Five Summer Activities for Kids at Home
We are about halfway through the summer and this probably means that you have run out of your arsenal of activities to keep your kids entertained while they are out of school, which means you are looking for summer activities for kids at home. Some of the activities that you thought would have been a hit have probably fallen flat. You also may be worried about the fact that your kids haven’t picked up a book or done a math problem in a month and are wondering if they are going to be ready when school starts up again. If this is you then you definitely need to check out these five summer activities for kids at home.
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Five Summer Activities at Home #1 Sensory Bins
If you have younger children one of the best summer activities for kids at home could be sensory bins. Especially if the sensory bins contain water. This will allow your kids to cool off while getting sensory feedback. Sensory bins can even be used for sight words or sorting activities. Overall sensory bins also help fine motor skills for preschoolers.
Some that I would suggest are water tables with cups and some water toys. You can also use chia seeds in sensory bins. They will create a slime-like texture for kids but if they put them in their mouths that will not be dangerous. You can mix in food coloring with the chia seeds and water to make them colorful. You have to let them set in the fridge overnight so the chia seeds can soak up the water. You could also fill a kids’ pool up as a sensory bin. I would suggest Orbees in a pool with toys.
In any of these scenarios, you can laminate sight words and throw them in the sensory bin. You can have toys that kids have to match to the sight words or letters that they can use the put the word together. You can also give them colors and they have to get all the toys of that color and put them in a certain place. Since sensory bins can be either a just fun activity or an academic activity this is one of the reasons that I think they are one of the amazing summer activities for kids at home to incorporate into your kids’ routine if you have younger kids.
Five Summer Activities at Home #2 Life Skills
No matter what age your kids are life skills are important. There are so many things that you can do in summer activities for kids at home that will teach your kids life skills. This way when they are older they will know what to do when they become adults and move out on their own. It also means that you will have help from your kids around your own house because they will be able to do things themselves and you will feel confident letting them because you know they know what they are doing
Cooking
One major life skill that students should learn is cooking. All people have to eat and if people eat at home they will be healthier and will save plenty of money. Since this is a summer activity for kids at home some things that you might want to teach is summer-themed food. Teaching your kids how to make homemade ice cream, lemonade, or iced tea is a great start. You can also have your kids cook with you so they know the recipes that you use.
One of the important skills that kids can learn when cooking is knife skills. This will allow your kids to be safe around knives and know how to chop certain vegetables and meat. Also, I have found that kids are more likely to eat something if they put effort into it themselves. It gives them agency in the meal. Hopefully, this also means they may actually eat some vegetables. At least one can hope.
Gardening
Another great one of great summer activity for kids at home is gardening. Summer is a perfect time to be working in your garden and adding items to it. Students can learn about how to grow different plants and what each plant needs. You may even take the chance to teach about growing food, the purpose of bees, and the butterfly life cycle. This will allow students to learn a lot about the world around them. It also could teach them how to grow their own food which would come in handy with the cooking life skills that I mentioned above.
Cleaning
Another life skill that your kids will need when they become adults is the ability to clean and know how to clean their homes. This includes a lot of things like laundry, taking out the trash, dusting, cleaning the bathroom, etc. Truthfully, the list goes on and on. I have learned with little kids the best way to teach them is to bring them along with you while you are doing your cleaning. Basically, you are modeling to them what needs to be done to keep the house in order. You can even set a time that they need to help clean up their toys etc. For more about teaching toddlers to clean up check out this blog post that will give you five ways to do that.
If you have older kids assign them chores and model what you want to be done with that chore for them. If they see you do it and then you have them show you how to do it. This way they will learn how to clean and you will have fewer chores to do around your house yourself. If you want your kids to learn more cleaning skills across the board. You can switch up chores so they all get a taste of what it is to do all these different types of chores. So when they are out on their own they will know exactly what to do.
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Five Summer Activities at Home #3 Summer Workbooks
When I am working with my students in the summer some of my go-to summer workbooks are ones that are purposely meant to help prepare them for the next grade. I have listed some of my favorites below, and they are my favorites because my students have enjoyed them so much over the summers or the workbook has prepared them really well for what they are going to come across in real life.
Brain Quest
Brain Quest summer quest books are some of my favorite. I am actually legit disappointed that they do not go above 5th grade going into 6th grade. They are so good. One of my favorite components of these books is that all of them have a map and stickers that students use to mark their progress over the summer. Once they have done a lesson they get a sticker there are also extra stickers for special quests that involve a little more work. These books also have what they call outside quests that will have your students going outside and learning with fun activities that will get them out in the sun.
They also contain some ideas for a summer reading list for your kids. Summer reading is one of the best things to combat the summer slide so this is so important for your students to be doing and there are suggestions from fiction or non-fiction based on what your kids may be into.
These books start at PreK going into K and go up to 5th grade going into 6th grade. They cover all subjects (ELA, Math, Science, and History). They seriously are so much fun and some of the best summer activities for kids at home. Your students will love them and it will prepare them for the next school year so they are ready to learn when the new school year starts.
Summer Bridge
The next set of workbooks that I highly recommend for summer activities at home is the summer bridge books. These books are split into 3 sections of 20 days each to have three months of activities for your students. They can do them in a shorter time however if you have less time before school starts. These books are great because students will not be overwhelmed with the activities that they should do in a day. It’s usually one-page front a back. It also covers all the subjects that are in the brain quest books. Summer bridge activities teach the academic skills that kids need and are a good review but they are not as colorful or interactive as the brain quest. This means they are great books and potentially even better for older kids that may feel that the brain quest setup is more for little kids.
Another good thing about the summer bridge books is that they cover a larger age group than the brain quest books. Summer bridge books are available for grades Kindergarten going into first through 8th grade going into 9th grade. So these books have your elementary and middle school kids covered.
Multiplication Toolkit
Another set of activities that I have put together that would be perfect for summer activities at home is my multiplication tool kit. This kit contains many fun multiplication activities that you can incorporate into your kids’ summer so that they get more practice with their multiplication. If you would like to receive it for free sign up for my email list by clicking the picture below.
Five Summer Activities at Home #4 Khan Academy
If you want your students to be prepared for the next school year but after your family vacation, your funds for summer activities at home are rather low. Then you are in luck because there is a completely free program that is amazing to get students ready for the next year of classes or for any grade or program that they are in.
This is Khan Academy. If you are not familiar with it your should become familiar with it. It is an amazing website that works off the idea that education should be free and that you can learn anything. Their math instruction is some of the best out there. They also have a really cool program called Khan Academy kids for your little kids. Read more about that program in this blog post.
Khan Academy is a very important part of of my summer activities at home arsenal. You need to check it out if you are looking for free summer activities for your students this summer.
Five Summer Activities at Home #5 Digital Summer Camps
My last suggestion for summer activities at home is digital summer camps. I have three running this summer and there are still a few sections of them that are still open for enrollment this summer. They are hosted on a platform called Outschool. This is a platform that facilitates group classes over a wide range of topics for ages 3 to 18. There are so many amazing teachers, and classes on the platform so if my classes do not work for you then check out some of the other amazing classes. You can see some of my summer camps mentioned below.
Multiplication Summer Camp
In this class, students will have a chance to learn different tips that will put them well on the way to memorizing their multiplication tables. They will learn about patterns, skip counting, repeated addition, multiplication manipulatives, and more. We will be working with multiplication tables 1-12 over the course of 6 sessions. This will be a fun class that will have students playing some games and working together to solve multiplication problems. Students will also be doing multiplication drills daily to help improve their fact recall and being able to answer questions faster. Overall, multiplication is one of the most important things for your kids to master and this class will have them well on their way to mastering all their single-digit multiplication times tables. To sign up for this class click here.
Creative Writing Summer Camp
This creative writing summer camp will have students learning the basics of how to be a great storyteller. In this creative writing summer camp, we will be going over the plot pyramid or story mountain. Students will learn about the exposition of a story, the complicating incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution in this creative writing summer camp. They will also learn about different types of creative writing including random prompts, finishing the story, picture prompts, minimal prompts, and freewriting. Over the course of three weeks, they will have several opportunities to practice creative writing together. Each class will consist of a time for teaching the concept of the day. Then students will be given a prompt and will have time to write on it. Then we will finish class by sharing our writing with each other so that we can encourage each other in our writing. I love these creative writing classes because I get to write in them also and it is so fun to see where students will go with a prompt and kids are just so creative. To sign up for this class click here.
Essay Writing Summer Camp
In this 3 week, course students will meet 3 times a week to learn the perfect structure for 3 different types of essays. Essay writing is so important for students to master in middle school. If they can master the structure of a 5 paragraph essay that will help them with their schooling for years to come. Some of the most popular and useful essays for students to learn a structure for are narrative essays, persuasive essays, and opinion essays. Students will see examples of these types of essays, learn the structure, and be able to practice and get feedback on their essays. To sign up for this class click here.
I hope that these 5 summer activities for kids at home give you a good idea to supplement the activities that your students are already doing, so they can really just rock this summer and be ready for the next school year. These activities will make sure that your kids do not suffer from the summer slide. If you enjoyed this blog post please consider sharing it so that others can benefit as well.