Lately, our social-media feeds are filled with familiar childhood images: children riding bikes until the streetlights come on, scraped knees, hose water, boredom that somehow turned into creativity. The so-called “Nineties summer” trend has become shorthand for something many people are longing for — a time before constant notifications, before childhood was scheduled, managed and constantly online.

The nostalgia isn’t really about the decade. It’s about what many of us feel we’ve lost.

We live in a world where we can reach almost anyone instantly, yet people report feeling more disconnected than ever. Childhood hasn’t been immune to this shift. Summer, once a natural pause, has quietly become an extension of the school year, filled with screens, camps, schedules and pressure to “keep up”.

For students with learning differences, this loss of unstructured time matters deeply.

During the school year, many children with dyslexia, ADHD, or language-based learning differences spend enormous energy navigating environments that weren’t designed for how they learn. Summer has the potential to be restorative — not by doubling down on academics, but by allowing skills to develop in slower, more natural ways.

At the Bermuda Centre for Creative Learning, we often talk with families about the importance of what happens outside the classroom, especially during the summer months. While targeted instruction and support matter deeply, development doesn’t only occur at desks or through programmes. It also happens in kitchens, backyards, sidewalks and long afternoons with nowhere particular to be. For students who learn differently, these experiences can be just as meaningful as formal intervention.

In the Nineties summer of our collective memory, children didn’t practise fine motor skills because it was therapeutic. They did it because they were making friendship bracelets, building forts or drawing for hours. Gross motor development happened through climbing trees, riding bikes, swimming and inventing games they made up as they went along. Language grew through storytelling, arguments, negotiations and imaginative play. Life skills were learnt because children had time and space to try, fail and try again.

These aren’t just nostalgic memories. They are exactly the kinds of experiences many students with learning differences still need.

Slowing down over the summer doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means doing fewer things intentionally. Cooking together builds sequencing, language and executive functioning. Gardening develops planning, patience and sensory regulation. Board games strengthen turn-taking, flexible thinking and frustration tolerance. Money skills are taught through counting out change for an ice cream cone or to buy tickets to enter a bouncy castle at Harbour Nights. Writing letters, keeping a simple journal, or even narrating a day out loud supports expressive language without the pressure of grades.

Movement matters, too. Not structured drills but movement with purpose — walking the dog, carrying groceries, swimming, pedal biking and playing at the beach. These activities support regulation, co-ordination and body awareness, all of which are foundational for learning.

Perhaps most importantly, unstructured time allows children to experience boredom — a word we’ve almost learnt to fear. But boredom is often where creativity, problem-solving and self-direction begin. For children who are used to constant correction or redirection, boredom can become one of the few spaces where confidence develops naturally.

This isn’t an argument against technology or summer supports. Many students with learning differences benefit from targeted tutoring, therapy, or structured programmes. But summer can hold both support and slowness. Structure and freedom. Connection online and in real life.

The reason the Nineties summer resonates isn’t because it was perfect. It’s because it reminds us that children don’t develop only through instruction. They develop through living.

As summer approaches, perhaps the question isn't how to keep children academically “on track”, but how to give them experiences that help them to feel capable, connected and grounded again. For students with learning differences, especially, that kind of summer is not wasted time. And that may be the most meaningful summer trend of all.

• Lindsey Sirju is the cofounder and deputy head of school at the Bermuda Centre for Creative Learning