Summer break often means weeks upon weeks without the discipline and structured learning that school provides. For kids, it’s a source of great excitement. But as parents, it’s easy to worry about what such a big break means for everything our kids learned during the school year. So what can we do to keep our children intellectually stimulated and avoid the “summer slide”?

“We can make any subject fun by being engaged and putting some effort into it,” says pediatrician Brian Cress. “Whether it’s history or math or reading.” During our conversation on the For Health’s Sake podcast, Dr. Cress gives us plenty of examples of how to make these subjects (and others) fun. We cover:

• How to encourage kids to read
• Fun activities that rely on math
• Other activities that can promote learning
• Where to get more ideas for stimulating learning

Don’t worry too much

Even when we’re giving our kids opportunities to be engaged and keep learning, we still might worry that we aren’t doing enough. But Dr. Cress has a reassuring message: “We all have feelings of inadequacy from time to time as parents. In my opinion, if you’re thinking and worrying about how things are going then you’re probably much more engaged.”

For more tips and advice like this, check out the Kids’ Health section of the Healthpartners Blog.