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These summer-themed worksheets are a great way to engage children in summer-themed fun WHILE LEARNING! These free printable PDFs include a summer bucket list, a road trip scavenger hunt, an ‘I Spy’ activity, a word search, a summer-themed coloring sheet, a weekly grocery list, a summer outing scavenger hunt (great for the beach!), and a summer reading log!
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Our worksheets are designed to provide children with authentic summer experiences as they make real-life connections with the world around them.
We love to use these fun worksheets alongside our summer reading logs to keep the learning going all summer long!
What can well-intentioned parents do to ensure that their children are learning, growing, and having fun each summer? It’s actually quite simple, and shouldn’t take days or weeks of planning to implement.
Schedule: Pick a good time each day for your child to work on his or her activities. Maybe early morning right after breakfast before heading out to the pool. Or maybe late afternoon works best to keep the kids busy while you’re cooking dinner!
It doesn’t have to be the same each day. Figure out what works best for your family.
Supplies: Make sure your child has all the materials they’ll need. Basic supplies are all they’ll need, like crayons, pencils, and erasers. Create a specific place for your child to complete his or her work.
Encourage: Encourage your child to complete their work, but don’t force them to do it. Summer is a time for relaxed learning, and we want to make sure that children maintain a positive attitude towards learning.
It’s okay if you need to skip a day or two. If your child is really hesitant, offer incentives that encourage the child to work hard to complete their work.
Celebrate: Celebrate every accomplishment. When your kids finish reading that book, or learn a few new sight words, or find everything on their summer scavenger hunt! Remember that not every celebration requires a treat or prize.
Kids need to learn the value of intrinsic motivation. Take the summer to use words of motivation rather than material treats. Have conversations and ask kids how it feels to accomplish the task. Learning the value of this is a prize in and of itself!
Of course, we still want our kids to remember the specifics of all that they learned throughout the school year, but we allow summertime to be focused on learning in real life.
What does that look like? We practice math by sorting out the change in the bottom of my purse. Practice writing skills by having the kids write out or draw pictures of this week’s grocery list! Move science class outside and compete in a family scavenger hunt by studying the nature all around you.
You’ve heard this time and time again, but kids need to spend time actually reading. All research done on the subject overwhelmingly concludes that reading to and with your child is one of the most impactful things a parent can do a child’s early life. Reading will have significant and long-lasting effects!
And this is one of the most important things to maintaining their growth and avoiding the summer slide. If your child is young and a non-reader, spend time reading to them. If your child is a reader, then have them read independently.
Kids ages 5-7 should be reading out loud, while kids 8 and older should switch between reading aloud and reading silently.
This summer, try to set aside a regular family reading time. We started this tradition when we had two foster kids in my home (ages 2 and 3), and by 7:00pm, I was overwhelmed and utterly exhausted. I set my I-phone alarm to go off every night at 7:00pm and we started “Family Reading Time.” It worked well (most of the time!)
