Summer Fun!

Summer is approaching quickly! This means a few different things…schedules will begin to fill up with swimming parties, the kids will be transported from swim lessons to soccer camp, vacations will begin and that “other thing” that should always be in our schedule suddenly disappears. What is this “other thing” you might ask yourself? Well, to sum it up, with all of the crazy schedules we fall into, we tend to forget that our children still need to be challenged to not forget the education they had during the previous school year. I’m sure we can all agree that we’ve reached the end of the summer and realized that it’s somehow slipped our minds to continue our child’s education and review during the summer months. It’s important to further their knowledge by encouraging them to turn every opportunity into a learning opportunity! Below are 5 helpful ways to include a fun summer activity while implementing a learning moment at the same time!

  1. If you are going on a summer vacation to the beach, have your child help you gather seashells and count them together. Write your child’s name in the sand and have your child trace it with their fingers.
  2. While driving to swim lessons or soccer camp, play the game “I Spy” with your child.  You can use this game to encourage color and letter recognition,
  3. Go on a scavenger hunt around your neighborhood and find items that begin with a certain letter.
  4. Schedule a day to visit the library and attend a reading group. Let your child get their own library card and encourage them to check out books.
  5. When you’re outside with your children, have them pick white flowers such as carnations and conduct an experiment with colored water. Place the stem in a cup of water with food coloring and watch over the next couple of days how the colored water travels through the stem up into the flower. Talk with your child about the science aspect of this.