May 12, 2025
Summer is a great time for kids to relax and recharge, and an opportunity to keep their minds active and learning strong. With creativity, you can turn everyday moments into meaningful (and fun!) learning experiences.
Here are some engaging, family-friendly ways to keep your child’s learning growing this summer:
Math:
- Math Obstacle Course: Spread flashcards around the room or yard. Have your child jump, skip, or hop to each one, read the equation aloud, and solve it before moving to the next.
- Basketball Math: Give your child a math problem. If they answer correctly, they earn points and take a shot (with a basketball or crumpled paper into a bin). Score a basket? That’s another point!
- Post-it Note Math: Use Post-it notes to create your own math hunt. Hide them around the house with problems written on them. Kids must solve one before searching for the next. Assign different color notes to each kid for a multi-age challenge.
- Sidewalk Chalk Math: Take learning outside and write math problems or story problems and have your child illustrate the solution.
- Bath Math: Use bath crayons to write equations in the tub and solve them while soaking or even while dressed just for fun!
- Digital tools: Try Multiplication.com, or dice games for interactive math games.
Writing:
- Writing Fun: Stock up on fun pens, glitter markers, colorful notebooks, and funky pencils. New tools can inspire new stories! Practice typing and experiment with fonts and colors.
- Try a Family Journal: Keep a shared notebook where family members leave messages for one another. This will build writing and reading habits, strengthen connections, and create a keepsake for the future.
- Pass a Story: Write a sentence, then pass the paper. Each person adds to the story until you create a wild family tale. This can be done orally, as well.
- Rainbow Writing: Like Pass a Story, but each person writes in a different color.
- Writing on the Walls: Use bath crayons again! Leave a question in the tub and see how your family responds throughout the day.
- Sensational Sentences: Start with a simple sentence like “The dog barked.” Each person adds 1–2 words to build it up with more description and detail.
- Make a List: Whether it’s a grocery list, packing list for a trip, or weekend wish list.
- Alphabet Writing: Write the alphabet down on one side of a page. Pick a theme (e.g., fruits, animals, superhero names) and try to create one item per letter.
Reading:
- Library: Join the St. Louis County Library Summer Reading Club, beginning June 1. Complete any 10 activities to earn prizes and be entered into awesome raffles.
- New Book: Try a new book from the 2025 Mark Twain Award Winners, geared toward 4th-8th graders.
- Audiobook: Listen to an audiobook as a family during those summer road trips.
- Family Book Club: Relate the book to personal stories. When the book is complete, prepare a themed meal or treat that matches the book.
- Outdoor Adventures: Take reading outside, whether it’s under a tree, in a hammock, or by a beach.
- Forts and Tents: Build a reading fort or tent for an immersive experience.
Hebrew:
- Hebrew Math: Try some of the math activities listed above using your numbers in Hebrew. The card game War is an easy adjustment. Use number values in place of the names for face cards if needed.
- Hebrew Writing: Try some of the writing activities listed above using Hebrew vocabulary. Making a list and writing words for each letter of the alef-bet according to a theme are great ones to try.
- Hebrew Reading: Borrow a Hebrew book from our library – just coordinate it with Morah Becky.
- Find a Friend: Friends and classmates can practice their Hebrew together!
- Hebrew Songs/Stories: Watch some of your favorite Hebrew songs and stories, or check out new ones, on the HopIsraeliChildhood youtube channel.
- Practice, Practice, Practice: Continue practicing with student accounts for curricular materials from the year at https://ivritil.cet.ac.il/.
- Games: Play online Hebrew learning games from Wordwall and Jigzi.
- Typing: Hebrew typing practice can be found here.
Judaics:
- Days of Creation: Record the days of creation in a picture slide show or a collage:
Day 1: Light and Dark, light out of the darkness or day and night
Day 2: (Water from water), pond, river, lake, and the sky
Day 3: Land separated from water
Day 4: Sun, stars, Moon
Day 5: Fish and birds
Day 6: Mammals, pets…
Day 7 Shabbat - L’Dor v’Dor: Ask a grandparent/grandfriend to tell you about their favorite Jewish holiday or their Bar/Bat mitzvah memory.
- Hakarat HaTov: Every night, list five things that made your day special, fun, or interesting
- Weekly Torah Portion: Discuss the weekly Parsha with your family with the help of Devash https://www.hadar.org/torah-tefillah/devash
- Counting Your Blessings: Our Jewish tradition says we should say one hundred blessings every day. One day during the break, try to find as many reasons as possible to tell a blessing (Hints: Modeh Ani, HaMotzi, Birkhat HaMazon, Birkhot HaShachar, Shehecheyanu all count, and though you can find many blessings in Siddurim, you can also create your own like “Thank you Adonai for my parents”, “Thank you HaShem for the pets in my life”, or “Thank you for the fabulous walk I was able to do today”.
Games:
- War: Play with a deck of cards for quick math battles. You can also put down 2 cards and have them add, subtract or multiply. The highest answer wins!
- Math Games: Skip-Bo, Uno, 7 Ate 9, Shut the Box, and Rack-O to practice number recognition and strategy.
- Games for older kids and families: Ticket to Ride, Blokus, Rummikub, Othello, or Wits & Wagers Family.
- Creativity and vocabulary building: Try Scattergories Junior, Story Cubes, You’ve Been Sentenced, or Balderdash. These are great for creativity and vocabulary building.
Learning doesn’t stop when school does! Whether through movement, creativity, games, or real-life experiences, your child can continue growing academically during a memorable summer break.
Make it fun, family-centered, and most of all, part of your everyday life. Learning moments are everywhere; you just have to spot them!
B’Shalom,
Raquel