Have FUN this summer with books, activities, and virtual programs at your local Public Library! Summer is the time to read what you love – and love what you read, to make you laugh, send shivers up your spine, transport you to another time or place, answer questions, or offer comfort in stressful times. Read what you like this summer or choose from our booklist suggestions.

Consider joining a summer reading club at your local library or bookstore, or sign up for an online book club like Scholastic Summer Reading Program. You can also explore sites such as Reading Rockets, which has a vast collection of resources to encourage summer reading.  There is no such thing as too much reading over the summer months!

Whenever you are counting something, making change, adding up a bill, measuring or weighing, think aloud about it so that your child can connect the learning of math to everyday experiences.  

For example, “I have $10 and I need to buy these groceries.  Do I have enough money?  Let me count it out.  The milk costs $2, the cookies cost $4, and the apples cost $2.  That means I need $8.  Is $10 more or less than $8?”.  

Use tangible objects, such as craft sticks, pebbles, shells, blocks, or even edibles such as M&Ms, to encourage your child to work out simple addition and subtraction math concepts.  For example, “I have 10 M&Ms for us to share.  How can we make sure that each of us gets the same number?”  or  “I have three green M&Ms and two brown ones.  How many do you have?”  

Screen time may have become more magnetic than board games, but summer just wouldn’t be complete without some great family game time.  Also great: Floor puzzles. Games and puzzles not only encourage math, reading, and memory skills, they help children learn how to wait their turn, play cooperatively, and “win” or “lose” gracefully.