Summer break from school can mean lost skills by fall. There are a lot of fun summer activities that parents can provide for the child during the summer which can encourage him or her to continue practicing the skills they learned this past year and be ready for the new year to start come fall.

Follow up:

All children, especially toddlers, preschoolers and elementary aged kids, need to get their hands and feet involved in the learning process. Get ready for this summer by setting up a box or several boxes with items that will encourage math and reading skills as well as promote fine motor activities. Items such as large colored beads, multi-colored candies, stickers or multi-colored sticky notes are just a few items which can be used to encourage math skills. Help young child practice early math skills such as counting by ones, skip counting, adding 1 more, taking away 1, sequencing or making up patterns. Older children can use the same items to practice multiplication (skip counting,) division and fraction skills as well.

Don't forget the craft box. Be sure to include items such as crayons, markers, coloring pencils, a selection of colored paper as well as a variety of textured paper, glue sticks, scissors (make sure they are age appropriate,) finger paint or shaving cream and other fun craft items will help little hands continue to develop fine motor skills and encourage their imaginations which are both crucial to the writing process.

Sandboxes and pool (or bathtub) toys should include a selection of measuring cups, an empty gallon, half-gallon, pint and ounce size containers. Pouring sand or water from one to the other will help little ones gain an understanding of these different measurements.

Decide now to dedicate a small amount of time each week for a family read aloud. This will not only encourage love of reading, promote auditory processing, but you will make some great summer memories as well. Taking turns reading which will make sure each child has a turn reading will help develop reading fluency. Consider investing in a recording device...an old tape recorder if you can find one works well. Enlist the help of your older children. Ask them to read their fun summer books into the recording device which can be given to younger siblings later as home made recorded books.

Have a library box. Pick a day each week when you take the kids to the library for everyone to check out a box full of books. It may be helpful to have the kids "check out" one book at a time from the library box at home so you spend less time hunting library books lost in your house when you want to return them. Giving a child a flashlight or special reading/book light may also encourage a little fun, bedtime reading.

Cooking is another tasty way to practice both literacy and math skills. Be adventurous!

A final suggestion is the family walk. At the start of summer, present each child with a special journal. Take frequent family nature walks, explore your backyard, play in a local creek, wander the beach and then encourage your child to make notes or draw pictures of something they saw on the outing. Learning activities that build lifelong memories.

Just a few ideas for ways to fill those long summer days with activities that will encourage continued learning in fun ways. Shhh, they'll never know they're learning.