84 Inspired and Clever Ways to Boost Summer Learning
Give your child a chance to boost summer learning and create some excitement when school’s not in session. Encourage your kids to be creative by choosing a weird or out-of-the-box place to read, like in a tub without water or on a seasaw on the ground (yes, really!). And, don’t forget: Reading isn’t just limited to books! From train schedules to jokes in a joke book while on a family road trip, kids can foster their reading skills all summer long. Keep your family math skills sharp by selecting a few of our silly things to calculate.
These 84 clever ways to boost summer learning will keep your kids busy and engaged all summer long.
And, of course, if you make it through this list and still need activities and crafts to keep your kids learning this summer, banish boredom with hundreds of things to do with The Highlights Book of Things to Do!
Weird and Awesome Places to Read
In the tub, without water
In a fort with a friend
In a fort indoors, siblings optional
At the breakfast table
On a swing gently swinging
In a kiddie pool filled with water
On a seesaw (on the ground)
In a rocking chair or glider
In a sand chair at the beach
In a tree house or wagon
On a blanket at a lake
In a closet with a flashlight
On a rowboat on a pond
In the bleachers at a game
At a campsite by a fire
In line at a theme park
At a snack bar at a pool
In a chair at the dentist
On a sofa before dinner
On a carpet while wearing headphones
In bed before lights out
Odd and Oddly Normal Things Kids Can (and Should!) Read Over Time
Holidays and celebrations on a calendar
Stickies and notes around the house
Words on a license
A heads-up for the sitter
A list of chores for the family
A list of summer plans
A train’s destination
A picture book unassisted
A chapter book with help
A chapter book alone
A graphic novel
An e-book or e-zine
A schedule for a train
Airline arrivals and departures
A paragraph on a newspaper page
A sentence from Shakespeare
A poem by Shakespeare
A movie review
A caption for a picture
An email from Grandma
TV listings for tonight
A list of just-released movies
A poem to a sibling
A scene in a play
A riddle you don’t know
A DIY instruction
The news to a pet
Your daily to-do list
A book review on Sunday
Instructions for a game
A how-to anything
A shopping list for dinner
A recipe in a cookbook
A cereal-box label
Signs in stores at the mall
Towns on a map
Food on a menu
Directions to a driver
Smart and Silly Things Kids Can Calculate or Explore
Count everything and anything, including birds, bees, flowers, trees, windows, doors, and parked cars on your street.
Play mini golf. Keep score.
Go bowling. Keep track of spares and strikes.
Bake brownies from a recipe. Double the recipe and make twice as many next week.
Count your red shirts and your blue shirts. Multiply the two.
Tally all the towels. Divide them in half, and half again.
Count buttons in a button box. Check your work.
Sort coins into pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
Play pretend store with the food in your pantry. Buy what you like and pay with dollar bills and change.
Mail a letter. Use dollar bills to pay for stamps. Count the change.
Estimate the cost of groceries in your market basket by rounding up or down.
Check the time on a watch, first analog, then digital.
Make slime or flubber.
Dig for earthworms.
Listen to the sounds of nature at daybreak.
Check them out again at dusk.
Identify a tree by its bark, a bird by its tweet, a flower by its petal, a butterfly by its wing.
Visit a touch museum, a natural history museum, a planetarium, and a working farm.
Plant an herb.
Plant a bulb.
Plant sweet potatoes.
Plant cucumbers.
Eat what you grow.
