Summer Success: How to Keep your Kids Engaged in Learning

By Jenn Galbraith B.Ed., Casey Upfold, BA. Psych and Alice Rushing, MASc. Psychologist

 Summertime is the perfect time to practice the essential learning skills in new and exciting environments! Kids get excited for summer not because they want a break from learning, but because they want a break from worksheets, success criteria and the four walls that contain them. Studies have in fact shown that kids thrive on the structure but also blossom through more experiential and alternative learning opportunities.

 Schmitt and colleagues describe that “play has been identified as a core mechanism through which young children develop and learn,” and go on to say that semi-structured play can be an effective technique to enhance school readiness and executive functioning skills – which include planning, organization, self-reflection, and impulse control. This summer, consider activities that promote these self-management skills and require problem-solving, reasoning and reflection.

 Try activities like scavenger hunts and hikes which can allow you as the parent to model problem-solving skills and perseverance, and you can teach decoding of clues and deductive reasoning and kids will get hands-on experiential learning about their environment. Encourage your child to try new things! Try a science experiment or an art project and make a list of needed materials and go together to buy them. This also provides the opportunity for you to model “setting up for success” by clearing a workspace, following instructions and engaging in positive social interaction.

 Games like mini-golf are much more than just hitting a ball into a hole and involve analyzing, planning, impulse control, engagement and emotion regulation. You as the parent can help manage and moderate frustrations through the learning process and encourage self-reflection of their actions that helped them achieve success.

 The capacity to use the summer months to encourage these skills is not limited to being outside either! Try creating a planner with your children which can aid in the development of their organizational skills. You can also try some more engaging activities such as boardgames that promote strategizing and turn-taking and card games using number sense. Puzzles also encourage persistence, making connections and reflection. Structured games work to promote short term engagement, impulse control, positive social skills and emotion regulation

 Often, summer is less structured than the school year, and recent research has found that many of the gains made by children during the school year are undermined during summer vacation, and may be due to the fact that opportunities for structured problem-solving and promoting self-regulation are more limited. Having established daily routines, creating goals and incorporating learned skills into summer activities help children develop their executive functioning skills Building and scaffolding these self-management skills with your child through play and creativity over the summer months will create fun family memory and set your child up for success during the school year!

Brazendale et al., (2017). Understanding differences between summer vs. school obesogenic behaviors of children: The structured days hypothesis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14, 

Brazendale, K., et al. (2018). Children’s obesogenic behaviors during summer versus school: A within-person comparison. Journal of School Health, 88(12), 886- 892.

Schmitt, S. A., Korucu, I., Napoli, A. R., Bryant, L. M., & Purpura, D. J. (2018). Using block play to enhance preschool children’s mathematics and executive functioning: A randomized controlled trail. Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Wilson, D. M., & Gross, D. (2018). Parents executive functioning and involvement in their child’s education: An integrated literature review. Journal of School Health.