Summer… An excellent time for math activities!

I bet that’s not typically what you think of when you envision summer break…

What does summer mean to you?

Perhaps it’s time for vacations and catching fireflies?

Maybe it’s a time to hit the swimming pool?

But the truth is, for many children, summer is a time when all the critical skills they busted their butt to learn throughout the year are sometimes (or often) lost through a phenomenon called “Brain Drain“…, especially math skills!

Fun Summer Math Activities that Don’t Feel Like Schoolwork

It is important to remember that math can be fun!

In fact, there are summer math activities that you can orchestrate where your child will learn… BUT THEY WON’T EVEN KNOW IT!

Curious as to what these secrets could possibly be?

Here are some simple summer math activities that will keep your kids from being bored (and keep them learning!).

– Take Math Activities Outside This Summer!

Most parents won’t even see these as learning activities… but they are! And bonus they are all outside learning activities.

• Have an even and odd beanbag toss
• Make a hula hoop clock to review time-related problems
• Play marshmallow shoot and measure
• Have a shapes scavenger hunt
• Play number line race using sidewalk chalk
• Use your flower bed or garden to practice measurements
• Heading to the beach? Use seashells for counting, sorting, or a fun memory game
• Play skip counting hopscotch (or this multiplication hopscotch)
• Write numbers on a beach ball or another large ball. When a player catches the ball, they add, multiply or subtract (depending on what skill you want to practice) the two numbers that their hands are touching.
• Measure how far your child can throw, kick, or hit different-sized balls?

– Summer Learning (I Mean Fun) With Legos!

• Work on place value with LEGOs
• Build a rocket-powered Lego car
• Practice double digit addition and subtraction

– Plan the Family’s Vacation

Here are a few different ways your child can plan your family vacation while learning math.

• Figure out how many miles you will be driving (or flying) using an atlas.
• Driving? Figure out how much gas will be used for the trip. How much does it cost to fill up, how many miles do you get per gallon, etc?
• Determine the average speed and how long it will take to get to the destination (or each leg of the trip before needing to stop).

– Household Items Converted Into Learning Utensils!

• Watermelon seeds are a great way to practice counting
• Use small toys, balls, or household items to have a weekly estimation jar challenge (encourage your kids to make educated guesses and work on estimating techniques)
• Get in the kitchen for fun with math and cooking
• Have a family contest to see who can build the tallest tower. Use any materials you have around the house. Use different things to measure to prove who’s is the largest.

– Board Games that Practice Math

Have a family game night with one of these board games.

• Monopoly
• Life
• Tri-Fact-A
• Payday
• War (with a plain deck of cards)
• Yahtzee
• Sequence
• Blokus
• Geoshapes
• Quirkle
• Review math facts by playing Math Twister (not technically a board game but still fun)

– Fun Math Activities For Learning Time

• Play a game to see what you can do in one minute. Set a timer. See how many times you can write your name or how many toys you can collect in a basket (great way to add in chores, BOOM!) This can really be something different every day.
• Have your child write five things they did while you were at work that day with how long it took each activity both in digital and analog times.
• Do a sleep study. Tall up how many hours each member of the family sleeps each day. Have your child create a chart on posterboard (or an online program) for the week comparing the data.

– Shopping With Money 

• Have your child create a menu for the week. Have them use grocery store ads to figure out the cost for each meal. You can even have them work within a specific budget.
• Tell your child they have $100 to spend. They should look at catalogs or online store sites to decide what they will be able to buy. Tell them to make sure to figure out with or without tax and shipping.
• Practice adding money and making change with your kids by “playing store” with their favorite books or toys.

– Special Interests That Use Math

Does your child have a special interest in baseball, volcanoes, pirates, or science experiments? Check out these activities that use math:

• Inflate a balloon science experiment
• Pirate color by code activity
• Make a volcano
• 5 Ways to Practice Math at a Baseball Game
• Or try some of these science experiments

What Summer Math Activities Have You Tried?

Learning with summer math activities … or really all year long can be FUN!

There’s nothing written in the book of academics that says learning has to be boring and hated by children throughout the world!

In fact, even the traditional “textbook” learning has evolved by utilizing one-on-one special education tutoring online!

Do you have any summer math ideas? If so, please leave them in the comments! We are ALWAYS looking for additional items to share with our incredible community!

More Resources You May Be Interested In

• How to Plan the Best Summer Schedule for Special Needs Kids

• Fun Educational Sand Activities to Do At the Beach This Summer

• Creative Writing Activities for a Special Needs Student

• 7 Fun Labor Day Activities for Families You Should Try This Year