Summer is a time that is associated with fun, vacation, camping and spending time with family and friends. It's also a time where our children are at risk of going down the 'summer slide'. 

Summer learning loss is that period of time over the holidays when some students lose a portion of the achievement gains made during the previous school year. This can bring losses in learning, health and well-being in children.

When summer months are filled with high-quality learning opportunities, the holidays can be an opportunity for growth, safety and prosperity for families, schools and communities.

Shannon Shields is the Ignite3 program director and Vice-Principal at Ryerson School in Winnipeg. She says they have made it a priority to support literacy and numeracy during July and August through their summer enrichment program.

"Ignite3 is a summer learning program," Shield explains. "This year we're running a half-day camp for 250 students at four different school sites in south Winnipeg."

She says when kids have an academic need, it's monitored and tracked through the regular school year, and teaching staff at each building recommend who they think would benefit from extra learning over the holidays.

"Those are students who have gaps in their learning. So, whether it's reading, writing, literacy, numeracy, those are the focus of the program, but we make it fun" says Shields.

The goal of the program is to get kids excited and to keep the progress and gains that students have made during the regular school year.

Today on Connections, Shannon shares with us how we can prevent our child from going down the 'summer slide' and how we can enrich our children's learning during the summer holidays.