Keeping your kids engaged and learning new things during the summer can be challenging. No matter what the age of your child, you can follow this blueprint for a fun, experience-filled summer! To learn more about infusing every day with learning, check out this article: 18 Simple Ways to Infuse Each Day With Learning
Week 1: Get Wet
Find a local pool to splash in. Talk about the chemicals needed to keep it clean and safe!
Find a splash pad and explore the forces that push the water out and the gravity that brings it back down.
For younger children, water in bins or buckets can be great fun if accompanied by measuring spoons and containers where they can move water back and forth.
Squirt guns or water balloon fights are a great activity and are ageless in appeal.
Take advantage of our beautiful beaches!
Week 2: Get Active
Bike trails, anyone? Pack a picnic or snack and embark on a family ride.
Find a 5K or Fun Run to participate in.
Check out the local playground for a day of climbing and swinging.
Check out the local parks and recreation sports programs.
Are you a member of the YMCA? Check out what activities they have this summer.
Too hot to be outside? Check out a local ice skating or roller-skating rink!

Week 3: Get your Green On
Visit our local gardens or state parks.
Plant vegetables or flowers.
Talk about recycling and find your local recycling center.
Pick up trash in your neighborhood.
Week 4: Make Math a Focus
Cook something – double a recipe to get some extra math in there.
Go shopping and discuss discounts. Practice calculating change.
Roll dice, write down the results and discuss probability. Put the points on a graph and make a scatter plot.
Have a garage sale or lemonade stand to add prices and make change.
For older children, have them design and build something.

Week 5: Stories
Have a family book club. Pick a book that you can finish in a reasonable amount of time. If you have a large age range in your family, let the older children read to the younger children and then discuss the chapters as you go through it.
Go to the local library and check out their programs. Do they have a story hour or speaker of interest?
Find a story set in your city.
Have your children create a play or skit based on a story. Let them create a set, choose costumes and act it out for family or friends.
Share your favorite poem or song lyrics with your kids, and then have them write a song or poem about one of their experiences or favorite items.
See our article for more information: How to Start a Family Book Club: Encouraging A Love of Reading Across Generations
Week 6: Science is Spectacular
Learn about heat transfer or electromagnetics by checking out the science experiments to try at home at education.jlab.org.
Check out cool experiments such as making rock candy using items you have at home or can easily acquire here: weareteachers.com/easy-science-experiments/
Week 7: Volunteer
Make and bring a meal to a friend or family member.
Help someone with yard work.
Buy some extra groceries and take them to a local food bank.
Call your local food bank and see if they need help distributing food.
Visit a retirement home and spread cheer – singing, telling stories or taking a homemade craft.
Check out other volunteer opportunities here: volunteermatch.org. Be sure to call ahead to confirm the ages of those who can volunteer.
More information on volunteerism in our magazines:
Leading by Example: Local Moms Use Volunteering to Help the Community and Shape their Children’s Values
and
Volunteer Opportunities for Your Family

Week 8: Art
Visit a local art gallery and discuss what your children like and don’t like. Some options are:
- Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville
- Museum of Arts and Sciences in Volusia County
- Crummer Museum of Art and Gardens in St. Johns County
Attend a First Friday Art Walk in St. Augustine.
Check a book about art out from the library and go through the images.
Break out the art supplies – paints, clay, crayons, chalk. Let your children create something.
For more information on how to incorporate art into your child’s life: Easy Ways to Incorporate Art into Your Child’s Life
Week 9: Camp
Break out a tent or camper and camp at home. Make special foods to eat outdoors (hotdog and smores, anyone?), sing songs and tell stories around a fire pit.
Head to a local campground and spend the night.
Include your children in the planning and packing.
If camping is not a possibility, transform a room in your house with sheets and blankets to be a tent. Turn out the lights and use flashlights, eat picnic style on the floor and create a camp experience in your home.
Week 10: Establish a Vision for School
Create a Vision Board for the next school year.
Get your lists of supplies.
Organize bedrooms and establish a place for backpacks, shoes and lunch boxes.
Explain transportation plans to your child – will they be taking a bus, walking or getting a ride.
To learn more about being intentional in setting expectations for the new school year, check out this article: Setting Intentions in the New Year
Read our back-to-school success tips to get things started on the right foot: Back to School Success Tips