Beat the Summer Slide – Help Children Stay School-Ready Over the Break

Activities to Help Children Stay School-Ready Over the Break | AD

The long summer holidays have just begun which is wonderful. It’s time for adventures, perhaps a holiday, and of course making lots of memories together. For many families it can also be a juggle with work and keeping children entertained at home. In this guide, we will look at summer boredom busters to keep children happy and learning over the summer holidays with some brilliant activities. Doing this helps ensure their brains stay active, curious and learning. It also helps children stay school-ready over the break, making the back to school return in September easier for everyone. 

Beat the Summer Slide 

The summer slide is the learning dip that many children experience during the six-week holidays. This can make children forget some of the knowledge and skills they’ve worked so hard at developing during the school year.

Most parents don’t want to spend the summer printing worksheets and homeschooling though and neither do the kids. Luckily, there are plenty of other fun and screen-free ways to keep little minds active through play instead. Playing is actually one of the most effective ways to keep children’s brains active, while also letting them enjoy their break from school over summer. 

Read on for some great ideas for fun, hands-on activities that make learning feel like play. 

Orchard Toys Number Bears Game

For young children who are beginning to master simple maths, the Number Bears game from Orchard Toys is an excellent choice. This game turns addition and subtraction into a fun family game, helping children build brilliant maths skills whilst having a good time. 

To play, help your friendly bears make it safely home by solving number bond challenges along the way. There are also some unexpected surprises along the way –  including irresistible pots of honey – for extra laughs and excitement.

Number Bears is suitable for children aged 5+ and is a great way to gently develop confidence with early maths, number recognition and problem-solving without feeling like homework.

Orchard Toys Number Bears Game (RRP £9.99) is available to purchase from Amazon.co.uk here. Also check out the Match and Spell Game from Orchard Toys for practising literacy skills.

CONNETIX Portals

Learning is not just numbers and letters of course. Open-ended construction play is one of the best ways to encourage creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving. These are all essential skills for the classroom and life. With CONNETIX, children can enjoy building, creating, imagining and endless opportunities. 

The new CONNETIX Portals packs (available in Brights as shown here and also in Pastels) inspire children to build their own magical worlds, houses, castles, and more endless creations using these beautiful magnetic tiles. 

Each design that your child thinks of encourages planning, experimentation, engineering thinking and spatial awareness, developing STEM skills naturally through imaginative play.

There’s no right or wrong way to build, so children can enjoy experimenting while building resilience, confidence and creativity that they’ll take back into school come September.

CONNETX Bright Portal Pack 48 pc (RRP £79.99) is available to purchase from Amazon.co.uk here.

tickit Butterfly Lacing Jewels

Fine motor skills are also very important for the classroom, helping with handwriting and pencil control. They also help children with other everyday tasks such as dressing independently. 

You can help strengthen your child’s fine motor skills with activities such as the Butterfly Lacing Jewels from tickit. 

These beautiful and colourful wooden beads provide a calming and creative activity that develops hand strength, coordination and concentration skills. All while children enjoy putting the bejewelled butterflies on the string in different designs. 

The set includes 20 visually stunning wooden butterflies featuring jewels (in pink, green, yellow, blue and red) and two laces. Beyond threading, these cute butterflies can also be used for counting practice, colour sorting activities, and other play narratives. 

This set can be enjoyed at home, when travelling or on holiday for example as a screen-free activity that supports many important developmental milestones while also encouraging patience and focus.

tickit Butterfly Lacing Jewels (RRP £29.99) are available from Amazon.co.uk here. 

Hankman Game

Hangman is a great classic word-guessing game to enjoy with your family. If your kids love playing Hangman, they’ll love this new magnetic twist on the classic game, Hankman, that combines nostalgic fun with sneaky spelling practice, vocabulary and letter recognition! 

Hankman is suitable for children aged 6+ and fun for all ages. One player chooses the mystery word, while the others guess letters. It’s fast-paced, screen-free and easy to play. For each incorrect guess, add a body part to Hankman. The final piece is a weighted leg that will make him fall off and into pieces which is sure to make the kids laugh even if it does mean that they’ve lost that round.

Hankman (RRP £19.99) is available to purchase from Amazon.co.uk here, and from Smyths Toys. 

Get Creative with 3D Pens

3D pens are great tools that allow children to get creative, making pretty much anything they want. They’ll love the fun of drawing with a 3D pen and enjoy the process of coming up with new ideas. 

Additionally, they’re great for educational purposes too as 3D pens practise coordination skills, fine motor skills, and spatial thinking. 3D pens are also a great STEM activity as they blend art with engineering in a playful way.

3Doodler Start+ Essentials Pen Set

The 3Doodler Start+ Essentials Pen Set is an award-winning original 3D printing pen for children aged 6-13. The set includes everything you need for 3D doodling at home or for school projects. The creative possibilities are endless! 

This 3D pen combines art, design, and technology in a fun and safe way, with no external hot parts. Simply charge up the pen, then turn it on, add your chosen filament, make your creation and watch it harden quickly.

You can pretty much make anything you want with this wireless ergonomic 3D pen. It has a long-lasting battery, an extended nozzle, and comes with strands of safe, child-friendly filaments. Additionally, it also comes with an activity guide with 10 hands-on projects if inspiration is needed. 

3Doodler Start+ Essentials Pen Set (RRP £39.99) is available from Smyths.

SCRIB3D P1 3D Printing Pen

The SCRIB3D P1 3D Printing Pen is a beginner’s 3D pen for teens, designed for simple hobby projects or personalised gifts. 

Perfect for hands-on, screen-free fun, this practical and creative tool is easy to set up and use. This one is a plug in pen (comes with plug, cable, and adapters) so you simply plug in the pen, let it heat up, insert your chosen filament and begin your 3D creation. 

The SCRIB3D P1 3D Printing Pen is lightweight, compact and features an LCD display that lets you monitor temperature and speed settings for accurate and confident crafting. 

The kit includes three long PLA filaments in different colours (green, blue and orange), a power adapter, and a step-by-step manual and stencil guide. The high-quality ceramic nozzle and premium motor help deliver a smooth and professional performance. 

SCRIB3D P1 3D Printing Pen (RRP £39.99) is available from Smyths, Very and argos.co.uk.

Books from Prestel

Last, but not least, two beautiful and educational books from Prestel – Beauty of Letters and Where’s The Artist?

Beauty of Letters

Beauty of Letters is the most Awesome, Brilliant and Comprehensive alphabet book for children. It is overflowing with clever details, quirky humour and surprises that are sure to entertain little ones. 

The vibrant and imaginative alphabet book by bestselling author and illustrator Tom Schamp invites readers to explore Letterland. Letterland is a place where every letter leads to a world of playful discovery. More than just an ABC book, this is a colourful and interactive look-and-find adventure filled with hidden treasures and unexpected delights on every spread. There’s so much to explore, children are sure to find something new every time they return to the book. 

Beauty of Letters is perfect for curious young readers, age 5+, and a vibrant tribute to language and typography. Check out the Amazon.co.uk listing for a peek inside the book to preview some of the fantastic spreads before purchasing.

Beauty of Letters (RRP 22.50) is available from good booksellers. For stockists visit prestel.com. 

Where’s The Artist?

Where’s The Artist?, by Susanne Rebscher and illustrated by Annabelle Von Sperber, is a delightful and engaging introduction to the history of art for children. It’s a look-and-find book that features intricate illustrations with hidden details on each double-page spread. Each spread represents a moment in history and shows how art was integrated into daily life at that time, showing contemporary styles, tools and mediums.

Children aged 6+ will love learning about cave paintings, what humans used for light, why they painted so many animals and hunting scenes, and much more.

Where’s The Artist? (RRP £14.99) is available from good booksellers. For stockists visit prestel.com.

Small Moments Make a Big Difference

Keeping children’s minds active over the summer doesn’t require hours of structured learning. It can be much simpler than that, and much more fun too. Encourage your children to explore books, educational games, and toys that inspire creativity, STEM skills, or that practise fine motor skills to help them retain confidence and to strengthen key skills. This will help them be able to return to school feeling excited and ready for a new year of learning.

Collaboration.