Fun Worksheets to Keep Students Sharp Over Summer Break

June 13, 2023 byConnections Academy

5 min to read

Online school student writing in a notebook

After a long school year, summer break can be a sweet relief to school-aged children. The time off with friends and family offers children a chance to develop relationships, relax, and make lifelong memories.

Unfortunately, if students don't take the time to reinforce and practice what they've learned over the past year, they may experience what's colloquially known as "the summer slide."

What Is Summer Learning Loss?

The summer slide is also known as summer learning loss. Skills and knowledge acquired over the last academic year don't simply stand still while your child takes a break from school; in fact, they erode.

Between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next, children can easily lose progress they made over the past year. This problem is especially pronounced in children who come from low-income households, the reason being a lack of resources. The learning gap between social classes widens much faster during the summer than during the school year. However, most children show some form of summer learning loss when they return for the next school year.

Teachers across all subjects usually spend about six weeks each school year reteaching students the material learned the year before in order to prepare students to learn new things. As a result, students often lose a little more than two and a half months' worth of math skills and two months of reading skills.

Each summer, some students fall farther and farther behind. By the end of sixth grade, students who have repeatedly experienced summer learning loss can be about two years behind.

How to Prevent Summer Learning Loss

Of course, it's important for kids to have time to be kids, develop social skills, and enjoy their summer. However, a little effort can go a long way toward keeping your children's learning development on track while school is not in session—and it can be as easy as dedicating around two to three hours a week to some fun summer worksheets and other activities.

Reading can be an excellent cost-effective way to combat summer learning loss. Your local library can supply a wide selection of books for your child to read regardless of age or reading level. Allow your children to pick books that interest them, so they’ll willingly take up the challenge.

A reading habit can help your child improve in several academic subjects, but the best approach to preventing summer learning loss is a well-rounded approach.

Learn more: “5 Ways to Prevent Summer Learning Loss”

Worksheets for Summer Learning

You don't have to be a master in all subjects in order to help your children (of all ages) continue to learn throughout the summer. The following resources can give your children the practice they need to maintain, or even improve, their academic skills while on break.

Adapted Mind: This website provides summer worksheets for kindergarten, fun worksheets for elementary school, and on-the-go middle school worksheets in reading and math. As your child improves, the difficulty level increases.
Education.com: Education.com provides worksheets that accommodate students starting in preschool to eighth grade.
Woo! Jr: Your younger children will love the summer activity worksheets this website provides. You can even bring these printable worksheets along on car trips.
TeacherVision: Fight brain drain with these summer worksheets on every subject, including math, science, art, drama, and social studies.
Scholastic: Scholastic offers printable worksheets for summer sorted by grade level and subject.
K5 Learning: K5 Learning provides worksheets for elementary-aged students to practice vocabulary, grammar, cursive, math, and more.
Code Academy: Learning new skills will stretch your student's mind, which allows them to do better across subjects. Code Academy teaches students as young as 12 a valuable new skill—coding.

Summer Can Be Fun for Kids without Being a Step Back

There's no reason why summer can't be fun for your kids. So be sure to set aside plenty of time for family vacations and playing with friends and include downtime to just let your kids be kids. As long as you're supplementing their summer activities with some educational content, they'll be both rejuvenated and prepared when school starts again in the fall.