Summer Skills Bingo (Our Intentional Summer, Part 1)

Heading into this summer I knew I wanted it to be an intentional one. We are moving and doing lots of home projects BUT this is also Henry’s last summer before kindergarten so I want to make the non-hectic time count- you know?!

When I thought about how I wanted the summer to look, one of the first things I knew I wanted to focus on was teaching my kids (but especially Henry!) some life skills before he starts school in the fall.

I know teaching life skills is so important, but as a parent it is strangely not something that comes naturally to me. I tend to do everything myself because it’s easier…but I’m trying to look more at the big picture- what skills will my kids need to be successful and adults/ employees/ members of society/ partners/ students/ friends/ teammates, etc who contribute to the world in a positive way.

My personality coupled with my son’s very “safe” one, means there are several skills which I’d like him to learn that he hasn’t yet for whatever reason.

SO. I wrote a big list down of all the things I want him to know before starting kindergarten (or at least practice!) and narrowed down to the top 25.

The skills are a combination of practical life skills, social-emotional skills, school readiness* and fun! Some I will expect him to “master” (like opening and filling his water bottle) whereas others I just want to see him making an effort and know his skill swill evolve over time with maturity and practice. This is NOT about him being perfect, but just working on skills that will boost his confidence and make him an even better kid to be around.

On a similar note, these skills have a wide range of difficulty for him. Some he could do no problem-just hasn’t had the opportunity or confidence to try. Others are more difficult and like I mentioned above are skills I expect him to “grow into”, but still want to introduce and practice them now!

I know Emily Ley does a similar “How to be a person” camp, but I wanted to make it a little more “fun”, knowing my child’s sometime reluctant personality. Which is why I chose to make it BINGO style. For each Bingo he will get to go on a 1:1 “date” with his dad or myself. If he completes the whole thing he can pick out a new toy–this “reward” system might be controversial BUT if you have a kid who is not always eager to learn or try new things, sometimes some fun motivation can help. You know your kid best- so do what works best for your family 🙂

So far he is SO excited about this (which is so refreshing to see!) and feels so proud every time he tries something new. We will see how this progresses as the summer continues but I have a feeling Summer Skills Bingo might be a new family tradition.

Ideas to include on your summer skills bingo:

To make your own list, I would first start with simply noticing and identifying what your own child could benefit from learning. Write those down THEN look at some additional lists if you’d like some more ideas.

Like I mentioned, I think the original person to introduce this idea widely on the internet was Emily Ley. You can find her recent podcast with ideas here.

This post by @our.mama.guide on Instagram recently went viral (also inspired by Emily Ley) and has lots of good ideas!

Busy Toddler has a post about kindergarten readiness and how that likely differs from what you regularly hear. Check out her post about the subject if you have a kiddo heading into kindergarten-lots of good ideas on this article. As a former kindergarten I think it is spot on.

And finally I just saw this blog post by @merricksart about skills she is teaching her boys. Lots of good ideas especially for older kids!

Free summer skills bingo printable:

The summer skills bingo printable is left blank so that you can fill it with skills based on your own child’s needs, skills, age, etc. I thought I’d just save you a step of having to draw out a bingo grid 😉 Click here if the free printable would be helpful for you! Happy life skills summer learning! 🙂