Although “summer brain drain”—the loss of reading and math skills over the summer—is a legitimate concern, no kid wants to spend their break studying. So how can parents help their children maintain their learning gains over the hot-weather months?
We’ve got 10 ideas that combine water play activities with brain-boosting games to keep their cognitive skills sharp. You can adjust these suggestions for your child’s age, interests, and swimming skills!
“Simon Says” in the Pool
How to play: Starting with a slower pace, give your child directions (“Simon says, do a forward somersault in the water” or “Simon says, recite the last 10 letters of the alphabet backwards while treading water”) and then increase the pace to give them more of a challenge. Be sure to omit “Simon Says” a few times to see if you can stump them!
- Cognitive skills exercised: Auditory processing, working memory, processing speed, attention, impulse control, executive functioning
Sink or Float Prediction Game
How to play: Using a tub of water or kiddie pool, have your child guess if objects will sink or float, explaining why before testing their theories. You can use whatever you have around the house, including paper plates, a coin, a spoon, etc. Be sure to use some containers – such as a plastic cup – to try them empty, with a few drops of water, and full of water.
- Cognitive skills exercised: Logic & reasoning, attention, visual processing
Water Relay Races
How to play: Players can race one another or try to beat their own time by remembering and following multi-step instructions to work their way through an obstacle course with cups, buckets, sponges, washcloths, etc.
Challenge kids to soak a washcloth at one end and navigate through hopscotch, under lawn chairs, and around trees to wring out the water into a cup before repeating the process.
You can even throw in a trivia question at the hula-hoop halfway point, requiring them to stop and answer, “Who was the first president of the United States?” The first one (or fastest time) to fill their cup wins!
- Cognitive skills exercised: Working memory, processing speed, attention, executive functioning
Water Balloon Toss with Math Facts
How to play: Call out a math fact (4 x 3) before tossing a water balloon. The other person must answer correctly before catching the balloon. (You can modify this to other topics, such as “This organ pumps blood through the body.” or “This is the fifth letter of the alphabet.”)
- Cognitive skills exercised: Processing speed, logic, long-term memory
Water Word Ladder
How to play: Call out a word (e.g., “cat”) and have your child tread water or swim to another corner of a pool and then call out a new word in which one letter has been changed (“hat”). Then continue (“ham”) until one player can’t think of a new word.
- Cognitive skills exercised: Long-term memory, logic & reasoning, auditory processing, processing speed
Follow-the-Leader Water Obstacle Course
How to play: One person does a sequence of moves (splash, clap, float, breakdance move, handstand), announcing each as they perform them. Each person has to recall the sequence from memory and replicate it. You can lengthen the number of moves to make it more challenging or add a timer to work on processing speed.
- Cognitive skills exercised: Working memory, attention, processing speed, motor skill coordination, executive functioning
Counting and Sorting Objects
How to play: Fill a tub with water and different colored or sized objects (e.g., water beads, buttons, plastic balls, water rings, water balloons). Players can race each other (or try to be their own top speed) by sorting them into other bins by color, size, or shape.
- Cognitive skills exercised: Working memory, visual processing, processing speed, executive functioning
Floating Matches
How to play: Laminate matching pictures and place them face down to float in a kiddie pool or family swimming pool. Time your child as they try to find pairs, returning any unmatched cards to the face-down position and saving the matched pairs to poolside.
- Cognitive skills exercised: Working memory, attention, visual processing, long-term memory
Underwater Sound Identification
How to play: Have your child close their eyes and go underwater while you tap on submerged objects. Can they guess that it’s a soup spoon hitting a pot? If you’re in the pool yourself, try saying a word or singing a song underwater to see if they can decipher it.
- Cognitive skills: Auditory processing, attention
Stackable Water Tower
How to play: Give your child a selection of water-safe items (blocks, plastic cups filled with water, plastic bowls filled with water, filled water balloons) and see who can build the tallest tower. Add a timer element to boost processing speed.
- Cognitive skills: Attention, visual processing, planning, logic & reasoning, processing speed