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Welcome back to the Prevent the Summer Slide series where I’m sharing easy ways to implement summer learning at home.

If you missed the first tip in the series you can read all about it here.

This week’s tip is super doable. I’m pretty sure you are already doing it! Maybe you just need to be a little more intentional and do it some more.

Drumroll please . . .

Keep it Real

How can you make what they are learning real?

What real-world experiences can you create?

Here are some simple examples:

Measure real furniture to see if it fits in a space. The move the furniture to see if it actually fits.
Calculate the area of a yard to determine the right amount of fertilizer for the yard.
Wear a watch that has a digital face. That child is now the time keeper for everything. “Let us know when it’s 9:15. You’re so good at keeping us on time!”
Cook a recipe and measure. Cut the final product into different kinds of fractions. Cooking provides so many many opportunities to add, subtract, multiply, divide.
Play store. Label real food or clothes with prices. Play check out with a cash register. Write out receipts. Google printable money. Use real coins. A store is not a store without the cash money honey!
Calculate the tip when going out to dinner. (You know the trick? In case you don’t . . . you move the decimal over to the left one and double that number.)
Guesstimate the total cost of groceries in the cart. The person who gets the closest to the real cost wins bragging rights. (Extension: Watch the Price is Right with the children. Make your own version of a game at home.
Answer the phone and write down messages. Who remembers the pink phone message pads? Who remembers anything before text messages?
Look someone in the eye and have an actual conversation. These children need as much human interaction practice as possible.
Have a spill the tea date (tea + conversation). It doesn’t have to be fancy. It’s not really about the special drink. An eye-to-eye quality conversation with your child will go farther than you think.
Play real games and keep busy without screens. Check out this post!