Summer challenges for kids: 30 Summer Challenges for Kids

30 Summer Challenges for Kids

“Are you up for it?” I asked my daughter, wiggling my eyebrows. She grinned. “Totally!” I’d seen an article in our local paper about a new ice cream shop in our metro area and proposed a challenge: “Meet your summer reading goals, and we’ll go to this shop, and you can get whatever you want.” It wasn’t a roadside stand either. This ice cream parlor had elaborate desserts with multiple toppings, and the sundaes were huge. I had her keep track of the book titles in a notebook, and at the end of the summer, she got to dig into a mountain of ice cream with toppings galore, all stuffed in a cinnamon sugar chimney cake. Yes, sweetness overload. But worth it!

If that sounds like a fun challenge for you and your kid, go for it! But if you want some other ideas, check out our list. Maybe your child checks off 15 or 20 items to receive the summer-end prize. Establish the rules up front, and then make this a summer to remember. Here are 30 fun summer challenges for kids.

Social Challenges

1. Make a new friend.
Maybe your child invites a group of kids over, including one he doesn’t know well. Or perhaps he joins an activity and meets someone new.
2. Join a sports team or class.
Is this the year she tries softball or the year he takes up tennis?
3. Call and talk to a grandparent.
Not only will the kids practice phone etiquette, but they’ll probably make someone else happy.
4. Write an email to a cousin.
5. Invite a group over to play board games.

Nature Summer Challenges for Kids

6. Find a caterpillar.
Create a caterpillar hotel out of a shoebox. Let your guest stay for a couple days. Then send it back home.
7. Chart the moon for a month.
Print out and use iMOM’s calendar and have your child draw the shape of the moon in each box for the respective days.
8. Spot a woodpecker or a bird that’s rare in your area.
9. Visit a local nature center or wildlife preserve.
10. Try a new nature activity like canoeing, kayaking, or fishing.
Other ideas include skimming rocks, painting a nature scene, birdwatching, and flying a kite.

Around Town Challenges

11. Visit a new park or playground.
Take a short drive to the neighboring town and see what’s there. Or ask a friend if she knows of any good parks in the area.
12. Go to a splash pad.
13. Sign up to attend a library activity.
14. Find a trail where you can do a short hike.
15. Visit a farm or your town’s historical museum.

Stuck at Home Summer Challenges for Kids

16. Camp in the back yard.
Or just pitch a tent in the shade and let the kids play in it during the day.
17. Have a picnic lunch in the yard.
18. Host an outdoor movie for friends.
19. Clean out your closet.
My daughter’s closet is her dumping ground for everything from mismatched socks to random LEGO pieces. Challenge your child to throw away all closet garbage and put together a box of toys or clothes to donate.
20. Read 20 books.
Set the right number to challenge your child. Use iMOM’s cute Reading Log to get started!

Screen-Free Summer Challenges for Kids

21. Try no screens from 9 to 5 during the week.
This challenge can be for one week each month.
22. Try no screens before going outside for an hour.
I’ve done this challenge every day of the summer. Fresh air wears kids out and it’s usually cooler in the morning to play too.
23. Try no screens before Mom’s checklist is done.
My kids usually do math pages and other schoolwork to prevent the academic summer slide. I also include piano practice and some chores before they can get near a screen.
24. Try no screens before noon for a month.
25. Try no screens on odd days in July.
Mom, are you up for this one too?

Try no screens before noon for a month. Click To Tweet

Creative Challenges

26. Paint kindness rocks and hide them around your neighborhood.
27. Follow a simple recipe and cook or bake something for the family.
I started my kids off with following the directions on the back of a muffin mix box.

28. Plant some seeds in a pot.
Draw pictures of the seedlings’ growth after 7, 21, and 42 days. Many libraries have free seeds for community members. You can also get some books on gardening with kids while you’re there.
29. Write and illustrate a short story.
30. Build a vehicle out of recyclables.
Kids can use toilet paper roles, cereal boxes, empty vegetable cans, along with glue or tape. It’d be fun to make a ramp too and have races! Use iMOM’s Schedule That Saved Our Summer to plan your challenges each day!

For more fun activities to do with kids, check out this article on All Pro Dad for 101 Weekend Family Activity Ideas.

Do you have any great ideas to add to the list of summer challenges for kids?

Summer Challenges and Activities for Kids

Even though my big kick right now is internal motivation, I know that some kids really like to set goals, achieve them, and then have proof that they did. If you’re looking for ideas of things to do to challenge kids over the summer, this list is for you.

I’ll admit it: I love a prize. I’ve got a couple of resources to help them do just that.

Scouting

Even if you’re not a Scout, many of the merit badges for scouting offer great guidelines for activity over the summer. There are so many to choose from, that it is hard to believe any child could not find one he/she was interested in. These can be fun for the sheer pleasure of learning something new. Of course, if you have a kid motivated by rewards, you can always print off a picture of the merit badge itself and “award” it to the child. This site has worksheets for and information on all of the merit badges.

Excellence in Reading

Don’t forget the Mensa Foundations Excellence in Reading program. I wrote about it in my Summer Reading Extravaganza post. This is a long-term challenge (especially for older readers),  and not just for summer. It is a great way to help children read a wide range of books that they might not otherwise encounter. For more information, see the mensaforkids site.

One great idea is to take a picture of your child with each book he or she reads. Just have the child stand with the cover facing out and snap a shot (Do digital cameras still snap???). This will create a form of a journal. Imagine if you had a visual record of all the books you’d read in your life! Amazing!

Do Something

Teens may already be connected with dosomething.org, a website that promotes ways for teens to improve their communities. I’d just like to give a general plug for this site. Any kid, even pre-teens, who is interested in community/world service will find ideas and inspiration here.

Presidential Fitness

If you’re looking for something to do WITH your children, adults, too, can participate in the presidential fitness challenge (You can earn a Presidential Active Lifestyle Award!). Schools often participate in this, but it is open to individuals and home schools as well. See the President’s Challenge site for more information.

Baudeville

One of my fave resources for figuring out how to compliment people on a great job is Baudville. They have cute, clever ideas that work for kids and adults alike. Although geared to a business environment, they have a free downloads section where you can find great ideas for recognizing the great job your kids did taking out the trash (Hey! It could happen!). Scroll to the bottom of the resource section for a great two-page document with snazzy sayings. From this section you can send free epraise cards.

Healthy Eating

At this site, you can print awards for your kids for healthy eating. Knowing how some of us eat, maybe our kids need to give us awards for trying new veggies!

Home Science Challenges

I love the ideas that Science Sparks shares for challenges kids can do in the summer at home. Most can be done inside, making them perfect for rainy summer days.

Writing Contests

If your child enjoys writing, this is a brief, annotated list of some of the more popular writing contests for a variety of ages of kids.

Have any other ideas for summer challenges for kids?

 

Summer assignments «Mom’s school» grades 1,2,3,4, summer assignments

During the summer holidays, reading in primary school children deteriorates in more than 50% of students, writing — in 67%, and computing skills — in 75% students. In order to at least maintain the level of training skills and abilities, it is enough to train every day for 15 minutes during the summer holidays. This pattern underlies the organization of summer classes in many countries of the world. The same regularity is the basis for the work on notebooks «Mom’s School» for the transition from 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to 4th grade.

There are 30 tasks in each notebook. They are designed for 6 summer weeks (from July 16 to August 26), 5 lessons per week. Assignments include reading and rewriting text, solving examples, and solving a problem. Each work is evaluated by parents.

Approximate duration of training:

• Reading the text three times — 4 minutes
• Rewriting — 5 minutes
• Solving the example — 1 minute
• Solving the problem — 5 minutes

Total 15 minutes.

Please note the following:

— whether the text is meaningful
— whether the time decreases when reading three times
— whether the height and correctness of lowercase letters are maintained during rewriting and whether the writing speed has increased over the last lessons
— whether the time spent on calculations and the number of errors have decreased.

The first exercise is reading.

The text should be read three times, each time measuring how long it takes. The time spent will decrease as the reading speed will increase. Try to keep your reading speed from falling below normal, after the first grade it is 35 — 40 words per minute, after the third — 80 words per minute.

The second exercise is writing (Russian).

The read text must be carefully and carefully rewritten on the lined part of the page within five minutes. By counting the number of letters and dividing them by 5, we get the speed of writing. From day to day the speed of writing will increase. It must be at least 20 letters per minute after the first class and at least 60 after the third.

The third task is mathematics.

With daily training, the time spent on solving an example and a problem will decrease to three minutes.

To download tasks, click on the link you need and save the file to your computer.

Mom’s school transition to grade 2 (microsoft word document)

Mom’s school transition to grade 3 (microsoft word document)

Mom’s school transition to grade 4 (microsoft word document)

And another version of summer assignments after the third class for EMC School of Russia: Mom’s school transition to grade 4 more difficult tasks (word). This option is not suitable for other programs. In particular, there are several tasks in parts, a task for speed, which have not yet been passed, for example, under the Perspektiva program, there are schemes for the Russian language, which are given only in the School of Russia. And in this option there are no equations, so you will additionally have to work on a mathematical simulator. Keep in mind that there is not enough space left for writing the text, and if the child has large handwriting, it is better to write texts in a notebook.

And at the request of visitors, we have made for you a set of tasks for the summer when moving from 4th to 5th grade, it is here at the link>>

This is the minimum, in addition to reading the literature assigned for the summer, that a child needs to support his mental activity and not to lose over the summer all the knowledge accumulated over the past academic year. «Mom’s school», of course, may not be limited to only these tasks.

The corresponding simulators from our website will perfectly help you to improve your mathematics, you can come to grips with Russian by giving your child tasks for check cheating or dictation, there are also complex works that combine knowledge in all subjects + logical thinking. Do not be shy, sort through the pages from the elementary school section in the site menu, and you will find a lot of necessary and interesting things for your children.

Summer assignments 1,2,3,4 class — Prosveshchenie Group of Companies

What is the use?

FOR A CHILD

Repeat all educational material in a non-boring and entertaining way

Keep the valuable knowledge accumulated over the past year

Be successful in the next school year

FOR THE TEACHER

C form and maintain educational and cognitive motivation of students

Determine the problems and achievements of students at the end of the year

FOR PARENTS

Determine the form and content of summer classes

Support the child in difficult issues of mastering school subjects

Praise for success and positive desire to learn

Russian language.

Notebook for summer assignments.

Universal aids

• Universal aids (can be used with any UMC).
• They contain not only the usual exercises, but also entertaining puzzles and riddles.
• Unusual funny poems and tasks will allow you to repeat the material covered in a fun way.
• At the end of the manual are «Reference Materials» with brief theoretical
  information on the Russian language.

Notebook for summer assignments

for EMC «School of Russia»

• For students studying the textbooks of EMC Kanakina V.P., Goretsky V.G. «Russian language» grades 1-4.
• Each lesson includes tasks designed for a comprehensive repetition of material from different sections of the Russian language course within one week.
• The manuals contain game and entertaining tasks (riddles, crossword puzzles, metagrams, rebuses, etc.), which will help maintain the interest of younger students in classes.

Russian language.
Moving to Grade 2

Buy

Russian language.
Moving to Grade 3

Buy

Russian language.
Moving to 4th grade

Buy

Russian language.
Moving to 5th grade

Buy

Notebook for summer assignments

for teaching materials “Primary school of the XXI century”

• For students based on the textbooks of Ivanov S. V., Evdokimova O. A., Kuznetsova M. I. and others “Russian language” grades 1-4 .
• Includes a variety of exercises to reinforce learned spelling rules.
• They contain entertaining tasks (puzzles, crossword puzzles, etc.), which stimulates the development of students’ cognitive interest.

Russian language.
Moving to Grade 2

Buy

Russian language.
Moving to Grade 3

Buy

Russian language.
Moving to 4th grade

Buy

Russian language.
Go to 5th grade

Buy

Literary reading.

We read in the summer. Textbook

• Can be used with textbooks of the «School of Russia» and «Perspektiva» systems, as well as with other teaching materials.
• Contains works of various genres: fairy tales and legends, excerpts from historical stories, stories, poems and others.
• After each text, questions and tasks are given, some of which are proposed to be completed in the reader’s diary.
• The texts are supplemented with colorful illustrations, including reproductions of paintings by famous artists.

Mathematics.

Notebook for summer assignments.

Universal aids

• Universal aids (can be used with any UMC).
• They will help you to repeat everything you have learned during the year, as well as prepare for the study of mathematics in the next class.
• Contains a variety of tasks of basic and advanced difficulty levels.
• They broaden their horizons: in grades 3-4, tasks are structured around the topic of travel (grade 3 — travel by various modes of transport, grade 4 — travel around the cities of the Black Sea coast).

Notebook for summer assignments

for TMC “School of Russia”

• etc. «Mathematics» grades 1-4.
• Includes tasks on all topics studied by schoolchildren throughout the school year.
• In addition to the usual tasks, they contain entertaining tasks for boring repetition of school material.

Mathematics.
Moving to Grade 2

Buy

Mathematics.
Moving to Grade 3

Buy

Mathematics.
Moving to 4th grade

Buy

Mathematics.
Go to the 5th grade

Buy

World around.

Summer task book

for EMC «School of Russia»

• For students from textbooks EMC Pleshakova A.A. «The world around» grades 1-4.