Stop Summer Learning Loss: Fun Activities to Keep Kids Engaged

For school-age children, summer break can be a crucial time. The trend of summer learning loss is well-documented; for many students, progress flattens or even regresses over summer break without proper engagement. Fortunately, there are some key steps that parents and guardians can take to ensure their students continue to progress.

“Almost everything you do can have an educational side to it,” said Ronda Arking, senior director of education and product at Sylvan Learning. “As long as kids are not watching TV or doing other passive activities all day, they’re using their brains, and that’s always a good thing.”

The trick to enhancing learning over the summer is choosing activities that feel fun for the kids but also build important skills. Whether it's playing sports to develop hand-eye coordination or taking walks in the park and having children describe what they see to build vocabulary, learning opportunities are everywhere.

Reading skills maintenance

Maintaining reading skills during summer is crucial, and Arking emphasizes that the best approach is encouraging reading for pure pleasure.

"Let the kids choose books that interest them,” she said. “If they want to spend the whole summer reading comic books, that’s amazing! Comic books are the gateway to science fiction, fantasy and all different kinds of genres that they will really enjoy as they grow older.”

In households where reading for pleasure hasn’t always been the norm, it’s important for the adults to model the behavior. Arking suggests a family reading time, either by reading aloud together or having everyone sit together and read their chosen books independently for 30 minutes.

Writing doesn't have to feel like homework. Arking suggests encouraging children to write in other ways that can be fun, whether that’s journaling, writing a letter to a family member or even starting a penpal relationship.

The key is making writing feel natural and purposeful. Choosing activities that encourage writing practice and help kids make meaningful connections allows them to build valuable skills for school. It also gives them a chance to see how those skills will apply in real life.

Math in real life

Math is a skill used every day in the “real world.” Exposing students to the more exciting ways math will impact their lives can be a great way to encourage continued learning.

“Think about all of the ways you use math in fun ways,” Arking said. “Maybe you’re making a big batch of cookies for the whole neighborhood. If the recipe calls for one and a half cups of sugar, and you’re tripling it, you’ll need to do math to figure out how much sugar you’ll need.”

Turning real-life scenarios into opportunities for problem solving can keep kids engaged without making it feel like a lesson.

“You don’t have to tell the kids they’re doing math,” she said. “Just say, ‘You pick the recipe and figure out what measurements you need.’ And if things don’t work out, you can troubleshoot together why they didn’t.”

For older kids, Arking suggests weekly menu planning. Having a child choose multiple recipes and create a comprehensive grocery list — including the math necessary to calculate how much to buy when a certain ingredient is shared across multiple recipes — uses mathematical skills and other practical planning skills.

Science learning activities

Science learning can happen right in your kitchen through simple experiments.

"There are a lot of books about science experiments you can do in the kitchen," Arking said. "There are some really cool experiments you can do with things you likely already have in the house, like oil, water, Alka-Seltzer and food coloring.”

The goal is fostering curiosity. Asking questions can be great for brain development. Completing science experiments at home can create opportunities for kids to question and learn about how the world around them works.

Social growth opportunities

Summer also offers expanded opportunities for social and emotional growth through community involvement. Participating in volunteer opportunities — like delivering food to people in need, attending a park cleanup day or working in a community garden — builds social skills and a sense of responsibility. Knowing they’re working together to create a better society can also support social and emotional development for students, which is crucial for well-rounded growth and long-term success.

One of the most challenging aspects for parents is resisting the urge to control every aspect of their children's projects. Arking acknowledges this difficulty but emphasizes the importance of allowing children to work through challenges independently.

"Sometimes the results of your kids’ projects will be beautiful, and sometimes they won't. But they're having a good time. They're using their brains. They're laughing. They're doing something social," Arking said.

This approach helps address a growing concern in education. "A lot of parents are trying to step in whenever there's a problem, which seems to be a very loving thing to do,” she said. “But then as children grow, they don't learn how to solve those problems themselves."

Creative projects and other fun summer activities provide a low-stakes way for kids to practice problem solving and build confidence that will support them in school and beyond.

The ultimate goal of summer learning activities is fostering a love of learning that extends far beyond childhood.

"The more they enjoy learning, the more they're going to value school and the more they're going to value doing well in school, because learning is something they want to do," Arking said.

The key principle throughout all summer activities is that summer should be engaging. It should involve active learning, but that learning should come out of active questioning and hands-on activities.

When parents embrace this philosophy — choosing activities that keep children's minds and bodies active while maintaining their natural curiosity — summer becomes a time of growth rather than regression, setting the foundation for lifelong learning and discovery.