Summer provides great opportunities for families to spend time and learn together in ways that can expand classroom learning: exploring the outdoors, taking trips, more self-selected reading, connecting with friends and family, and extended play. Unfortunately, for many children, exposure to these activities during the summer tends to cut along socio-economic lines, resulting in significant learning loss for children coming from lower income households. Learn more about the research behind summer learning loss on our blog post here.

At ReadyRosie, we believe that families do not need money to have a rich summer experience, but they do need resources and ideas. We know that families can take advantage of everyday summer activities and keep the learning and exploring happening all summer long when given the tools and inspiration.

Last Summer, we piloted a ReadyRosie summer learning program with families in Long Beach, CA that involved curated ReadyRosie video content over the course of 8 weeks. The results were remarkable, as evidenced by a survey of the parents at the completion of the program:

  • 82% said they did things they would not have done otherwise because of the program
  • 91% said they spend more time reading because of the program
  • 82% said they had more family conversations because of the program
  • 91% said their child was more prepared for school because of the program
  • 91% said they’d participate again and that they’d recommend ReadyRosie to a friend

Here’s what one of the parents had to say about the ReadyRosie summer program and the impact it had on her family:

This program made me realize the importance of slowing down, and being intentional when I am with my children. I brought fun into learning and everyday was a day to have good conversation about things she was interested in.

Summer Soar

ReadyRosie is now helping to scale this idea by introducing Summer Soar, a 8 week series of curated video playlists designed to give families relevant ideas, games, and activities throughout the summer. Every ReadyRosie partner school and community has access to this and every family who is registered to receive ReadyRosie will begin receiving the Summer Soar content on June 12th.

We want you to be able to take advantage of this resource for your current and incoming families this summer. Here’s what you can do:

  • SPREAD THE WORD TO YOUR TEACHERS – we’ve created this flyer to help let teachers know about this resource as well as specific details for each week of content. If your teachers are using ReadyRosie Share, we will also be emailing this info to them.
  • SPREAD THE WORD TO YOUR PARENTS – make this part of your summer learning strategy. Here’s a flyer in English and Spanish that makes parents aware of the new content coming out for them this summer.
  • MAKE SURE ALL YOUR FAMILIES ARE REGISTERED – this provides a good chance and reason to get more families signed up with ReadyRosie. Make sure all your current enrolled families are registered and also consider a strategy to get your incoming PreK and K families signed up in time to receive this summer content.
  • SEE ALL THE CONTENT – although we’ll still be sending out weekly messages to the families connecting them with this content, we’ve put it all in once place to encourage the teachers, administrators, and families to explore the content as often as they’d like! Go here to access the Summer Soar learning map
  • CUSTOMIZE USING READYROSIE SHARE – if your teachers are using ReadyRosie Share, encourage them to schedule two messages throughout the summer to their families to personalize the connection and encourage the use of this resource.
  • TEXAS SCHOOL DISTRICTS… - As you know, summer learning loss can especially impact the transition from preK to Kindergarten and the Texas Kindergarten Entry Assessment (TX-KEA) will be rolled out this coming Fall. Learn more about this and how ReadyRosie can help.

We hope you take advantage of this great resource to equip and inspire your families this summer. If you have any questions, please let us know! Contact Kevin Roden at kevin@readyrosie.com