Summer Reflections

By Cricket

This summer was a good one. Still clutching on to its last few official days as sunsets creep earlier, I’ve been reflecting on what makes summers great, what makes them hard, and what can be done to ensure that every child has a good one.

In its idealized version, summer is a more carefree time. With extended daylight and unstructured hours, children have more time to play outside, engage in physical activity, eat fresher produce and enjoy countless ice cream cones! At its best, summer’s joys revitalize kids for when school starts again in the fall. The reality for many families, however, is that summer induces more stress because of childcare challenges and extra expenses, and can result in food insecurity, less physical activity, weight gain, and learning loss for many children.

Two burgeoning challenges threaten to eclipse summer’s pleasures and raise stress levels even higher: increasingly hotter temperatures and continually rising costs of childcare and summer enrichment. Looking ahead, how can we proactively adapt to these shifts to secure and preserve the benefits of summer for every child?

Excessive heat moving summer indoors

Summer 2023 was the hottest on record, and summers are getting progressively hotter with heat waves occurring more frequently and more intensely across the globe. In Emma Pattee’s recent article, “Summer Vacation is Moving Indoors,” she questions how excessive heat is reshaping summer programming and options for kids by moving them indoors.

Anecdotally, I can confirm this trend. After having patched my son’s summer schedule together with camps every year for the past seven, this year for the first time ever, I received recommendations from other parents for indoor programs because they have air conditioning. The thought of my 11 year old son spending his summer vacation indoors depresses me. Being active and outside defined and made me cherish the summers of my youth. 

At the same time, there were several weeks this summer when heat waves made me anxious about my son, at camp, running around outside for seven hours a day. Children are more susceptible than adults to heat-related morbidity and mortality. They are more likely to become dehydrated as they can lose more fluid quickly and can lack the judgment to rehydrate themselves and limit exertion. But research shows that spending time outside in nature yields a host of positive outcomes for kids, including being physically and mentally healthier; more confident, curious and creative; and, less prone to stress, depression, anger and aggression.

Many factors influence heat’s impact on children including the child’s level of activity, ability to cool off, and age. With no clear national and state standards, how can individual parents, caretakers, camp directors, and summer school leaders make decisions that reconcile the dangers of extreme heat with the value of kids spending time outside?

One idea is to require in-depth training to all stakeholders about heat-related risks for kids, symptoms, and immediate treatments for heat-related illnesses so knowledge and decisions are trusted. Another is to enhance sites where camps and programs are held with water and shade so kids have the ability to cool off. And there may even be a time in the future when the traditional school calendar shifts so summer break occurs in the spring and/or fall when the weather is more temperate, so that when children are out of school, they also can be outside. 

Rising costs of child care making summer unaffordable

Child care, already a huge burden for families, intensifies in the summer when school-aged children are out of school. Cost and availability barriers force families into tough trade-offs, including job changes that result in reduced income, disproportionately affecting mothers.

The average cost of summer child care per child is $998 a week, according to a 2019 survey conducted by bankrate.com. Using data from the Afterschool Alliance’s America After 3pm survey, the Center for American Progress estimates that cost as even higher with the average family with two children spending closer to $3,000 on summer programming, 20% of a typical family’s total summer income. Summer day camps are becoming increasingly cost-prohibitive as well. Prices rose by 35% due to inflation in 2021-22, with day camps costing between $199 and $800 a week, according to the American Camp Association.

Extending high-quality, free summer programming funded by the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) which required states to allocate at least one percent of funding for evidence-based summer enrichment programs, would alleviate some of the financial hardship endured by families over the summer months. Research shows effectiveness of these voluntary programs across all grade levels when key factors such as duration, attendance, use of time and quality of instruction are incorporated and supported throughout. As ESSER funding expires, what can be done to sustain these types of summer learning opportunities for all kids? 

Summer presents a time to refresh and renew, to experience specific joys, and improve our childrens’ wellbeing. But without addressing these growing challenges, summer’s benefits may diminish and be eliminated all together for too many families.