It can be tempting to view the summer as simply a long break from school for both parents and children alike. And although it may seem perfectly reasonable to just relax and let the days drift by – especially considering how hard the whole family worked during this wild and crazy school year – by doing so, you’d be missing out on countless opportunities that the summer offers for developing and enriching your child’s well-rounded education.
Whether you’ve got a kindergartener or a teenager, there are many different ways to spend the summer months productively to keep them learning. Hopefully, you’ll find something that sparks your interest (and that will also appeal to your child) on this list of activities specifically focused on summer learning.
5 Educational Summer Activities to Keep Kids Learning
1. Research your family tree.
Learning about your family history can be an incredibly rewarding undertaking for both children and adults. It’s a great summertime activity for older children and teenagers who have some time on their hands and want to get involved in a worthwhile, practical project. Many websites can assist with researching your genealogy, or you might consider doing a DNA ancestry test to really find out about your roots. When you’ve pinpointed which country or part of the world your ancestors came from, a follow-up project for the whole family could involve learning more about that culture, such as its language, food, clothing, and customs.
2. Make some progress on college applications.
For high school students, deciding which colleges and universities to apply to can be a daunting prospect. Without proper planning and research, high school seniors sometimes end up making last-minute or ill-informed choices about what should really be one of the most significant decisions of their lives. Rather than waiting until school is back in session, why not get a head start on the lengthy process of researching colleges, taking the SAT or ACT, filling out applications, and delving into scholarship opportunities? If you’re able to, accompanying your child on college visits can be an invaluable help (and a fun bonding experience), as you can talk through the pros and cons of each option and help narrow down what your child is looking for in terms of academic choices, extracurricular offerings, facilities, social life, and more.
By devoting some time to planning during the summer, the entire college search will be much more relaxed, and you’ll feel confident that your child will soon be embarking on a rewarding (and more affordable) experience at a college they’ll love.
