5 Sneaky-Fun Ways to Help Kids Keep Up Their Reading Skills This Summer (No Worksheets Needed!)
Summer is all about fun. Splash parks, drippy popsicles, and in my house… approximately 47 snack breaks a day (multiply by 3 kids including 2 tween/teenage boys). But it’s also when a lot of young readers start to slide a bit without the routine of school. The good news is you don’t need flashcards or anything fancy to keep those skills sharp. Honestly, the best stuff doesn’t even feel like learning.
Here are five low-pressure, high-fun ways to sneak literacy into your summer days:
1. Water Balloon Word Splash
Grab a pack of water balloons and a sharpie and write simple vocabulary words, or even short phrases on them with a marker. Then call out a word and have your child find it in the pile and smash it (literally) on a target (or maybe a sibling)! It’s fun, it’s active, and it’s secretly building word recognition. You can make it more difficult or sillier depending on age: “Find the word that rhymes with cat!” or “Find something that means the opposite of happy!”
2. Sticky Note Showdown
Sticky notes are your summer secret weapon. You can start by labeling common items around the house with their names. For example, pot, knife, chair, or even refrigerator. Encourage your child to read these labels regularly. This constant exposure helps reinforce word recognition and phonetic patterns. Sticky notes are also fun for a literacy themed treasure hunt! Shout out to our friends at Phonics Read-Alouds for this one. Give them a follow on Instagram for tons of great tips for literacy and learning!
3. Frozen Letter Rescue
This was a favorite in my house for many summers. Freeze small plastic letters or items in an ice cube tray, muffin tin or a plastic shoebox. Once frozen, kids use squirt bottles, eye droppers or toy tools to “rescue” each letter from the ice. I’d often give my kids some salt and hello, science lesson! As they free them, they can say the letter name and sounds, or tell you the beginning or ending sound of the object. Game variations - try spelling words with the rescued letters, or use words in sentences. It’s hands-on, sensory-rich, and feels more like play than practice.
4. Read Aloud, But Make It Weird
Reading together doesn’t have to be serious. Try reading aloud in a pirate voice, or trade lines with your child and do your worst British accents. Pick super silly picture books or chapters from a favorite novel and let loose. Kids of all ages benefit from hearing fluent reading even when it is goofy! Print this silly voice spinner from Slant System for fluency practice.
5. Menu Masters
A reading specialist I worked with back in Chicago once told me, “Literacy is everywhere - menus, road signs, cereal boxes…” Leverage everyday reading to build vocabulary, confidence, and real-world skills. Whether you’re out to eat or having a bowl of cereal, hand over the menu—or the cereal box—and let your kid take the lead. Have them read the options, describe what sounds good, or decode the back of the box while munching.
And because we couldn’t help ourselves… a bonus #6
6. Let Them Stay Up Late… to Read
Nothing feels more rebellious than being allowed to stay up past bedtime. Grab a flashlight and a book and make it a “Camp-In” night! Build a blanket fort, grab some snacks, and let your kiddo pick any book they want. You’re reinforcing that reading is a treat, not a chore.
When we build readers through fun, they carry those skills—and that joy—with them all year long.