Brayden Borger is surviving the summer with his education intact and his mind sharp, thanks to a series of Scholastic "survivor" books and his mother's insistence he read at least a half-hour every day.

Brayden, who will be 9 in September, will be entering third grade at East Penn Elementary in a few weeks. His mother, Jennifer Borger of Parryville, has been helping Brayden avoid "brain drain" each summer since he was in preschool."He went to St. Matthew's Preschool and every summer the teacher gave us ideas to work with the kids."The exercises were fun, she says, and Brayden enjoyed them; like the time they covered the table with shaving cream and he practiced writing his name by dragging his finger through the white foam."It stuck," says Borger. "Since then, every summer we try to do something. I don't want him to slack off, so that when it comes time to do homework again, I don't want him feeling overwhelmed after doing nothing for three months."Right now, Brayden is reading "I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011." The book is from a series of historical fiction books written by Lauren Tarshis, editor of Scholastic's Storyworks magazine, and the "I Survived" books.Brayden loves the series, and has already polished off books on surviving a shark attack, volcanic eruption, the sinking of the Titanic, the crash of the Hindenburg and a Nazi invasion."I like them because they tell real things and they're not myths," says Brayden.According to some stats, students lose up to two months of reading skills over the summer, says Elizabeth Vigue, an educator and the mother of four, including 9-year-old Liam."Conversely, there hasn't been a lot of data to support year-round schooling either, but it does help with brain drain," she says. "Therefore, there are some simple ways that you can keep your child in the game."To keep Liam where he needs to be, Vigue gave him a summer reading list at his developmental level, using an online conversion chart to ensure she wasn't asking him to read text that was a huge struggle."I also asked his teachers for some copies of books that they recommended - high interest, etc. Again, not above, at, so that the reading would be accessible and fun for him," says Vigue."I ask him to read aloud, on his own quietly and I read with him. We sweeten the pot by adding incentives."One of those incentives was a special backpack Liam wanted for playing travel ball. The hook? He had to read a specific number of books to get it.Brayden doesn't have to read any certain number of books, but he is expected to read every day. If he doesn't read and work in his math or writing workbooks, there are consequences."No electronics," Borger says. "No video games, no tablet, no phone, no TV. I had to do it a few times."While Brayden loves reading and does it well, he says sometimes it gets too hard."I just get frustrated and I don't want to do it. I give up," he says. "The next day, I'm usually calmer because I know a lot of it."Brayden says he thinks working on his reading, as well as math problems, is a good idea during the summer, "because I'll know what I'm going to do in school and I'm ready for it."To keep her son sharp when it comes to math, Vigue keeps him immersed in the vocabulary."I kept tabs through the year of the language they were using in math, and try to use that language when we discuss problems. He hates work sheets, but loves me to set problems on a white board for him to solve. It's easy to check his work and erase when the going gets tough, only to start again when he's ready," she says."I found out what he needed to do over the summer for math was, as a rising fourth-grader, to ensure that he knew his math facts and to practice long division and multi-number multiplication."To help polish those skills, Liam also has access to sites online, like SuccessMaker.Vigue also enrolled Liam in summer theater activities, which incorporate reading, speaking and listening skills. They also take regular trips to the library to refresh his independent reading.Writing, Vigue says, is also important."I just have him do small responses to the reading he does without me, and I try to make it funny, but, again, I might use the terms he used over the year in the prompts: argument, opinion, character, etc."Vigue says they also keep Liam as physically active as possible. He has swimming lessons, baseball and basketball camps, AAU baseball, Little League Baseball and even goes to a football camp.At the Borger house, Brayden isn't the only one keeping up with school work over the summer. His grandmother, Marleah Borger, watches his cousins during the day, and makes sure they all get in a little learning.Although he's an excellent reader and enjoys it, Brayden says his favorite subject is math, but he expects that to change."When I get up to science in school, I'll probably like science more."