Fun Summer Activities That Are Secretly Educational

Even if you take a break from homeschooling in the summer, you can still keep your kids growing and learning with these six fun activities that are sneakily educational!

Get creative.
Get your kids to sing, dance, draw, or write to challenge their minds and work their creative muscles. Have your children rewrite the lyrics to a favorite song, draw an alternative book cover for a beloved book, or write a story they wish could be made into a movie.

Play with tangrams.
Tangram puzzles use the same five shapes to make an endless number of combinations. Tangrams sneakily help a child with geometrical concepts like symmetry, area, and perimeter. Making shapes out of tangrams also improves visual-spatial awareness and heightens creativity. To print out your very own tangrams, download our free printable tangram sheet.

Teach with movies.
Everybody loves movies, and there are so many fun ways to turn a family movie night into an educational experience. Challenge your kids to find themes in the movie or discuss what motivates characters’ actions.

Get your kids baking.
Baking is a science experiment in disguise. Help your children practice following directions, measuring ingredients, and being exact. You can also talk about the chemical reactions happening. For example, how does a brown soup turn into gooey brownies? Challenge your littles ones to think about what could go wrong if directions are not followed carefully.

Build, build, build.
Get your boys and girls building in any way you can! Whether it’s through Legos, gum drops and toothpicks, wooden blocks, or engineering kits, building is an incredibly valuable skill for kids of all ages. To interest older kids, create challenges like who can build the tallest structure with limited supplies.

Make a difference.
Teach your children to think about solutions to big world problems. Over the summer, have them choose one thing they can do to make a difference. Kids are never too young to work on these big picture problem-solving skills.