STEM makes learning fun! I can go so far as to stay if you only do STEM projects during the summer, your child will do really well and still learn so much. These FREE summer STEM projects will help your kids enjoy and experience loads of learning fun at home during the summertime.
So, you heard me right. In my opinion, doing STEM and STEAM activities during the summer may be all you need to teach in the summer. With STEAM, your children will be learning science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics. Well, maybe I would say STEAMR, by adding some reading as well.
However, STEAMR (I totally made that up) may be all you need to prevent the summer slide. The summer slide is the idea that kids lose a significant amount of what they gained during their homeschool year during the summer.
The idea is that kids regress in the summer. In a traditional school, teachers have reported they spend the first four to six weeks trying to reteach the prior year’s work. There’s a lot more to it. This resource will help explain the summer slide if you are unfamiliar.
If you are a homeschooling family who takes off the whole summer completely, you may have experienced something similar. However, STEAM and STEM can help remedy the summer slide and regression in your own homeschool kids.
Before I go on, you may want to read about this FREE STEM app to combat summer learning loss in your homeschool—it learning and screen time in one. I will be trying this with my kids.
How will STEM/STEAM help the summer slide in your homeschool?
1. Keep kids productive.
You can totally let your kids sleep in and relax all summer. However, providing a means for them to learn and have fun is mom’s goal.
2. Unconventional confidence.
STEAM activities create a sense of accomplishment and confidence that can’t be obtained via traditional test-taking. STEAM is a type of learning that is hands-on and engaging. Most times, kids do not even understand just how much they are absorbing.
I remember in public high school doing labs. I was so scared of labs. They were foreign to me, and I felt as if I was always doing something wrong. The more experience your children have with STEAM, the more they are building their confidence not to be afraid and try new ways to get to a conclusion. STEAM activities get kids comfortable with autonomy and the ability to solve problems.
3. Screen escape.
STEAM activities, even for just a couple days a week, ensure that kids’ minds are being stimulated by education vice the screentime. I will be the first to tell you that I like watching movies because it gives my brain a break from thinking.
When it comes to our kids, we want them to be stimulated in other things besides video games. Life is not a video game unless they end up working for EA Sports or something. Other than that, these STEAM activities get kids to think about outcomes and making decisions. Learning these skills will be necessary as they become adults in the competitive world we live in today.
4. Expose kids to a thriving field.
During the school year, we are busy making sure our kids can write and solve mathematical equations. Sometimes the focus on hands-on learning can be overshadowed, but our need for them to learn academically.
Let’s face it. These fields are growing scarce. It is too easy for our kids to enter into the workforce to skills that don’t require the hard work and critical analysis that goes along with STEAM and STEM. Exposing our children early on into the love of these fields will encourage a career path where jobs are never scarce, and demand is high.
Combat summer slide with these FREE Summer STEM Projects:
STEM Marble Runs for Indoor Summer Fun
Summer STEM Challenge Events | Feel Good Teaching
7 Easy Ways To Explore Stem This Summer | Desert Chica
Summer Fun with Baking Soda Paint | Little Bins Little Hands
STEM + Art = STEAM Summer | Little Bins Little Hands
Bird Feeder FREE STEM Activity, Anyone? | Classroom Freebies
Traveling Water Experiment | Rookie Parenting
Stick Raft Building STEM Project | Kids Craftroom
Eruption Science – Summer STEM Lab | No Time for Flashcards
20+ Free and Fun STEAM for Kids Activities You Can Do Right Now | STEAMsational
The Ultimate List of Summer Stem Activities | STEAMsational
STEM Gardening- Paper Plate Greenhouse | JDaniel4’s Mom
Summer STEM Activities Bucket List – 20 STEM Challenges for Summer Fun! | STEAM Powered Family
How To Build A Strong Catapult: Stem Learning Activity | Teach Beside Me
Camping STEM Challenges | Lisa Taylor Teaching the Stars
Bubble STEM activities | Gift of Curiosity
Popsicle Stick Led Flashlight Summer STEM Activity | Fun Loving Families
20+ Summer Stem Activities for Kids | Kitchen Counter Chronicle
All You Need for A DIY Summer Science Camp | What Do We Do All Day?
15 FUN Summer STEM Activities! | The Homeschool Resource Room
Fun Summer STEM Activities | Peanut Butter Fish Lessons
Awesome Summer STEM Activities for Middle School | Math Geek Mama
Summer Stem Challenges | StudentSavvy
Summer STEM Activities to do at Home | Learning Hypothesis
Backyard Summer Camp Activities Guaranteed to Rock Your Summer with the Kids | There’s Just One Mommy
DIY Solar Oven from A Repurposed Cardboard Box | The Craft Train
21 quick STEM activities for when you’re in a hurry | School Activities
STEM Summer (or Anytime) Challenge: Boat Building | Feel Good Teaching
End of the Year Summer STEM Challenge: Wicked-Fast Water Slide | Feel Good Teaching
Sun Science Experiments & Book Suggestions | Lessons for Little Ones
Caterpillar To Butterfly Science Activity With Balloons | The Educator’s Spin on It
How to Make a Paper Plate Sundial — Simple STEM Activity | There’s Just One Mommy
STEM Sports: End of the Year Fun | The Science Penguin
Building Pool Noodle Structures with Toothpicks | Little Bins Little Hands
Bottle Rockets – Engineering & Chemistry Summer Science Fun! | STEAM Powered Family
STEAM learning during the summer creates an atmosphere of learning while making adventures! Your kids will enjoy their summer experience, and you will enjoy the amount of science, technology, art, engineering, and mathematics they were exposed to without even giving a second thought to it still being “homeschool.”
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Jeannette is a wife, mother and homeschooling mom. She has been mightily, saved by grace and is grateful for God’s sovereignty throughout her life’s journey. She has a Bachelor in English Education and her MBA. Jeannette is bi-lingual and currently lives in the Tongan Islands of the South Pacific. She posts daily freebies for homeschoolers!
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