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How to Fight "Brain Drain" and Still Enjoy Your Summer

Authored By: 
Maren Holmen, Director of The Tutoring School

We’ve written in the past about how to make sure that summer school won’t ruin your summer or how to make summer courses help you in meeting your educational goals.  However, if you are like most people, you don’t want to think about anything school-related during the summer!  How can you enjoy your summer vacation while not giving in to the “summer slide?”

Summer school tutoring may be your answer.  Unlike taking a full-blown summer school course, engaging the services of a summer school tutor means that you can cover the topics you want on a schedule that works for you.  Are you worried that you’ll forget all of that Spanish vocabulary while you’re not in school?  Arrange for a Spanish tutor to work with you once a week reviewing your grammar and maintaining your vocabulary.  Are you going away to soccer camp in July but need to work on your essay-writing skills?  Work with a tutor before you leave and after you return to focus those analytical techniques.  Do you have a summer job or internship but need to complete that pesky summer math packet?  Having a tutor means that you can work together outside of regular summer school hours to recall how to complete the square.

With the Internet, you can even keep working with your local tutors while you’re out at your vacation house.  One important note: keep the time change (if any) in mind when scheduling with your tutor!  However, if you don’t work well without a tutor sitting next to you, plan ahead and contact tutors or tutoring agencies (and, because you should not just select the first tutor you find on the local bulletin board, contact friends or schools in the area for referrals).

More students are finding that the days of ignoring academics during summer break without consequence are gone, but you can still find ways to enjoy your summer while keeping your brain engaged.