Most of us, whether homeschoolers or not, are preparing for the arrival of a summer break from school for our children. But just because they are on break does not mean that our kids need to stop learning. In fact, summer break is an excellent time to keep learning moving forward, and maybe even explore a new passion more in-depth.

Here are 13 tips to help keep the learning process moving forward.

1. Summer reading programs. For children that enjoy reading, summer is a wonderful opportunity to indulge in the habit. Many public libraries have summer reading programs that provide incentives to read as much as possible. If participation at your local library is not an option, or if your library does not offer a reading program, create your own.
2. Writing practice. Discover a new hobby and help your children advance their writing skills by setting up a blog for them to record their summer activities. Or, seek out a pen pal for your child to communicate with.
3. Use an interest in America’s National Pastime to boost math skills. Keeping track of scores and stats is a great way to keep to sneak in some math practice.
4. If you take a vacation over the summer, purchase some postcards and have your children record interesting facts about the location. Or, if you are not heading out of town at all, spend a few days doing touristy things in your own community and use the same postcard project.
5. Along those same lines, instead of postcards you can use your own photos and have your children create an information-packed scrapbook.
6. On rainy days, an hour or two of educational games on the computer is a life saver. There are so many sites out there that offer educational games that you can find something for every skill level and specific interest.
7. Let the kids get dirty. Playing in the dirt is a great way to explore nature first hand. If you garden, let them help as much as possible. They’ll get a hands-on lesson in the growth cycle of plants, that can easily be expanded on by you.
8. Spend some time gazing at the clouds. Bolster your children’s imagination and creativity by finding shapes in the clouds and making up stories to go along with them. Teach them the names of the different cloud types.
9. Spending time at the beach over the summer? Here is a fantastic list of fun and educational beach time activities.
10. Read aloud to them. Have them choose a story they’re interested in hearing, and take a little time each day to read to them.
11. Swimming lessons. Check with your city’s parks and recreation department and sign up your kids for lessons. Afterwards, let them have some free time in the pool while they practice what they’ve learned.
12. Take your kids to the Home Depot’s Kids Workshops. These free workshops are offered one Saturday a month at all Home Depots. The workshops teach children do-it-yourself skills and tool safety, while at the same time helping to instill a sense of accomplishment.
13. Let you kids be the chef for a day. Have them plan a meal of their choosing, do the shopping (maybe even doing the self-checkout), and prepare the food. If the kids are up to it, you might like to make it a weekly activity.

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