It’s hard to believe, but it won’t be long until school is out and the kids are home for the summer. For my daughter who attends a private preschool, that is only a week and a half away! For my older daughters in public school it’s about four more weeks. When that time comes, the question is: what to do to fill the time?

Obviously there are family vacations, playing outside and going to the pool, but that only takes up so much time. One thing that I started doing a few years ago is purchasing Summer Bridge workbooks. The idea behind the workbooks is to keep kids engaged in learning and prevent some of the summer learning loss that happens while they are out of school. The workbooks are great because they are broken down into 20 days for each of the three months of summer break and the kids only have to do 1 page (front and back) per day to stay on schedule and none on the weekends. The workbooks also provide a recommended summer reading list appropriate for their grade level, which is a great starting place for the trips to the library in the summer.

When the girls come to me saying they are bored or they are fighting with each other, I say “workbook time”. It’s a great way to refocus their attention. This summer I may do things a little differently and create a daily schedule for the girls to follow so there is a certain time each day that they do their workbook, but we’ll see. They like school and enjoy learning, so I am lucky that for the most part they like doing their workbooks. If your kids aren’t so keen on things like this it might not be quite so easy, but I still recommend it. Perhaps you could have some reward options for each section they complete or for completing the whole workbook by the end of the summer.

I purchased our Summer Bridge books last week from The School House in Green Bay. They were $14.99 each. They are available for all grade-school levels and there are a couple of different versions to choose from. We use the Summer Bridge Activities books and have really liked them. The other versions may have a different amount of days or etc, so you can check them out and see which ones are best for you and your kiddos. Good luck!