Favorite Summer Learning Workbooks for All Ages

Whether you homeschool year-round or take a break in the summer, there are plenty of benefits of intentional learning during this time of year. Adding in a curriculum workbook to strengthen a skill or further learning can be a simple way for your children to learn in small increments throughout the summer.

Summer learning offers benefits for children of all ages, transforming summer into an opportunity for growth and enrichment. For younger children, engaging in structured learning activities, even for short periods, helps to solidify foundational skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Beyond maintaining academics, summer learning can encourage playful exploration or deep dives into subjects, fostering a lifelong curiosity and interest in learning.

Summer learning is also the perfect opportunity to strengthen skills where children may need extra attention. During this season, you may decide to help your child improve their handwriting, reading, or math skills by focusing on areas where they are struggling. You may decide to pursue learning by looking at these studies through a new lens, like with hand-on learning or through structured workbooks.

This blog offers suggestions of favorite workbooks and curriculum supplements that would be perfect to add to your summer daily rhythm for intentional learning.

In this blog post:

Language arts workbooks for kids
Summer reading and literature for kids
Summer Bible studies and devotionals for kids
Summer nature study for kids

Language arts workbooks for kids

Explode the Code

Explode the Code primarily focuses on phonics decoding and reading. The workbooks offer bite-sized lessons, minimal writing, and simple, humorous black-and-white illustrations. These lessons are simple to instruct with little-to-no preparation ahead of time. This curriculum also helps students improve in reading comprehension, critical thinking, handwriting, spelling, and vocabulary.

Explode the Code offers 17 phonics workbooks, ranging from Primer levels (preschool) through Book 8 (somewhere between grades 2-4). This also includes the “half levels,” which are more practice of the main levels for children who may need more time to master a skill before moving on.

Handwriting Without Tears

Handwriting Without Tears is a structured handwriting curriculum designed to make learning to write easy and engaging for children. Created by occupational therapist Jan Olsen, the program focuses on simple, developmentally appropriate strategies to teach both print and cursive handwriting.

Handwriting Without Tears uses a unique approach that emphasizes correct letter formation, spacing, and pencil grip. The workbooks teach a simplified, easy-to-learn letter style. The method reduces unnecessary strokes to help children write efficiently and legibly. The curriculum accommodates different learning styles and is particularly beneficial for students with fine motor challenges or special needs.

The program progresses from pre-writing skills in early childhood to fluent cursive writing in later grades. By using a combination of multisensory techniques, explicit instruction, and engaging materials, Handwriting Without Tears aims to build confidence, improve handwriting fluency, and create a positive writing experience for all learners.

Summer is a great opportunity to grab a workbook and practice the proper way to hold a pencil, review letters, and allow children the opportunity to practice their handwriting skills.

Evan-Moor Spell & Write

Evan-Moor Spell & Write workbooks are an excellent way for children to sharpen their spelling and writing skills over the summer. Whether you are reviewing what you learned previously or preparing for the new school year, these workbooks teach spelling, vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and more.

Draw Write Now

Draw Write Now are learning workbooks that incorporate writing and drawing skills while exploring a theme like farm animals, historical figures, geography and more. Each drawing lesson includes a colorful picture and step-by-step instructions, while the writing lesson includes simple handwritten sentences. Each section also includes a wealth of fun facts about the topic at the end. Use these books to introduce letter formation by having children copy the sentences for handwriting practice, or use the lessons as a springboard for creative writing or report writing.

Wonder of Nature Cursive Copywork

If you are looking for ways to strengthen your children’s cursive writing skills this summer, Wonder of Nature Cursive Copywork is a way for children to learn and practice cursive letter formation with engaging copywork activities. The set includes watercolor nature illustrations, beautiful language, and thought-provoking facts bring beauty and delight as they work through the collection.

Copywork is a long-standing practice in education. It is the practice of copying words, phrases, and passages to help children improve grammar, punctuation, letter formation, and spelling. This collection offers nature-themed vocabulary, literary quotes, poetry excerpts, facts, and even a few jokes as the source for copywork. The illustrations coordinate with the copywork selections.

Summer reading and literature for kids

Treehouse Book Studies

If you are looking for a gentle way to read more with your children this summer, Treehouse Book Studies were designed as a way for children to learn together through great literature.

Treehouse Book Studies are digital download book studies of classic children’s literature, available for both Primary and Intermediate Years. Use in your homeschool as literature curriculum or as book study with a small group. Each book guide includes: Book Study with weekly lesson plans, recipes, Book Report Template, Extension Book List, Multimedia Reference Materials links, and Book Club Meet-up Guide.

Nature Poetry Collection

Looking to expose your children to poetry this summer? The Nature Poetry Collection features 20 beloved children’s poems on nature themes including Animals, Bees, Birds, Butterflies, Earth, Minibeasts, Plants, Sky, Water, and Trees. Each poem includes a display version of the poem and a page with lines for copywork.

Summer Bible studies and devotionals for kids

Light the Way

Light the Way includes 24 weeks of daily scripture memory activities. Children can recite, write, draw, or interact with character-building scriptures as they commit them to memory. This can be used alongside the devotional book Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson or independently as an intentional scripture memory tool.

Rooted Family Bible Curriculum

Rooted Family Bible Curriculum is a family Bible curriculum designed to cultivate deep roots in the rich soil of God’s Word.

Embark on a journey of the heart guided by Scripture, beauty, art, hands-on connections, and family discussion. Instill courage, confidence, and Biblical character in your children by rooting them in their heavenly identity, their devotion to God, and the wisdom of Scripture. It’s about giving children a solid root system in the Word of God before we launch them into the world.

Rooted is an 18-week family Bible curriculum. Each week centers around one declaration statement related to the themes of Identity, Devotion, and Wisdom. Rooted incorporates beauty subjects with Bible study including daily Scripture readings, discussion and prayer prompts, hymns, poetry, and art study.

Flourish Family Bible Curriculum

Flourish Family Bible Curriculum is a family Bible curriculum to cultivate virtues that produce fruit in the world around us. Flourish is an 18-week family Bible curriculum centering on themes of Mission, Virtue, and Love. Flourish incorporates beauty subjects with Bible study including daily Scripture readings, discussion and prayer prompts, hymns, poetry, and art study. Enjoy the rhythms of connection and beauty found in our beloved Rooted Family Bible Curriculum with a focus on bearing fruit through our lives in the world around us.

Summer nature study for children

Treehouse Nature Study, Primary Years

Treehouse Nature Study, Primary Years is a seasonal nature study curriculum designed with family-style learning in mind. It is a gentle guide meant to invite various ages to connect with each other and the world around them through living books, nature notebooking, hands-on projects, and beauty subjects such as poetry, picture study, and folk songs. It also provides supplemental work for your children’s language arts through poetry memorization, recitation, copywork, and notebooking.

Treehouse Nature Study, Intermediate Years

Introducing Treehouse Nature Study, Intermediate Years geared towards grades 4th-8th. Experience a seasonal study that invites your older children to connect with each other and the world around them through living books, nature notebooking, hands-on projects, poetry, and picture study. Deepen your child’s learning through advanced language arts and scientific experiments. It also provides supplemental work for your children’s language arts through poetry copywork, creating an Illustrated Science Dictionary, creative writing prompts, notebooking, and internet research.

View our favorite summer learning workbooks on Amazon. Do you intentionally learn with your children during the summertime? Share your favorite summer learning resources in the comments below.