Educational Activities to Keep Your Kids Learning this Summer

6/7/2019

Nia Hendricks

Prevent summer learning loss with these educational activities and resources.

Families always reach that point in the summertime where they’ve exhausted the entertainment options and the kids become, at best, antsy. You could let your kids binge watch television shows on the decimated pillow-fort, or you could work some more constructive mental stimulation into their weekly routine!

Summer learning loss is a common phenomenon among traditional school students. Providing opportunities for your kids to learn new things over the summer will not only keep them entertained by will also keep their minds fresh for when school comes back around.

Here are a few educational activities and learning programs to help beat summer boredom:

Teach your kids to cook.
Give your child age-appropriate tasks in the kitchen while teaching them the art of cooking! Perhaps you teach them how to make their favorite meals, explore recipes from different countries, or even create your own. Cooking requires patience, creativity, focus, and sometimes math. Your child can practice all of these things while helping make meals for the family!
Give your child writing challenges.
Exercise your child’s handwriting, add new words to their vocabulary, and stretch their imagination by giving them weekly writing challenges. Introduce a new word every week that they have to use in a sentence or provide a prompt they can use to inspire stories. Depending on their age, they can write just a couple sentences or an entire page.
Step up your dress up.
Dressing up (as princesses, mostly) was a regular part of childhood and still a pastime for little ones. Turn dress up into an educational opportunity by challenging your kids to dress up as public or historical figures like scientists, athletes, or writers. Read about the person and the contributions they made to society and have your child give a short presentation in their costume!
Download a few educational apps.
If it’s tough to keep your kids away from smartphones, downloading a few educational apps could be a good way to get the most out of screen-time. Besides, gamifying a subject makes learning fun!
- Duolingo | Free
  Kids can learn a second language or keep the skills they learned in spanish immersion sharp over the summer with Duolingo.
- Quick Maths Jr. | Free
  An award-winning app that gamifies math basics like counting, addition, and subtraction.
- codeSpark Academy | Free
  The ABC's of computer science for kids ages 4–10. Since 58% of all new STEM jobs are in computing, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get your child started in that direction.
Visit your local library.
Libraries are making a comeback, Broward county libraries especially! They have a wide variety of unique events for children and adults. The Pompano Beach Library and Cultural Center has some great educational programs throughout the summer. Here are few upcoming events:
- Build with Legos Summer Learning Kickoff! | June 8
- Toddler Tuesday | June 25
- Family Craft | July 5
- Out of This World Sensory Experience: Kinetic Sand | July 1
School Library Summer Hours
If a local library is too far, check to see if your school has summer hours! The CCA Elementary Media Center will be open for CCA students to checkout books from 2:00–5:00 PM on: June 12, 19, 26, and July 10.
Enroll your child in online courses.
If you seriously want to fight the summer brain drain, you can enroll your child in summer courses by subject. Calvary Christian Academy partners with SENSA Educational Systems to provide summer workshops for various grades in preparation for new grade levels or standardized tests. Online courses like the ones below are also a good option!
- Code.org
  Teach your child to code with these free courses tailored to all ages.
- Khan Academy
  Online courses provide personalized learning for children of all ages at no cost to the user.
Send your kid to STEM Summer Camp
CCA STEM camps are carefully crafted to develop both the skill of logical reasoning, and the joy found in critical thinking. From lab experiments, to computer programming your child will be learning while having a blast!

Learning doesn’t have to stop just because school’s out! By adding a few educational activities to your summer routines you’ll develop a love for learning in your children that will benefit them for a lifetime.

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