What Should My Kids Do In Summer?!

As the school year is winding down, the anticipation of summer is palpable. Finally, the children don’t need a jacket to play outside, there are flowers growing, and on particularly warm days, a sprinkler is welcome. If the space allows, children may even bring their work outdoors to enjoy the fresh air. It seems everyone is feeling a little happier, a little excited, and ready for summer.

When the school year ends, parents often wonder how to structure the summer. Should they be working on new skills, reviewing old skills, or practicing in a workbook? Should they have a reading log or not worry too much about it? How much time should be allotted for educational activities, free play, and structured actives?

Free Play

Unstructured play is extremely beneficial for children. Wherever children find themselves over the summer- day camp, a summer nanny, or at home- there are often more opportunities for free play than usual. As an educator, I have always encouraged parents to allow this to happen as much as possible, especially when it means outdoor play. Trips to the parks, playgrounds, bike rides, and walks around the neighborhood are often a little easier in summer. A game of catch or soccer with family or friends can be a fun way to spend the afternoon. Aside from the health benefits of outdoor play, children may see their motor skills, confidence, and social skills improve with unstructured, outdoor play.

Traditional Academic Work

During the summer, many schools do not require students to do much traditional academic work. While there are many opportunities for learning during the summer, reading is one area I like to encourage during the summer. For some children, a reading log is a great way to keep track. Other children find it is a helpful reminder to read. For others, it is a visual for their reading accomplishments.

As for other academic needs, I prefer to use every day life and games to practice skills learned. There are many ways, with some suggestions below, families can support both academic and developmental needs of children in the summer without the pressure of a normal school day.

Supporting Academics in Summer

One of the easiest things for me to do as a parent is adding little conversations, tasks, and questions into our day. A child who has been learning about fractions might be interested in helping bake cookies, where he can read and add fractions. A child just learning to count can choose seven strawberries to put into a bowl and one learning to recognize numbers or letters can play a fun game of “I Spy.” For children learning money or decimals, they can help figure out the grocery bill or the tip at a restaurant.

Additionally, there are so many games that are fun and help develop math and language skills. A childhood favorite of mine was the game Parcheesi. Children can practice addition with an emphasis on figuring out doubles. Monopoly is another classic to practice math skills. Scrabble or Boggle are fun games for the family to practice spelling skills. The Uncle Wiggly game is another favorite to practice both reading skills and number work, plus the game play is fairly simple.

Nature Learning

There is so much learning to be done with nature! In addition to playful activities, children also enjoy learning about the natural world around them. An easy activity may be gardening. Whether you have several acres or a sunny window, there is some form of gardening that can work for your home.

An activity I have enjoyed with students is taking the Montessori leaf shape materials and looking for real life examples of leaves. Leaves are easy to find on a hike or walk where we live. Many children love to do leaf rubbings on paper or in a journal of the leaves they found. As an extension, they can label the leaf shape, the type of leave, or also get a bark rubbing from the tree.

My own children love reading non-fiction books about the natural world. When we read things about our local environment, we make a point to look for those things in real life. At my children’s suggestion, we have gone for walk during times when we might be more likely to see deer- and it worked! It was a thrilling experience to stumble upon deer while going on a walk, and something they still talk about often.

The Montessori Silence Game is always a great game to practice our listening skills and becoming more observant. Sometimes while we are out and about in nature, we sit and practice the Silence Game, quietly listening to the sounds of nature. It has helped all of us be more peaceful even when watching nature. We have found a mole, painted turtles, tadpoles, bullfrogs, snakes, salamanders, and a variety of other wildlife simple because we’ve been practicing observations.

Don’t Stress!

At the end of the day, I don’t want to be adding any extra stress to my own life or my children’s lives in the name of education. One of the most important thing for children to do is to play. Play, while fun, also has its own educational benefits and helps children learn and develop even better. Sometimes the perfect summer day for my children is sitting in their playroom playing with dolls. Other days, they’re out in the sprinkler all day. There are many ways to support children’s education, social-emotional development, and motor development beyond the classroom. I try to put most of my focus on simply enjoying summer, following my children’s lead, and exposing them to things that maybe I like a bit more than them- sometimes sparking joy for a new activity.