Little Reviews: Summer at Mathnasium

Summer days are upon us and gone are the days of kids working on nightly homework assignments and the rigors of a full, school day schedule. Time is now filled with day camps, playing at the park, aquatic centers, festivals, and enjoying all of the options for summer fun in Lake County. We love to have fun, but ultimately, the biggest slide on my mind is the “summer slide” I want to help my children to avoid. But each summer there’s the potential to reduce “summer slide.” One way is to enroll children in a fun and focused math program during the summer at Mathnasium.

Each August my boys head back to school excited to see friends and meet their teachers as they kick off another school year. It’s always good to be back, but the start of their school year also means getting back into routines and reacquainting themselves with material from the previous year. This year, as a way to try to prevent the dreaded “summer slide,” I enrolled my son Jordan, an incoming fifth grade student, and Danny, an incoming second grade student, into summer sessions at Mathnasium in Lake Forest.

Mathnasium is a math learning center that offers math instruction at convenient hours for parents with busy schedules. Jordan and Danny have been attending one-hour sessions twice a week for the past two-and-a-half weeks, and their experience has been amazing. It all started with a free trial class. After their first session with an instructor, a quick overview of the program, and a tour of the facility with center director, Morgan Schafer, I knew this would be a great fit for my boys. Within minutes, I knew that Mathnasium would be the experience my boys needed to help them prepare for their upcoming school year.

Every student receives a math assessment, conducted in an additional one-hour session at the Mathnasium center. This assessment was needed in order to find out exactly what Jordan and Danny knew and what “holes” they might have in their math skills. My favorite part of the Mathnasium program is the customized learning plan that is built for each student. Within 24 hours of the assessment, I received an e-mail with each boy’s detailed, individualized learning plan for the summer.

Jordan and Danny are excited to go to each session and work on their math. Their favorite part of the program has been earning stamps on each visit based on their completion of problems, spinning the prize wheel, and filling out their summer bingo cards. They are working hard to fill up their cards with stamps in order to earn prizes. The more cards they earn, the greater the prize they qualify to receive.

The prize cabinet makes my boys’ eyes open wide and jaws drop each time they enter the Mathnasium center. These incentives, along with the friendly instructors and inviting atmosphere, have made each visit a success.

Summer should not be a time to forget about those math skills learned in school for nine months. I highly recommend visiting a local Mathnasium for a free trial class to see what it’s all about for yourself. We are making it a “Mathnasium Summer” and I
hope you do too.

Here is a list of local Mathnasium centers in Lake County, find one near you.

Lake Forest
514 Western Avenue, Lake Forest | (847) 295-6284

Vernon Hills
113 W. Townline Rd., Vernon Hills | (847) 367-6284

Grayslake
34121 N. US Rt. 45, Grayslake | (847) 752-8791

Disclosure: The writer received a free trial session at Mathnasium to facilitate this article. No other compensation was received. All thoughts and opinions are the writer’s own.