ANKENY, Iowa — There are a lot of ways you can enjoy your summer vacation, but some local programs are making sure kids are enjoying their summer while learning something along the way.
Team member Trinity Grace described a typical day of Altoona Kids Klub attendees.
"We are always busy, we are always doing fun activities," Grace said.
She believes there's never a shortage of fun educational opportunities that don't involve chargers and screens.
"We are electronics-free," Grace said. "So, we go on a lot of field trips to really cool places, like CAP Theatre, Metro Waste, some of those kinds of things."
The electronic-free rule is something Iowa State Education Association Mike Beranek recommends.
"These days, children have become very consumed by electronics during the summertime or even throughout the year," Beranek said. "Children need to be able to experience learning opportunities that are off of a piece of technology."
Over in Ankeny, The Little White School House is providing more focused attention on introducing kids to curriculum they will be seeing in the up coming school year, all to help prevent what owner Megan Schmelzer calls the summer slide.
"The summer slide is typically how much kids lose in their learning over the summer," Schmelzer said. "For most kids, that's two to three months worth of learning. So when we get back to the school year, they haven't caught up until like Christmas time."
Schmelzer explained how booked and busy she is helping kids catch up after the pandemic.
"The Iowa assessment scores were the lowest they've ever been in the history... There's a lot of academic work that needs to be done, and kids are still struggling," Schmelzer said.
If you have a student that needs a little bit of extra help with reading, math and other subjects, The Little White School House has a program you can apply for and receive their services for free.