School’s out, the sun is shining, and it’s officially summer! While Bash is playing the day away at camp, splash pads, and playdates, we also like to build in some down time, especially since Bash is still transitioning out of his afternoon naps (a moment of remembrance for coordinated afternoon naps for the 2 kids…it lasted a good year!). But having a few great activities helps push us across the finish line and gets us through prime whine (and wine!) time in the late summer afternoons when it’s just too hot for another outing.
Enter Highlights to the rescue! We were thrilled when they sent us some of their Summer Big Fun Workbooks to test out, as we are big fans of the Highlights magazine and have a ton of the maze, hidden pictures, and puzzle books. They have been lifesavers for travel and I always carry some in the stroller and car for grocery store trips and other errands.
Highlights sent the Summer Big Fun Workbook P&K and Summer Big Fun Workbook K&1 editions and we have already been working our way through the first few chapters of P&K, which includes activities that focus on the alphabet, sight words, colors, shapes, numbers, patterns, sorting, opposites, math concepts, and sequencing. The K&1 edition takes the next step with activities that focus on sight words, vowels and consonants, colors, shapes, numbers, addition, subtraction, sequencing, and science. For older children, the Summer Big Fun Workbook series goes all the way up to Second Grade.
The Summer Big Fun Workbooks are designed with fun activities that review skills learned the previous year and begin introducing concepts for the upcoming school year. So far, the activities have been a good balance between building confidence in skills Bash already knows and trying to learn new things. Most importantly, Bash has fun! I also really enjoy the fun activity ideas at the end of each chapter. They are easy to do and use supplies we typically have at home. We even took the first activity, Traveling Tic-Tac-Toe, with us on vacation and it’s now a staple in my “summer outdoor toys” bag.
We also love the Smithsonian Maker Lab series: Maker Lab: Outdoors: 25 Super Cool Projects for cool experiments. The projects take a little more grown-up assistance, but they are fun activities we can do together. It’s also a great way to introduce science concepts in a fun setting.
For more fun summer experiments and learning activities, this Highlights article, “Summer’s Here: Don’t Let the Learning Slide” has several tips on how to make the summer fun and educational. Also, follow us on Instagram (@bashandco_ny) where we save some of our favorite kids’ projects in Stories and check out our Pinterest board full of our favorite kids’ activity ideas.
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