FREE Montessori-Based Summer Activity Pack for Homeschoolers

Summertime is often when many of us take a break from homeschooling. Even if we school year-round, we usually go a bit lighter in the summer to enjoy those nice warm days. It’s the perfect time to work on nailing down skills our students have previously struggled with and explore a new subject of interest. We are thrilled to bring you this free summer activity pack. It’s perfect for homeschoolers or families looking for engaging activities for kids on summer break.

Summer Activities for Kids

In this over 30-page activity pack, you’ll find gobs of easy to put together activities and the free printables you’ve come to know and love from ShillerLearning. In addition to the activities in this pack, here are more ideas to curb hearing “Mom, I’m bored!” this summer.

• Create Your Own Lesson- Kids sometimes say, “If I was in charge, I would...” Give them the chance to do it their way! Set them loose with materials and let them design their own dream homeschool or summer lesson plan. Guide they in researching something they are interested in, encourage them to create their own learning, and see what they come up with! You might be pleasantly surprised as they come up with something to implement in your homeschool, create an awesome game, or (shhhh, don’t tell them) learn a new skill.

• You-Pick Farms- This is always fun way to create family memories. Find a local you-pick farm and head out to pick your own food. Oftentimes these farms are growing berries and sometimes what you eat as you pick is free. Then bring them home and enjoy baking, canning, or freezing of your bounty. Check out fallingfruit.org to see free local you-pick options too!

• Amazing Race- Let the kids come up with their own version of the Amazing Race. Have them create activities and pit stops to do around your house, the block, or your town. Then let them get together with friends and play out their show. Older kids might even enjoy filming and making their own episode.

• Progressive Game Night (or afternoon)- Some participation and help coordinating might be needed on the part of parents for this one, but it is so fun! (Plus, of course, parental supervision.) Get together with neighbors and nearby friends. Have each family pick a lawn game, board game or outdoor activity (like sidewalk chalk or sprinklers). The kids can work together to decide who will do which activity, make a master map ahead of time and set the schedule. Each home can host something different for a fun afternoon, or evening, of time together and exercise as you bike, or walk, between houses. Make sure to invite lots of friends, have plenty of healthy snacks & water, and have a blast!  

How to Use This Free Activity Pack

There’s no right or wrong way to implement this pack. We’ve provided you with a book list covering all reading abilities. The rest of the pack is pretty open-ended. You can work through it in order, pick and choose the activities you’d like to do, let the kids pick, do one a day or do them all in a week. It’s really up to you! Most require little to no prep-work and only a few need materials. It’s good to peek ahead and see what you might need to pre-purchase or borrow from a friend.

What’s Inside?

You'll find over a dozen activities. We have Montessori-inspired works like nomenclature cards, map work, and even a matching game. We’ve also included a couple easy summer crafts followed by nature activities. Many of these nature activities would be awesome to do on a camping trip but can easily be done in your own yard or at a local park. Lastly, we end the pack with a couple delicious recipes of some ice-cold treats to enjoy on these hot summer days!

We hope you’ll enjoy this pack and have a great summer, no matter how far you are able to venture from home.

FREE Montessori Based Spring Activities For Kids

We’re proud to bring you these FREE Montessori based activities for kids to work on reading, language, math, and more.  

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

How does the spring activity pack help your child grow?

With Montessori works and reading great books

And flower crafts all in a row!"

Educational Activities For Kids To Help Your Child Bloom

Here at ShillerLearning, we want nothing more than to see kids love learning. Many of our families homeschool year round. If you’ve been looking for something free and fun to do, this pack is perfect for you. We’ve included some classic Montessori works, as well as a few fun arts and crafts. This pack is all about flowers, gardens, birds, and getting outside. We’re certain these activities will help your kids bloom right on into summer!  

• Reading Comprehension

In this pack, we’ve included two works based on The Gardener by Sarah Stewart. These are both designed to help with reading comprehension. These same works could be applied to the six additional books listed. Or download a few audio books and enjoy listening to them while you work on making Washi tape flowers and arranging fresh-cut flowers. Reading comprehension is something children sometimes struggle with and a skill our free activity packs will help with.

• Scheduling This Pack

We have over 15 Montessori works in this homeschool freebie.

A couple of suggestions would be to have a “nature study” day one day a week where, for example, your family takes a nature hike to find flowers for the pressed flower work, and completes a couple additional activities afterward.

Another option would be to have all of these works prepared and save them for rainy or hot afternoons. Several activities are also good for keeping kids entertained while you work on other things - especially the lacing cards! If you have a Montessori shelf set up, place these activities for your kids out along with the books on the booklist to enjoy seeing them reading and learning about flowers.

• Additional Suggestions For Kids And Parents

Local flower guides, state parks, and agricultural centers at universities make great field trips - fun ways to learn about and identify local wildflowers. Local herbal apothecaries and community groups often host foraging walks where you can learn about local edible plants and how to prepare them.  

• Parents Might Enjoy Reading the Following Books

Last Child in the Woods and Vitamin N by Richard Louv

The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs by Tristan Gooley

Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman

As Maria Montessori herself said,

“Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and when the grass of the meadows is wet with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet; let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade; let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning.”

We hope this pack will encourage you to enjoy and learn more about the great outdoors. Plus this pack is just as free as fresh air and sunshine! Download it now and start reading with your child.

Don't let the fresh air and warm breezes pass you by!

Antoinette LaGrossa

Veteran homeschool mom of five children (now ages 11 to 3 adults), Antoinette LaGrossa has been homeschooling since 2001. Having experienced her family’s frustration with multiple math programs, Antoinette understands the struggle that can come with teaching math. Everything changed in 2004 when she tried ShillerMath. She quickly joined the ShillerLearning team and has been supporting home educators for almost two decades - sharing hands-on learning tips, encouragement, and practical experience from homeschooling five very different children (no cookie-cutter molds here). Antoinette speaks at conventions across the country and is host of ShillerLearning’s Tuesdays@2.

Freebies are a great way to try a variety of homeschool curriculum resources. ShillerLearning has the best pack of free samples around! We have over two hundred pages of homeschool freebies for you in our ShillerLearning Homeschool Freebie Bundle. You’ll find math activities for pre-k through pre-algebra, language arts lessons for preschoolers through 4th grade students, as well as homeschool planners for both parents and students.

And it’s all free.

To try no-lesson prep, Montessori-based, multisensory lessons, download your ShillerLearning Homeschool Freebie Bundle today. These activities will help your child reach his or her full potential and have fun while doing so.

You and your family will enjoy the samples activities from:

Free Listening Skills For Kids Activity Pack

Working on listening skills with kids can feel like playing a broken record. We want our children to be attentive and aware, yet we’re not quite sure how to *get* our children to listen and comprehend. These important skills can be difficult to teach. I can’t tell you how many frustrated parents I’ve talked to who say “My kids don’t listen to me!”

If we’re honest, we work on listening skills our whole lives. To this day I am still working on how to better hear and pay attention to the auditory input I have coming my way. Teaching our kids ways to listen, equipping them with comprehension skills, and helping them appreciate silence helps set them up for success.

Tips For Teaching Listening Skills to Children

Appreciate silence- Recent studies have shown immense benefits of silence for the human brain. In a society that is constantly receiving auditory stimulation, silence is more golden than ever before. By allowing times of silence in our homes, we can help build listening skills. Our brains benefit from a break from all the sensory input, especially children’s brains! Plus when we embrace silence, we open our ears up to hear things we might otherwise not notice.

Repeat back- This one might seem silly. However, it’s a key tenant of communication skills. It is a highly valued listening skill. Teaching our children to “tell back” what they’ve heard helps them listen more carefully. It also helps the speaker ensure everything has been heard appropriately. Asking children to tell back what they’ve heard during story time can be a great way to build this skill. For young children, you may need to have the child tell back every few sentences. As children get older- you can move up to every few paragraphs, every few pages, and every chapter. This skill can be added to conversations as well. It’s especially helpful in conversations with details you don’t want to be missed. Have your child tell back details in their own words so you’re sure they are interpreting information as well.

Give them your full attention- I get it, hearing about Minecraft for the bazillionth time today is not exactly what you are interested in hearing about. However, our kids are watching. When we display positive listening skills, our kids learn from our example. Taking our eyes off whatever else we might be doing to fully engage in conversation is the first step. This demonstrates we’re not distracted and can be fully present. How often have we asked our children a question while they were engrossed in a show only to realize later on they totally didn’t hear us at all? One of the top reasons kids don’t “hear” is because they’re distracted and not actually listening. We may respond while watching TV or browsing social media. The truth is our minds are not fully aware and we’re responded by rote habit, not true attentive listening. If we model attentiveness, eye contact, and active listening it helps our children become better listeners. It will also benefit communication in your home too.

Read-a-loud and audiobooks- Nothing can capture a child’s attention better than a story! Sometimes one simply needs to sit in the middle of the room with children playing around them and begin to read. Soon a quiet fills the room and the children are lost in the story. By incorporating the other tips above, stories can build listening skills immensely.

Practice at home- Home is the best place to practice and build skills. Work on engaging your child in conversations they’re interested in. Download our FREE Listening Activity Pack below for over a dozen activities to help build listening skills in the comfort of your own home! You’ll find the classic Montessori Sitting in Silence activity, crafts, games, and more. Children from preschool all the way through high school can build listening skills. You may find a benefit from some activities as well! A few activities can be incorporated on a regular basis in your homeschool.

Refer to the ShillerLearning Parent Guide from your ShillerLearning homeschool math kit or at the beginning of each ShillerLearning homeschool language arts books for more tips on engaging your child.

Like this?

Check out all our activity packs here. 

How This Grace & Courtesy Printable Pack Turns “Chores” into Games

In the ShillerLearning Grace & Courtesy Activity Pack, we have over a dozen activities designed to help your child gain an understanding of Grace and Courtesy, and to incorporate these principles into your home. We even made several “games.”

Who said manners have to be no-fun?

We included classic Montessori works such as “Walking the Line”, as well as a fun Grace and Courtesy board game. While some of these activities may seem like common sense, much of Grace and Courtesy consists of life skills that children do, in fact, need to be taught and practice. This pack may be used over an extended period of time and you will likely find yourself coming back to some of these activities time and time again.

It is our hope that little by little, these works will help your child see the world in a new way and look out for ways to care for others. These works can be used by all ages, although many of the activities are geared towards preschool and early elementary. You may find that some of these activities are easier to use spontaneously when a need arises to work through conflict, frustration, or care in a different manner.  

These are perfect when you want to try a “new” approach. If your child has issues with specific rude behaviors, there are a few games they can try in this pack like the "Quiet Game" or "Preparing and Serving Food". These are great to start the conversation around manners in a “fun” way. However, discipline does have its place to help children understand their actions have consequences.

Some of these activities may be incorporated into role-play activities as well.  

Parents and adults in a child’s life are always the best examples. Our children are always watching and imitate the ways we interact with others as well. Grace and Courtesy skills are skills we work on all our lives - skills we can model for the benefit of those we mentor.

More tips for parents to model Grace and Courtesy:

• Avoid talking on your cell phone when at the store, bank, or other locations where you will be interacting with employees

• Demonstrate speaking with a calm, quiet, and clear voice

• Look people in the eye when speaking to them

• Ask before hugging or touching others

• Call cashiers, servers, librarians, etc. by their name when thanking them; this small step makes a dramatic difference to them and to your child in learning how to politely interact

• Demonstrate pushing in your chair, hanging up your coat, and careful care of your environment

• Communicate when you need some time alone, and when you have strong feelings that may mean you need a little extra space

• Speak in the positive during challenging situations and suggest positive solutions

• Ask your child if you can join them in watching them work, playing with them, or joining in an activity

• Use open communication with a lot of “I feel,” “Please,” “Thank you,” “I appreciate you,” “Excuse me,” “May I” phrases

• Show how to take turns with another adult

• Write a letter to someone with your child

• Aid anyone you see in need while out and about, help the older woman carry her groceries, distract the crying baby, grab the item off the high shelf, etc; this can be a bit awkward to develop but sets a big example

Songs and games children enjoy that enforce these concepts include:

• Where is Thumbkin?

• Mother May I?

• Polite Patty Says (Simon Says)

• Getting To Know You

• Telephone

• Teddy Bear Picnic

We hope you enjoy this pack and please share with your friends on social media!