June 25, 2025

Tips for Parents: Help Kids Keep Learning Over the Summer!

It’s officially summer and while kids and parents will enjoy these two months without homework and class project deadlines, helping kids continue to learn over the summer can be both fun and beneficial! We asked Looking Glass Resident Shea Fuller, who is also a kindergarten teacher at Wilder Elementary School in Littleton, for some tips and ideas for younger children and teens.

1. How can parents help kids continue to learn and grow over the summer?

Read, read, read! Depending on the age of the child 10-30 minutes of reading a day will really keep their wheels moving over the summer. Along with reading, spend meaningful time together. Activities like storytime, museum visits, board games are all fun family field trips. Things around the house can be just as impactful, such as helping with gardens, plants, learning new chores or hobbies, think life skills, are just as useful!

2. How can parents build reading/writing activities into summer days (which are long, right?) 

Have reading be an expectation as part of kids’ daily tasks before participating in choice or “fun” activities. Writing can be integrated into making lists of things they want to do, debriefing after family trips, or day trips to the zoo, etc.

3. With social media sort of reducing everyone’s attention span, not just children’s, what can we all do to help us in that area (focus?) 

I think that setting clear boundaries (especially for kids) regarding technology usage is important. Whether it be the types of apps they are consuming, or time limits set. Also, in our house, technology is a privilege that will be earned after certain expectations are met first around the house with chores and activities. 

4. What about cultivating good citizenship – would you recommend getting kids involved in some kind of volunteer activities? 

Volunteering is great! You can also teach good citizenship by getting your kid involved in neighborhood and community events such as offering to help set up/clean up (at events). Teaching kids to be thoughtful and participate in an activity that doesn’t need to cost money (or make money) to make a positive impact is huge! Helping an elderly neighbor weed their yard, taking in someone’s trash bins, organizing a simple chain reaction exchange around the neighborhood, making and delivering a dinner to a family who is ill or welcoming a new baby are just as impactful and the kids can see the reactions in their close communities!

There is a small senior living facility not far from the new home community of Looking Glass with residents grouped in assisted living, memory care and traumatic brain injury quarters. Assured Senior Living is a beautiful,. award-winning home environment, so slightly less intimidating than a larger, more populated facility.

5. With so many kids and a curriculum to get through, what kinds of things do teachers run out of time for and could use parents’ help to pick up some slack? 

As a kindergarten teacher, or someone teaching early literacy, it is always helpful to have parents’ help learning sight words. We send lists home and incentivize our students throughout the year, and it is something that we just don’t have enough time to master in school. Along with memorizing sight words, which greatly increases reading fluency, handwriting is something that we also appreciate when practiced at home! Handwriting is something that is overlooked and so important in writing fluency, but often not our main focus.

6. Is geocaching is a good educational activity that the whole family could enjoy? 

I have only done geocaching once or twice YEARS ago, but when I did it, it was less educational, but so much quality time fun! I don’t think you’d get a ton of “educational” bang for your buck out of it, BUT quality time with family is equally important!

7. Do you have any summer reading recommendations? 

There are lots of options! Apps like Epic! books, Reading Eggs, and others are great tools. If you know your child’s specific reading level range, going to the bookstore or library is a great tool because then they have a choice over what they are reading! Most libraries also have summer reading programs with awesome prizes to be won. (For older kids, here are some ideas for summer reading at We Are Teachers.)

8. What about working on specific skills like math? 

I teach kindergarten, so easy tasks around the house can include math such as sorting toys and counting/comparing the groups. Asking your child to get X amount of something while helping at the grocery store, kitchen, etc., is practical, too. Playing board games and using multiple dice, just being more intentional about minute daily tasks can make a big difference for kindergarten math.

LOVIN’ LEARNIN’ IN LOOKING GLASS

With so many things to do nearby, the new home community of  Looking Glass in Parker is close to Lone Tree, Castle Rock and even downtown Denver (30 minutes give or take). The master-planned community and its neighborhoods give you access to paths and parks, community connections and nearby recreation, entertainment and shopping. Stop by the beautiful model homes from D.R. Horton, Taylor Morrison, and Dream Finders Homes – with Richmond American’s paired homes due in this fall!