Free Summer Resources & Ideas For Your Homeschool Break

Disclosure: I was compensated for my time reviewing Homeschool Buyer’s Club, but all opinions are honest – I want to help YOU in your choice of homeschool curriculum!

#1: Summer Reading 📖

Summer is the perfect time to focus on reading lots and lots of books. The best thing about focusing on reading over the summer is that there are so many different summer reading programs. There’s also no shortage of ideas to encourage your kids to read books over those lazy summer days.

The number one best source (of course) for summer reading programs is your local library. Our library does a wonderful summer reading program every year and my kids earn free books and medals and prizes.

If you live in a place where you can visit libraries in different cities and counties, you can double up on your reading rewards. There’s no rule against registering for and getting a library card for multiple systems (except of course that you need to be well organized to keep all the books separate.)

By registering for different library systems in multiple counties or cities you can take advantage more than one summer reading program.

One great way to find out what summer reading programs are around you is to take a look at the Beanstack app. This is a really great app for tracking your summer reading and you can use it to search for summer reading programs near you. We love this app because you can scan the barcode of the books that you read. My kids really love scanning their books as they finish them.

One popular reading challenge for kids is to do a 100 book challenge over the summer. This is particularly great for big readers. There a lot of hundred book challenge printables out there that can help you. I have a couple of really fun ones including my Summer 100 Book Challenge Printable Pack.

If you need something that’s a little more simple and less intimidating for kids who are not big readers, then my Gumball Reading Challenge Printable may be a better choice. You can use dot markers, stickers, or stamps to fill up the gumball machine for every book that your child reads – or for every chapter they read. It’s simple, fun, and effective!

#2: I’m Bored Shelf For Summer 🥱

One of the favorite things I’ve ever done for summertime boredom is to create an “I’m Bored” shelf for the summer. On our big bookcase I created a special shelf for things to do when the kids were bored. I added lots of how-to-draw books, activity books, file folder games, board games, magazines, craft books, cookbooks and more. You can read more about my summer bookcase in this post.

#3: Make Good Use Of Screen Time 💻

Many parents allow their kids to use screens, laptops, and tablets more during the summer. I always feel that tug back and forth of enjoying the quiet house when all my kids are occupied on their screens versus feeling guilty for having them look at electronics for so long.

One thing that helps is to find online programs that are educational and fun so that I’m not feeling so guilty about the kids’ screen time.

Of course a lot of the great programs are not free so it helps to be able to find some great deals and discounts. I’ve had really great luck with Homeschool Buyers Club. There are always a lot of great deals on online curriculum and programs that my kids really like.

If you’re not already a member of Homeschool Buyers Club you should definitely sign up for this to save yourself some money. It’s easy to sign up and you’ll find great homeschool discounts on programs that your kids will like to do over the summer.

This is a great pro tip for homeschool parents to keep their kiddos occupied over the summer, but also keep them learning and avoid that common summer slide.

#4: Summer Drawing Basket

I’m really fortunate that my three oldest kids absolutely love to draw. We created a drawing basket which is basically just a giant basket that we put all of our how to draw books in. We also add sketch books and keep all of our special drawing pencils in the crate.

When my kids are having one of those days where they are a little bit aimless, I place the drawing bucket our dining room table and don’t say a word. Magically, within moments all my kids are at the table drawing and that makes me feel pretty good.

You could do the same concept with anything that your kids are into. Legos, clay modeling, even stop motion filmmaking – just create some kind of container to put all the related items in and then place it on the table on a slow summer days. You’ll be giving them direction so they have a starting point while also allowing them the freedom to be inspired and create.

#5: Make It Box 📦

Another really fun thing especially for young kids is to create what we call a “Make-It Box.” To do this, take a really large plastic container tub or box and decorate it and/or label it.

Next, begin adding random things from the house that you think your kids might be able to make some kind of project with. Some great ideas for these are toilet paper rolls, popsicle sticks, lids to random containers – basically anything that you throw away take a moment to think if your kids could possibly make something out of it.

When your kids are bored take the Make-It Box out and put it on the table with a bunch of scissors and glue and such and see what your kids come up with. Don’t give them any direction beyond “make whatever you want out of these” It might not sound like a big hit but my kids absolutely love it and this idea has lasted us for years and years. You will see their creativity in ways you never have before!

#6: Arts & Crafts Cards 🎨

One summer I felt a little overwhelmed by all of the arts and craft stuff that I had accumulated and stored in a cabinet in my garage. I wanted to clean it out but I didn’t want to throw all those wonderful art supplies away.

So I took it all out and organized it and as I was doing so I took index cards and wrote each craft or art project that the kids do with the materials on separate cards. I then hole punched all of these cards and put them on a book ring.

Every week throughout the summer we did a couple of arts and crafts days. I would simply turn the cards to the next one we wanted to do and then got out the materials. This works so great because we didn’t have to sit around and think of what to do and also I knew that I had the supplies to do every art project that was on that ring.

#7: Summer Fun Bucket List 💦

One of my favorite printables that I’ve ever made is this set of posters for rainy day ideas and summer fun ideas. I love these posters so much and it’s such a great way to have something to do over the summer.

You can put this poster up on the refrigerator for the summer and challenge your young ones to complete every task. Or, you can just pick a fun task to do whenever they’re bored.

You can put stickers on each one that you do, color it in with a crayon, or use dot markers or stamps. These posters are free in my freebies library (look in the Homeschooling tab) when you sign up here.

Homeschool Discounts, & Deals For Online Curriculum

Summertime is the perfect time to help your kids figure out what electives they’re interested in. It’s also a great time to make up some ground in subjects you feel you’re kids are trailing behind in.

Homeschool Buyers Club is a perfect way to try out elective curriculum and online programs to see what works best for your family. The big advantage is that you’ll never be paying full price. It’s a great idea to bookmark the site so that you can keep checking out the different homeschool deals they negotiate.

Plus right now over the summer they are offering three free gifts with every purchase. So be smart and go sign up now and see what deals and steals you can find on homeschool Buyers Club.

Try Some Summer Free Trials & Discounts From Homeschool Buyer’s Club:

Summer is here, and what better way to get a jump-start on homeschooling than with free trials on top of curriculum. Explore new programs and tools that will help your child succeed this upcoming year and beyond.

Thinkwell Free Trial

Reading Skills Assessment Ongoing

HomeSchoolPiano Trial

Code Avengers Free Trial

Monarch

Kids Guitar Academy Trial

Mr Henry’s Music World Freebie

Nessy.com Free Trial

Mark Kistler Art Lessons

Creta Class 7 Day Trial

Math Mammoth PDFs

Brilliant.org

Reading Eggs

Doodlemaths

Smile and Learn

History Alive Grades 6-12

History Alive Grades 1-6

Vocabulary Quest

Dynamic Earth Learning (Aquaponics Course)

Don’t forget, you can get 3 free bonus gifts this summer from Homeschool Buyer’s Club:

I hope these summer ideas have helped you set yourself up for an amazing summer. Kids need those times of being bored to let their brains reach that place where they want to be creative. It’s also a wonderful time to discover the things that your kids are interested in and want to do more of.

So have some fun this year letting your kids explore different books, crafts, and activities. And make sure you take a little time to explore some different elective and curriculum deals and discounts from Homeschool Buyers Club.

And if you have any more ideas to add to this list please help a momma out and post them below!

Happy summer!

Blessings, Christy

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I hope you enjoyed these summer ideas, and learning about the great summer discounts available through the Homeschool Buyer’s Club.

Go bookmark Homeschool Buyer’s Club now!

Blessings,

Christy

P.S. While you’re here, access my entire subscriber only freebies library to get unlimited free printables for your kids! Subscribe to my list to get access: