Summertime Enrichment: Fun Ways to Encourage Summer Learning

Make Summer Vacation a Time for Education!

Studies have shown that summer is a time when children can lose a lot of the vital information and skills that they have learned all throughout the school year. To help your child retain valuable information and skills she worked so hard to learn all year, there are many fun methods you can do to make learning fun throughout the summer.

Read to and with your children every night. This is one of the most wonderful things you can do with your children each day. Not only is it a time for them to learn from you and from the stories you read, but it is also a wonderful bonding time. It is also free! I like to bring my kids to the library every few weeks and check out a bunch of books.  Sometimes we walk out with up to 20 books!  Each night we get so excited to choose a new book to read.  We talk about the characters, as well as many other ideas.

Plan to have your child do some educational activities about twice per week. These activities can be practice workbooks, school required activities, or anything else you can find to boost your child’s academic progress.  It is really easy to find activities and workbooks geared to your child’s grade level.

Plan an adventure in learning. Study the life cycle of a butterfly while having a chrysalis hatch in your yard, study other cultures and cook food from that culture, plant a garden to watch how a seed germinates and grows, study different shapes (both 2-D and 3-D), then go for a walk in nature and find the shapes.

Field trips. Just as a teacher will plan lessons around a certain educational field trip, plan a field trip for your kids while studying a certain topic. Having a hands on experience only makes it more exciting and enhances their learning! If your child is interested in dinosaurs, do a study of a few kinds and then go to the museum to see the dinosaur fossils.  If they love sea life, study a few sea creatures and then go to the aquarium or go snorkeling.

Practice on the computer. There are lots of great apps you can download and other websites where your child can practice literacy and math skills. I would not make this their only learning method, but it could be a reward if they do their workbook pages willingly.
 
You will be thankful that you encouraged your child to maintain all of the knowledge and skills he gained throughout the school year.  Keeping up with academics gives your child a boost in the fall and will help them to gain higher overall achievement.
 
 
Meet The Bella Behind the Blog: Kristen Farley is a mother of three and a domestic goddess. She is a former teacher who enjoys spending lots of time with her kids, healthy eating, volunteering at school, and mommy blogging for the masses.

Be on the lookout for more of Kristen’s expert advice and brilliant tips!