Boredom Busters and Learning Activities for Home

April 3, 2020 by Evan-Moor | 0 comments

How do you keep your children engaged during school breaks? With a balance of activity books and hands-on activities, you can keep your kids mentally active and send them back to school ahead of the curve. These educational activity books and outdoor learning activities will provide a healthy learning balance for your children.

Hands-on Activity Ideas

Balance your workbook activities with some outdoor hands-on activities! For a fun science experiment, make a moving glacier and a mini glacier to understand how glaciers move and float in the world. Click here for your free science activities. (From the book Skill Sharpeners: Science grade 2)

Making a Moving Glacier

Across the world, glaciers move extremely slowly, and this experiment will help you understand how! You will need:

Resealable plastic bag
3 tablespoons warm water
1 tablespoon white glue
2 tablespoons borax
Drop of blue food coloring
Mixing bowl

Directions:

Mix the water and glue in the plastic bag.
Add the borax and close the bag. Knead the mixture until it comes together.
Open the bag and add a drop of food coloring. Mix until it is blue.
Set the bowl upside down. This is a mountain. Empty the mixture on the mountaintop, and watch as it creeps downhill, like a glacier would move.

Making a Mini Glacier

Do glaciers float on water? Follow the steps to this experiment and find out! You will need:

Resealable plastic sandwich bag
Water
Jar with lid
Clear bowl

Directions:

Fill the sandwich bag halfway with water.
Hold the bag so all the water is in the corner. Seal the bag shut.
Place the bag inside the jar. Let the end of the bag hang over the top of the jar.
Screw the lid on the jar, trapping the end of the bag.
Place the jar in the freezer overnight.
The next day, remove the mini iceberg from the bag.
Fill a bowl with water. Place the mini iceberg in the water.
How much of the iceberg is above water? How much is below?

Homemade Lava Lamps

This project is fun and simple and will wow your kids! Making a homemade lava lamp is perfect for boredom prevention. You will need an empty water bottle (for each lava lamp), vegetable oil, water, food coloring, and Alka Seltzer tablets.

Fill the water bottle a little more than halfway with vegetable oil.
Fill the rest with water, leaving space about an inch from the top.
Add 10 drops of food coloring (color of your choice).
Break your Alka Seltzer tablet into four pieces.
Drop them in one at a time, waiting for the first piece to stop bubbling before you drop in the next one (otherwise the mixture will become cloudy).
Watch the magic happen!

Additional Activity Books for Learning at Home

Looking for a workbook that will last the whole summer? The Top Student activity book (available for grades PreK–6) is a jumbo activity book that spans many core subjects, including SEL (social and emotional learning), handwriting, STEM, and mindful moments. With perforated pages, you can choose from hundreds of activities to take on a day out or bring the whole book with you on a road trip.

Mindful moments activities include an audio component within the workbook. Each mindful moment activity includes a QR code for easy listening. These exercises practice relaxation and reflection activities to support social and emotional learning.

Social and emotional learning is an important part of children’s development. These activities are meant to help children recognize social cues and practice empathy, allowing them to play and engage in healthy social behaviors with their peers.

This jumbo book puts an emphasis on phonics, grammar, spelling, reading, and writing. Including a daily learning routine every day or every week, students can retain their learning over the summer, as well as learn and discover new topics that interest them.

Top Student activity books also include STEM and computer science units. The computer science lessons teach children about code, algorithms, and patterns so their screen time becomes more mindful and engaging! The STEM units provide lessons on everyday science concepts and hands-on experiments to help children apply their learning in real-life situations.

Pick and choose from this jumbo activity book to make the most of your children’s summer and make the transition back to school in the fall easier.

Daily Summer Activities is another excellent summer resource; with 10 weeks’ worth of short daily lessons and activities, Daily Summer Activities will help prepare your child for his or her upcoming school year without getting in the way of summer fun! The activity books (available for grades PreK–8) help students practice language arts, math, geography, creative writing, and more! The daily activities will help keep your child’s skills sharp without feeling like summer school!

If your child is particularly interested in a certain subject, try Skill Sharpeners activity books, available for Grades PreK–6. This series is available in different areas of study, such as critical thinking, geography, reading, science, spelling, language, and math. These activity books provide concept reading, real-life examples, and activities to reinforce the student’s new knowledge!

This unit from Skill Sharpeners: Geography grade 3 teaches students about physical systems such as super volcanoes! Using Yellowstone National Park as an example, students will learn about super volcanoes and hot springs, practice using new vocabulary, and make their very own erupting volcano!

Skill Sharpeners: Critical Thinking has students read a selection about animals, plants, and places in the world and then connects what they read to what they already know. Guided by the workbook, students will engage in critical thinking activities such as analyzing, application, and evaluation. Each unit also provides a hands-on or art activity to pair with the reading.

Find your students’ favorite subject in their grade level on the Evan-Moor website:

Combined with the Top Student activity book and these fun outdoor activities and workbooks, your children will never get tired of learning! Keeping your children engaged and learning at home will leave them a step ahead come fall.

Christine Wooler has experience working with children as a youth soccer coach and summer camp counselor. She is currently studying English Literature and journalism in college. She enjoys exploring educational topics that help students have fun while learning.