How to Keep Learning Over the Summer Holidays

15th July 2025

Summer’s here, and while kids deserve a well-earned break, a bit of brain-friendly fun now can stop them from slipping back academically—and give them a confident boost come September. Here’s how to keep learning over the summer holidays.

Start with a Light Plan

Try just 10 minutes a day of learning:

Reading for pleasure – ideal if books aren’t your child’s favourite. Choose comics, magazines, or audiobooks for variety.
Quick games – flashcards, vocabulary apps, or podcasts during car journeys keep skills active without feeling like homework.

Make Learning an Adventure

Go beyond the common walk in the park:

Visit gardens, museums, open-air exhibitions—or take that science lesson outside. Studies suggest connecting learning with play outdoors boosts engagement and memory .
Start a mini project: build a wildlife field guide or grow a plant in a pot and track its progress.

Play Smart with Educational Games

Engaging games can sharpen reading and numeracy skills:

Try word hunts, outdoor memory games, or sticky-label word challenges.
For maths, get active with dice games, jumping between number puddles, or decode secret messages with maths clues.
These blend fun and skill-building seamlessly.

Make Curiosity the Goal

Forget rigid schedules and textbooks. Summer learning is all about exploration. Let your child ask questions, follow their interests, and go down rabbit holes—whether it’s learning about how planes fly, why sharks don’t sink, or how to write a graphic novel.

Tip: Keep a “wonder journal” for them to jot down questions they think of, then look up the answers together during the week.

Create Something

Summer is a brilliant time for children to unleash their creativity. Encourage them to:

Make a short film or stop-motion video
Start a diary, scrapbook, or blog
Invent a board game
Build something out of recycled materials

Creative projects build problem-solving skills, resilience, and confidence.

Use Screens to Their Advantage

Yes, screen time can be productive! There are brilliant educational apps and YouTube channels that teach everything from coding to Spanish to how volcanoes erupt. The trick is choosing quality over quantity.

Try apps like:

Set Goals (But Keep Them Gentle)

Instead of rigid routines, try flexible goals:

“Learn to type properly”
“Finish a book series”
“Master 5 new recipes”
“Improve my times tables”

Let your child choose their own summer learning mission—they’ll be more motivated if it’s their idea.

Book some tutoring sessions in preparation for the upcoming academic year

pre-learning will help your child to hit the ground running in September!