Although summertime means a break from the classroom for kids throughout the city, the Long Island City YMCA is providing fun and educational activities for kids to enjoy.
For 10 weeks, the Long Island City YMCA’s summer day camp provides 300 kids from western Queens just that opportunity.
“The research is clear: If kids aren’t learning over the summer, they fall behind academically,” said Jay Cruz, Executive Director of the Long Island City YMCA. “We are committed to providing a quality summer program that includes unique elements that help kids get ahead while they explore new talents and discover the joy of learning something new. Students need extra time for learning, and quality summer programs like ours offer that.”
The Long Island City YMCA uses books that the entire group can read and discuss, memory books for campers to record their daily observations, and bi-weekly “snapshots” sent home to share campers’ progress to inform their parents. The YMCA started using some of these measures last summer and in a follow-up survey of parents, 80 percent agreed that the camp helped their child academically during the summer.
The YMCA of Greater New York’s 48 day camps joined hundreds of community programs nationwide in celebrating Summer Learning Day on July 9. Research shows that all children experience learning loss when they don’t engage in educational activities during the summer.
In addition to recommending summer programs like the YMCA’s day camps, the National Center for Summer Learning encourages parents to make the most of their children’s summer break with the following simple, low-cost things parents can do to make sure their children are active and engaged this summer.
“Summer learning programs are a proven educational innovation that will close the achievement gap,” said Ron Fairchild, executive director of the National Center for Summer Learning. “This is a historic opportunity to use new public dollars for summer learning programs and help thousands more children achieve their full potential.”
