5 Fun Ways to Keep Your Kids Learning This Summer

Homeschoolers, rejoice!

The end of the school year is upon us, and that means that the daily grind of Zoom classes and Math worksheets and Spelling tests will soon come to a halt.

Now, does that mean that learning during the summer months should cease? Definitely not, as I am sure you now appreciate fully the time, energy, and elbow grease it takes to mold and shape the minds of your kiddos even more than you did before.

Who wants to see all of that progress go away with the impending summer slide? Not me.

So, before the book closes on this year, reach out to your child’s teacher and ask them about summer homework expectations, or, at the very least, suggestions on ways to keep their mind muscles working throughout the next few months. And, if their teacher doesn’t have a game plan in place, take a look at some of my suggestions below for allowing your kids’ minds to continue blossoming during the summer holiday.

Maximize Their Screen Time for Academic Impact

The likelihood of you fully disconnecting your child(ren) from their devices is slim-to-none, especially in the days of quarantine.

So, you might as well use that screen time to their academic advantage by having them jump on their devices and play some learning games.

I’m partial to sites like Zearn, Zaner Bloser, Khan Academy, and Time for Kids, but you can also peruse this We Are Teacher’s list to find other great resources as well!

Make Learning Part of Your Daily Routine.

This one I say over and over again. You’re going to continue spending more time together than usual, so ingrain learning practices in your daily interactions. 

Baking & Cooking

Baking cookies is a great way to drill fractions. Setting the timer to count down the minutes until they are ready is a terrific use of the analog clock for telling time.

Count Your Way Through Your Day

Counting steps along a neighborhood walk, or estimating how many seconds it will take to meander between mailboxes, are awesome ways to weave in number sense.

Fill jars with jelly beans, Hershey’s kisses, popcorn, or dried beans, and have your kids estimate the number that fills each container. The winner, of course, should be able to partake of one of the sweet treats!

Make Vocabulary Fun

Play a game of “synonym tag”: The first player picks the initial word and uses it in a sentence. “I feel happy.” “The pie looks delicious.” The next player has to come up with a different synonym for the adjective. It goes back and forth until someone can’t come up with a new word. The winner gets to pick the next round’s starting term. 

Eye Spy Anyone?

Never underestimate the power of Eye Spy to enable vocabulary expansion and usage, whether at the park, on a road trip, or sitting around the kitchen table.

Read in the morning, read in the afternoon, read at night.

Books, magazines, maps, charts, graphs, current events, poetry—it does not matter! Get your kids to read, and even more than that—talk about what they read with them.

Conversing about characters, events, conflicts and their resolutions and prompting your kids to discuss details will help develop active readers.

And, if you can, aim to vary the genre of what they read. Captain Underpants will always be their go-to if you let them. Use the summer months to incorporate other storylines and story styles. Here are some great suggestions from Scholastic.

Write On!

You will never not hear me say to have your kids write.

Writing is an invaluable skill that takes repetition and rehearsal. Have your child write stories, movie scripts, journal entries, pen pal letters, emails to their friends and teachers.

Kick it old school and order some postcards online that they can send via the Postal Service. Let writing be an independent activity of creativity, but then use family time to share what they’ve written. Giving kids the chance to narrate their writing aloud trains their ear to hear what works grammatically and what sounds wonky. It also builds their confidence in public speaking when practicing around a familiar audience.

Get Creative!

Quarantine has definitely brought out the inner artist in so many kiddos and adults. Chalk outside on your driveway—it can be images, a number line, letter formation, or positive affirmations for passers by. Take a virtual field trip and have your child sketch or watercolor the landscape that they observe. Use newspaper clippings for a historical collage of their quarantine experience. Tour Notre Dame in its 360 degree glory, and purchase erasable window markers to mimic its famed rose stained glass windows at home.

The lazy days of summer are not a bygone reality.

It is crucial for your child to have time to simply be—not scheduled, not programmed—just the beautiful freedom of down time that you and I remember so well.

But, on the heels of the three-month school closure, this summer is more crucial than most to challenge their cognition. So, soak up the sun, but keep your kids’ minds still soaking up all the knowledge that they can, even when they’re set to vacation-mode.

• • • •

Do you have a great idea for educational summer activities? I want to hear it! Share your idea on facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn and tag @overlyhonestteacher and #OverlyHonestKids