An At-Home Summer Math Camp to Do with Your Kids

Summer camp and other activities for kids can be really expensive, but just letting kids go feral for the summer months isn’t really recommended, either, for the sake of your sanity and furniture, not to mention their future academic success.

While we might not want to full-on homeschool while the kids are out of school, it’s a great idea to work in a little playful learning to keep their skills up. Which is why this DIY math camp from What Do We Do All Day? is so fantastic.

She has it broken down into activities you can do over the course of six weeks, covering everything from counting to simple math, shapes, patterns and fractions to fun math games. There are printables, craft ideas, even a snack.

Pick out the projects you want to do with your kids or do the whole series.

She also has an eight-week science camp, which has 16 ideas for projects and activities. Definitely enough to keep your kids busy for many days.

How do you keep kids entertained and learning during the summer? I’d love to hear your ideas.

[Photo: What Do We Do All Day?]

Looking for more resources? Check out these board games for learning Math and Multiplication?

Lacing is a great fine motor activity, and most kids go through a phase where they enjoy working with lacing cards. It helps promote focus and is a great quiet activity for kids to do in the car or to fill time in the classroom. And of course knowing how to lace is the beginning of knowing how to sew, which is great for all kids to learn (more on teaching kids to sew here).

There are lots of ways to make your own lacing cards. This one is just a pin but it’s easy to make lacing cards with any shape a child is into using cardboard and a nail to poke the holes. This could be fun for letter and number recognition or spelling the child’s name. Or try this version from Hey Azka, which uses a hole punch to make bigger holes so you can lace with shoe laces.

You can also just do lacing cards with paper, but it’s a great idea to print them on card stock and/or laminate them to make them sturdier for little hands. Homeschool Share has a set of alphabet lacing cards, which are free with email signup. Deceptively Educational has a set of number lacing cards with numbers 0 to 10.

Picklebums has some basic shape lacing cards, too.

Living Life and Learning has a bunch of cute printable lacing cards, including back to school designs, shoes kids can lace and learn to tie and ocean themed lacing cards. She also has tips for making your own lacing cards.

A Rose Tinted World made their lacing cards with craft foam, which makes them a little more durable than paper and you can cut it more easily than cardboard. They used a die cutting machine but you can also cut shapes by hand.

I also love the cat and mouse cards from Seam Whisperer. They also have some spring themed designs. So cute!

If you want to make lacing cards that are more open ended, check out this tutorial form Pretty Life Girls to make lacing cards that are more like geo boards. Theirs are made with wood but you can also do this with cardboard, craft foam or card stock.

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