Even if your child is enrolled in a summer camp, most camps are only scheduled to last a week or two, leaving plenty of summer left for enrichment at home. That’s why it’s so important to plan meaningful summer activities for kids while they’re away from school. If you’re looking for ideas to keep your gifted learner growing, explore the ideas below to enrich your child’s learning across the curriculum.
Summer Enrichment Ideas
Math - Nature Math
Who would have thought that kids could explore and discover math in the great outdoors? Head outside this summer and explore your local park, the woods, or even your own backyard to find natural math activities for your gifted and talented learner! Find tree stumps and help your child count the rings and compare tree ages.
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Measure the diameter and circumference of tree stumps to observe the approximate size of stumps compared with the age of the tree. Or if you can’t find any stumps, measure diameter and circumference of trees, and estimate their height. As an added bonus, not only will your child practice fascinating math in nature, but will be studying natural science as well!
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Reading - Themed Reading
You probably already know the importance of summer reading. Why not make it even more interesting by creating weekly themes to fuel your child’s summer reading? Help your child mark on a calendar which themes to study each week. One week may be space, and another could be their favorite animal, or literally anything they want to read about! Go to the library and check out fiction or nonfiction books that fit those themes and get reading!
Writing - Create a Digital Children’s Book
This summer, help your child write a book! Check out websites that help kids and adults alike create andpublish their very own books. Many websites, like Storyjumper or Storybird, are available for free, and help you write and illustrate your child’s story.
Download your child’s own drawings and add them to the pages of his or her digital book, or find images in the Creative Commons to use. Share your child’s book with friends and family and experience the joy of publishing writing in a way that will encourage imagination, creativity, all while honing writing skills.
Science - Fizzing Lemonade
Lemonade is a classic staple of summer, quenching the thirst of children for generations! Let’s transform lemonade into a science experiment by making fizzing lemonade! Combining an acid and a base to create fizz, this experiment offers up a basic chemistry lesson your child will love to conduct—and drink! Many recipes can be found only, but in general, simply take a lemon, sugar, water and make lemonade. Add a teaspoon of baking soda, and record observations. Be sure to use the scientific method every step of the way!
Social Studies - Kids Cartography
This summer, help your child master map skills by creating their very own map! Start out small, and ask children to create a map of rooms in your own home. Depending on your child’s age, you may want to start out with only 2 adjoining rooms, or just one floor. Don’t forget to label furniture, and make a key! Afterwards, expand your child’s map-making skills by making a map of the neighborhood or your child’s favorite stores or location. Once finished, take a walk or drive past the location and to check the accuracy of the map!
Art - Study Famous Artists
Many famous artists, like Andy Warhol or Pablo Picasso, had signature styles that even your child can try to emulate! This summer study a favorite famous artist. View paintings and observe the style to replicate! For instance, Andy Warhol created pop art of ordinary products or everyday celebrities, often in different neon colors. Replicate the style by viewing paintings and creating a project using similar colors or products! Check out our collection of bright and fascintaing art worksheets to let your child experiment with colors and characters.
Talented and Gifted: Virtual Summer Camp
In between projects and activities, don’t forget that Kids Academy offers a comprehensive all-in-one app that stimulates gifted learners, and feeds their need for learning! From preschool through 3rd grade, Talented and Gifted app covers topics from around the curriculum and features the following:
Teacher-led videos and lessons
Challenging worksheets that offers motivation and instant feedback
Topics and activities that increase in complexity as a child progresses
An introduction to chess
Our Talented and Gifted app is intended to be a one stop shop jam packed with challenging learning activities that will meet the needs of your gifted learner!
Using the above ideas, get started today planning a summer filled with learning possibilities that will satiate your hungry learner and keep him or her learning and growing throughout the long summer months!
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