16 Ideas to Keep Your Kids Learning Over the Summer

The months of June, July, and August have become my favorites for the past decade, ranking summer as my favorite season. I enjoy them not only for the hot, sunny weather that we experience here on the eastern coast of the US, but for a marked end of the school year and beginning of a much more relaxed pace of life. 

As a previous elementary teacher and now a homeschooling Mama, these few months serve as a needed break from many of the routines that the remainder of the year holds. They’re meant for vacationing with family, playing outside until sunset, splashing in the creek, and exploring new places– and they’re the months when many of our favorite family traditions take place. 

During the school year, kids are challenged to learn many new skills and subjects. Summer vacation is a perfect time to rest and reset. 

I believe all kids need regular breaks from a rigorous schooling schedule. This gives their mind a chance to retain what they’ve spent the year learning and allows more time to enjoy the freedom of childhood. 

However, too much of a break isn’t always beneficial in the long run. I’ve seen firsthand, as a public school teacher, something called the “summer slide” and the effects that it’s taken on kids. On average, kids lose two to three months of learning over the summer (wow!).

To combat this regression of learned skills, while still allowing kids to enjoy the bliss of summer break, I’ve compiled a list of fun ways you can incorporate learning into your schedule for the next couple of months. 

These activities will encourage preschool and elementary aged children to keep their growing minds stimulated in healthy ways, encourage a continuation of skills they’ve been taught, and allow them to think creatively with art, games, and writing. 

Fun ways to incorporate learning into summer break

Have a backyard scavenger hunt. My kids enjoy laying out flash cards #’s 1-10 and finding a different item for each number (ex. 7 dandelions for #7). ABC flashcards work well too, where children find an item that begins with each letter. Or make up your own list of items to find for colors, shapes, or textures. 

Go on a field trip. I like to get my kids out of the house as much as I can for some extra socialization and real-world experience. The summer months are great ways to do day trips to some fun places. Here are a few recommendations. 

• Historic battlefields such as a trip to Gettysburg, PA
• Aquariums
• Nature preserves- find ones closest to you on this site
• Renaissance festivals
• Botanical gardens
• Animal sanctuaries or zoo- We love going to the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington D.C. for a daytrip. There are lots of amazing animals and it’s free too!
• County fairs
• Lighthouses
• A local farm

Sign up for family storytime at the library. We’ve been doing family storytime for years and it’s a great way to practice sitting, listening, participating, and a chance to hear quality literature being read. Use this as your weekly opportunity to check out new books from the library too! 

Do a summer reading challenge. Most local libraries offer summer reading calendars that come with fun incentives. Or if creating your own, set a goal for your family. In March, we did a 300 Book Challenge, where we read 300 books to our kids throughout the month. Just make a simple chart on paper and have your child color in a box for each book read. 

Play I-Spy or Simon Says. These simple, yet favorite games encourage basic preschool skills such as colors and shapes, as well as listening to directions. It’s a great way to “sneak” in some extra learning with no prep or supplies to gather. 

Teach your kids how to play a new game. Grab your favorite board game, deck of cards, or any other game you have and teach it to your kids. Some classic oldies that are elementary aged are Checkers, Monopoly, Mastermind, Scrabble, Battleship, Life, Yahtzee, Uno, Phase 10, Clue, Othello, and Backgammon.

Have your kids make up their own board game. To promote creativity, ingenuity, and abstract thinking, have your children create their own board game. Rediscovered Families has a great blog post that gives step by step directions on how to do this. 

Play with tangrams. Tangrams are fun for all ages of kids. It’s an activity I frequently lay out for my kids to play with. You can give your kids a pile of pattern blocks, such as these, and have them come up with their own creations. Or print out your own tangram shapes and templates on cardstock. Some fun books that introduce the concept of tangrams are Grandfather Tang’s Story and Three Pigs, One Wolf, and Seven Magic Shapes. 

Have the kids plan and make dinner once a week. This was one of my favorite things to do as an upper elementary aged child over the summers. I loved cooking so my Mom came up with an idea to have my sister and I plan and prepare dinner once a week. This allows kids to practice reading step by step directions as well learn a valuable life skill. If your kids aren’t old enough to do this by themselves, encourage them to help you prepare dinner together. 

Make a masterpiece creation. Collect an assortment of odds and ends from your art supply and lay everything out on the table for your kids to create their own unique masterpiece. Items I usually pull from our art closet include buttons, googly eyes, pompoms, popsicle sticks, small paper bags, yarn, hole punches, colored pencils, watercolor paint, and scraps of construction paper. This is my daughter’s favorite way to spend a morning at home!

Write in a summer journal. Being able to transfer thoughts to writing is a great skill for young readers to have. For younger elementary aged children, I recommend purchasing a simple primary journal where there are large lines for writing as well as a box for the picture. For more developed writers, a basic composition notebook works great. 

Encourage your child to write several times a week for 5-10 minutes. They can write about observations in nature, a reflection of a book they read, a family vacation or special memory they had, or even just personal thoughts. Anything that sparks their interest is fair game! 

Begin a rock collection. If your kids are fascinated by collecting things and exploring nature, have them learn all about rocks and minerals and even begin a collection of their own. Some good resources are Rock Collecting for Kids, The Good and the Beautiful Rocks and Minerals Study, and this great blog post with 13 tips on how to get started with rock collecting. 

Make recycled paper beads. If you’re looking for a creative way for your kids to do some cross-cultural learning, check out Beads for Water and see how this organization partners with women in Kenya to provide clean water. Here’s a simple tutorial for making your own recycled paper beads. 

Take a virtual field trip. There are so many amazing sites around the world, so taking a virtual field trip is a great way to experience an inside look at some of them. Here are a few really neat ones we’ll be visiting virtually this summer. 

• Ditch That Textbook offers 25 free, engaging virtual field trips from sites around the globe.
• The Educators’ Spin On It includes 30+ virtual field trips for young kids, ranging from zoo, to museums, to famous landmarks 
• We Are Teachers offers 25+ YouTube based virtual field trips for kids of all ages. Some fun ones my kids would enjoy are Slime in Space, Ellis Island, and The Farm. 

Pinpoint academics that may have been harder and work on those. Were there areas or subjects that your child had a harder time learning this year? Maybe math facts came as a struggle or they had a hard time remembering their spelling words. Try pinpointing areas of weakness and focus on those. 

Read every day. The benefits of reading aloud to your children is incredibly beneficial. This past year, we’ve made a much more substantial effort to read aloud to our kids every day. Their love for books has grown immensely and one of their favorite things to do is have us make up our own stories to tell them. If you take anything away from this list of ways to incorporate learning into your summer, I’d encourage you to read each day to your children.