Display Search Bar

5 Minutes for Mom

Main navigation

5 Minutes for Books: Summer Bridge Activities

by

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.


Check out our three Father’s Day Giveaways and all of our other contests open right now at 5 Minutes for Books.

As of Sunday, it was officially summer. Some of you may have a week or so left of school, while others have been out for several weeks. Some of you are homeschoolers and have set your own “break.” Others will be joining me in sending a child off to school for the first time come fall (How is it that my baby is starting Kindergarten?).

Regardless of how your children are educated and whether or not they love school and learn easily or struggle through some aspect of their schooling, it’s an undeniable fact that children do better if they never stop learning.

We love downtime around my house, and in between camps and vacations, we have a healthy helping of “do-nothing days.” But I have to admit that as much as I enjoy taking advantage of the downtime myself by spending more time reading while the children enjoy their free time, I also like to use the summer to work on projects — be they school skills, an extra project (such as fun creative writing for my daughter who enjoys that), or helping-around-the house skills.

My ten-year-old daughter Amanda and I had the chance to preview a Summer Bridge Activities workbook. I knew that Amanda would be thrilled (Can you imagine the sarcasm dripping from my typed words?). As I anticipated, she rolled her eyes when she saw it, and asked, “Do I have to do that this summer?” I told her I thought it would be a good idea, but would she at least look it over to help me review it.

She immediately saw the motivational calendar at the front of the book which said, “My parents and I decided that if I complete 15 summer bridge activities and read ___ minutes a day my incentive/reward will be: ”

“Reward? I get a reward?” she asked. I would not have believe how quickly that little incentive would change her attitude about this workbook. She was immediately on board (I shouldn’t have been surprised, because I had already seen how the incentive of the Chore Board Game took the nagging out of chores).

The page has a nice checklist for her to color in a star for each activity page she completes, and a book for each time she reads the allotted amount. There are two other sections with similar pages, which I like, because the goal of filling in 50 stars is not seen as attainable. The first two sections deal with review, and the third section is designed to be an introduction to the coming year. We looked through the Summer Bridge Activities: 5th to 6th Grade, and I found it be on target as far as what Amanda learned in math, geography, and grammar. There are some things that she didn’t cover, such as biology (circulatory and digestive systems and more), but this would be a fun enrichment activity for some kids.

Remember how I mentioned that I like to take those extended hours to focus on responsibilities, behaviors and that type of thing? Summer Bridge Activities has that covered too. The back has pages (with activities) devoted to character traits such as Responsibility, Gratitude, Manners and more.

This was my first experience with the Summer Bridge Activities from Carson-Dellosa, but I find myself asking, “Where have you been all my life?” I love the colorful pages, the accurate and challenging content, and the motivational calendar.

One of you will win a copy of THREE workbooks of your choice (available for Pre-K to K through 7th to 8th grade). Leave a comment if you’d like to win (U.S. addresses only), and tell us which ones you would like. We’ll announce the winner in next week’s column.The giveaway is closed.

We don’t have a winner to announce, because the I Spy A to Z book is still open for entries for a couple of more weeks.

Contributing editor Jennifer Donovan manages 5 Minutes for Books and blogs at Snapshot about life with her 10 year old daughter and 5 year old son.

Reader Interactions


99 Comments

  1. I would love to have this for my two elementary children. They would greatly benfit from them

  2. My daughter will be entering the fourth grade this fall, so I would love to have the 4th Grade level workbook. Thanks!

  10. Actually I could use any of the choices because I have a large family with kids in various age groups. My first choice would be Pre-K to K.

  12. I really like this idea! I could use the pre-K, K & 1st grade ones! Thanks for the offer!

  15. I would love to win the Summer Bridge P-K, K-2, & 1-2!

    Thanks for another great giveaway!

  16. I would love to win the Summer Bridge Activities for 3rd to 4th grade, 4th to 5th grade and 5th to 6th grade. Thanks for the giveaway!

  23. Hmm, these would be excellant to have for my children. I would choose pre-k to k first. Second choice would be k-1, third choice would be 1-2.
    litefoot873 (@) hotmail.com

  28. I would love the Summer Bridge Activities for Young Christians: Preschool to Kindergarten and the following age groups for the other 2!

  29. I would love to get the Kindergarten workbooks for my son to work in over the summer!

  34. These look like such a great way to keep my little one thinking this summer. We’d love Pre-K to K, K to 1, 1 to 2.

  36. My girl loves these activities books.She would love the 1-2nd grade/3rd-4th grade/Young Christian 1st-2nd grade. Thanks!

  37. Ok, terrific giveaway. These are fabulous. I used one with my son between Kindergarten and 1st grade. I’d love 5th to 6th and 2nd to 3rd.

  38. I would like to have the Pre-K, K, and grade 1. Please disregard the previous post just listing grade 1. Thanks.

  41. I would love to win one for each of my three daughters (perfect!). I would love to have the Pre-K to Kindergarten, the 1st to 2nd grade and the 3rd to 4th grade workbooks. Thanks!

  51. My God-daughter will be starting Kindergarten after the Summer, so I would like to win her the Pre-K to K, K to 1st, and 1st to 2nd.

  53. I have children in each age bracket (7th grade, beginning 1st grade, and beginning K) but I think I would have to pick the K books. All 3 of my children would absolutely LOVE the books, but my K age child will spend all day with books if possible. She cannot get enough and as a mom, I’m running out of book and activity idea’s to keep her mind growing. She soaks everything up like a sponge and she would be thrilled with a new book.

  57. Yes, I would love these books for my 3 boys I looked them over on the website and I just haven’t purchased them yet do to summer camp it is costly. But I would love to win this to keep them on track for next year. At this time I have been doing some free printables from online but I like the incentive chart agreed upon by parent and child. I have on going to 1st grade, one going to 4th grade and one going to 6th grade so k-1, 3-4 & 5-6 would be gret.

  58. I’d love Summer bridge activites for young Christians for Pre K, and the same for K-Gr1 and Summer Bridge activities for K-1.
    Wow! Hope I win!

  61. My twins are going into kindergarten, so we’d love the Pre-K to Kindergarten, the Kindergarten to First Grade, and the Young Christians Pre-K Kindergarten books!

  62. Oh I seriously want to win one of these. (The 7th-8th grade prob; the twins are going into 7th and Elliot into 8th). My kids are schooled in the French system, but plan on going to American universities, so I need to keep them up to speed on reading/writing/etc in English. My Mum used to send them workbooks when they were younger, but she hasn’t been able to for several years now.

    Why am I explaining all this, as if it wasn’t the random generator-thingy that would choose? Sorry. Rambling on about how I “deserve” this…sheesh. Carry on.

  63. I would love to get the K to 1st grade one for my daughter. These sound great! I’m checking them out now 🙂

  65. Summer Bridge Activities: Kindergarten to 1st Grade
    Summer Bridge Activities: 1st to 2nd Grade
    Summer Bridge Activities: Preschool to Kindergarten

  66. I would love to win the prek level. Thanks for the giveaway.

    accoupons at gmail dot com

  68. My grandson will be entering 1st grade this fall, so Grade 1-2 would be nice to have

  73. My son loves books…any kind. He is entering the 2nd grade so we would love a book for this age.

  74. Oh those moments of panic – what am i going to do with the kiddos for the next two hours before Dad gets home – “Summer Bridge”. Thank you for offering the advice on a great resource for summer boredom and brain freeze (literally). My kiddos are 1,4, and 6 so the PreK-K or the 1st grade would be fantastic. No more panic!

  76. I have to say I had never heard of “Summer Bridge” until reading a friend’s status updates on Facebook. I’d be very interested to try Pre-K, K and 1st.

  77. These workbooks sound great! Any would do as I have grand/greatgrandkids in all age groups.

  78. I have three kids, so we could definitely use the K-1st, 2nd-3rd and 4th-5th! Thanks! 🙂

  79. Yes! I would love to win the 6th, 7th grade books and the 1st grade book for my youngest son! I love the layout of the Summer Bridge books!!!
    Thanks so much for offering these!

  81. I’d love to win the pre-k for my daughter, she’s been out a couple of weeks, and is already driving me crazy!

  85. These are really great for keeping the kids minds active this summer, I would like the K package.

  87. I would love the 7-8th grade level! My husband teaches middle school and this would be a great resource!

  88. I would love the K-1 or 2-3 books for next summer. My kids are doing these now this summer and are enjoying them. I think the books are great for avoiding the “summer slide”!

  96. Looks like a good way to combat summer boredom while sneaking in some learning…………….the 8th grade, Pre-K & K would be good for us! Thanks!

  99. it would be nice if some of your giveaways are open also intermnationally…its a shame that so far i could never enter a competition