the remedial classrooms.
The elementary summer school is strictly remedial in language arts and math and is designed for children who would benefit from more time and attention. The middle-school summer program continues to offer remedial courses in core subjects, but as of last summer, also began offering accelerated high-school math classes for students looking to get ahead. There are two separate high-school summer programs, including a credit recovery program for students who have failed a course and an accelerated course of study for students who want to take a non-advanced-placement high-school course for the first time.
Barbara Knuckles, the supervisor of middle-school education for Loudoun County Public Schools, said that the middle- school and high-school summer programs began to offer accelerated courses in order to meet the needs of the students and to put them in the most challenging subjects offered. She believes that summer enrichment programs are beneficial, even if they are not structured like summer school.
"Personally, I think summer enrichment programs are very important. Classes are smaller and filled with kids from around the county, allowing students to enrich themselves both academically and socially," said Knuckles.
She also added that summer enrichment programs should depend on the child and that trips to museums with parents are equally valuable enrichment programs.
Maria Carty of Leesburg decided at the beginning of the summer to enroll her 11-year-old son, Patrick, in a local Sylvan Learning Center in order to ease his transition from elementary school to middle school.
"I heard how much a child loses over the summer and I wanted to program him for success by helping him in areas where he struggled," said Carty.
Initially, she said that her son wasn’t too happy about leaving the neighborhood pool to go to Sylvan, but that it's less competitive atmosphere has done a lot for his self-esteem. Patrick also is playing baseball, attending sports camps and recently returned from a trip to Boston with his brother and father. Carty believes that sports teams help teach discipline and social skills, but that the most important element of a child’s education is parent involvement and participation.
HOWEVER, NOT everyone wants to see children busier, especially during the summer. Penelope Earley, director of the Center of Education Policy at George Mason University, believes that children are going to learn during the summer whether it’s in a structured environment or not and that sometimes it’s important to just let children be children.
"I look at young people in Northern Virginia and it seems like kids are always busy, they’re not playing anymore," said Earley. "Kids can always get their learning back, losing a little learning is less important to me."
But if parents ask her what they should encourage their children to do over the summer to stay sharp for the fall, she has an answer ready.
"Read, read, read," said Earley. "There’s absolutely nothing better."