Whether you homeschool and are taking a break for the summer, or your children attend traditional school and you want a way to keep them busy, here are some great ways you can keep learning and prevent the “summer slide.”
Investigate Topics That Interest Your Child
Let your child’s interests guide you! Together as a family, keep a notebook or a “question wall” (large chart paper where you record questions your children ask) to track some of the topics your children show interest in. Maybe they are fascinated by rainbows or grizzly bears! Find as many books as you can on the topic at your local library, find interesting videos online, or stream educational episodes about the topic! If possible, try to find a related field trip to enhance your learning. Essentially, you are building a unit study around your child’s specific interest.
Want to incorporate more academic skills? Have your child write a letter to a grandparent or friend about what they have learned, or keep a summer journal filled with narrations from books they have read on the topic. Ultimately, the goal is to learn something new and keep it fun and engaging.
Play Games
Playing games is a great way to work on critical thinking skills, reasoning, logic, and communication. It also helps with so much more! During the heat of the summer, hanging out inside in the air conditioning and playing games is a great way to pass the time. Here are some of my favorite games I have played with my own kids, my friends, or with my students when I was a classroom teacher.
Ages 2 – 5:
- The Sneaky, Snacky, Squirrel Game
- Sequence for Kids
- Go Fish
- Count Your Chickens
- Matching/Memory
Ages 6 and older:
- Sleeping Queens
- Catan/Catan Jr.
- UNO
- Set
- Rummikub
- Rat A Tat Cat
- Hive
- Bananagrams
- Qwirkle
These are only a few of the games I have played and enjoyed. Explore some new options and maybe grab a new game for the summer. Games can get expensive, so keep an eye out at thrift shops and yard sales. If you don’t want to buy a new game, check with friends and family about trading games to try out new ones. Some libraries even offer games for checkout!
If you are looking for more academically focused games, there are some available for purchase and as free resources on our website, such as:
- Flight of the Butterflies | Vocab Closed + Silent-e Syllables Game
- Ewww! That’s Disgusting | Phonics Vowel Diphthongs eu ew Game & Worksheets!
- Hens and Chicks | Short e Phonics Game and Worksheets
- Escape Room | -cle Syllable Folder Game and Worksheet
- Multiple Cards 2-9 (Great for playing Garbage)
- Number Recognition Bingo
Read, Read, Read!
This one is pretty straightforward and simple: read! Set a time aside each day when you can read aloud with your kids. Maybe right before bed or first thing in the morning while they are eating breakfast. Help each of your children set a reading goal for the summer. Set one for yourself too! As you all reach milestones in your goals, have celebrations, such as going out for ice cream or having a family movie night. You can also check out your local library for summer reading programs.
Once you have all set your goals, set aside a quiet time during the day when you all take time to read. I remember when I was a kid and at school the principal would come over the loudspeaker and announce that it was D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) time! Those were some of my favorite memories from school, along with field trips and field day. We can implement this in our home. Announce that it is D.E.A.R. time, maybe set out a few snacks, and have everyone find a quiet, comfy spot to read for a while. This can include audiobooks too! If you have a little one that can’t read on their own yet, set them up with an audiobook and headphones.
Another fun way to incorporate reading into your day is with poetry tea time. It is something I have always thought seems so fun but have never had time to fit it in during our regular daily routine during the busier parts of the school year. If you don’t know what this is and you want to learn more, check out Poetry Teatime at Bravewriter.com!
Summer often means more traveling and long road trips. If you or your kids are like me and cannot read in the car without getting car sick, this is a great time to enjoy an audiobook together as a family! Share one of your childhood favorites with your kids or explore a new book together! Most public libraries offer free memberships to online digital libraries full of audiobooks and ebooks you can borrow and download for free! Download the book before you hit the road and you are ready to go. If you have young readers, pause the book after each chapter to talk about what happened so far. This isn’t meant to quiz your child, but to ensure they can comprehend well enough to enjoy the book. This can also just be an enjoyable way to hold discussions during long car rides.
Incorporate Learning With Vacations or Travel
Perhaps I’m the exception, but I have always loved learning about a place’s history or information before visiting. When I was younger, one of my favorite family trips was to historic Williamsburg, Virginia, when I was eleven. I had the American Girl doll, Felicity and had read all of her books and more about colonial America. The in-depth investigation into Williamsburg’s history made the trip more meaningful and engaging for me.
Do you have a summer trip planned? Or maybe there is a local historical or geographical landmark you want to visit? You can also check out new exhibits at nearby science centers. Now that you have a trip or excursion planned, develop a unit study around it. Find books and videos on the topic to enjoy as a family. Pick activities that would best engage your child. Could your child create a diagram or a painting? Could they develop a board game on the topic or create a comic strip? Or maybe they want to create their own commercial for the place you are going to visit.
If you do not want to develop your own unit plans, explore options that are already made! On The Homeschool Platform, there are units about the Great Lakes that can teach your family about the region and the wildlife that lives there. There is a unit about Dolly Parton that would be great if your family is planning a trip to the Country Music Hall of Fame or any of her amusement parks or shows. You could purchase the Titanic Boarding Passes and research passengers on the Titanic before visiting a Titanic museum or exhibit. There are so many ways you can incorporate learning into your summer adventures.
Start a New Project or Business Together
When I taught 4th grade, I taught economics and always did a grade-wide market day! The students worked for weeks on advertisements and products to sell. This lesson really stuck with one of my students because the summer after that school year, I came across an article in our local newspaper about one of my former students offering a dog poop scooping service! He and a couple of his friends would come to your house and scoop the dog poop in your yard and dispose of it. In the article, he said that they had each made over $1,000 so far with their business. I loved that he found a local need and created a business that a ten-year-old could do to make some extra money during the summer.
What kind of project or business could your child start? It can be something they enjoy or something needed in your community. Sit down together and brainstorm some ideas. Once you have them written down, create a list of things your child would need to do to make this business a possibility. Is special training needed? Do you need to buy materials to do this job? Is it something you can do without needing Mom or Dad to drive you everywhere? A girl who lives near me wanted to start selling cookies. So, she and her mom created a budget sheet to understand how much she would have to charge per dozen cookies to make money. They created graphics that her mom could share on her Facebook page and that the girl could post around town or share with friends and family. She took a loan from her parents to buy the ingredients for the first set of orders. Then, her mom made her pay her every time she needed to drive her to make a delivery. This made the daughter realize that she needed to charge the customers a delivery fee, or she could discount the price of the cookies for people who came to pick up their orders or that she could deliver by bike. In this whole process, so much learning and thinking was happening!
Another way to create an authentic learning experience this summer is by including your child in a new project. This can be a project that has been on your to-do list for a while (in our house that was replacing all the old door knobs that don’t match the rest of the fixtures) or a new project your child wants to explore. This can be especially meaningful for older children because it is a chance for them to see you learning beside them. Maybe your child wants to learn woodworking, pottery, or coding but you don’t have a clue how to do any of it. That’s okay! Learn about it together. Let them see you fail and go back and try something new. That is how we help our children build a growth mindset. I remember hot summer days spent inside with my mom working on a quilt together. I still have that quilt and the very mediocre sewing skills I acquired from that project. While I am no master seamstress, that little bit of practice I got has been enough to help me continue sewing little things like dinosaur and monkey tails for Halloween costumes for my own children. Take the time to discover new hobbies or work on real-world projects so your children have the memories and skills for their future.
Enjoy your summer, and if all you do is play, read, and spend time as a family, it is a summer well spent. If you were looking for some summer inspiration, I hope you found it here. Happy Summer everyone!
