Summer Bridge Activities: Kindergarten to 1st Grade

I have three daughters - ages 9, 6 & 3. My 9 year old will be entering 4th grade this year and the 6 year old will be entering 1st. My 9 year old struggled at the start of 2nd grade. It took her almost a whole month to get back into the swing of things. So, last summer I bought a Summer Bridge Activities book for her. She sailed right into 3rd grade. Her teacher agreed that it made a difference. This summer, I'm having both the 6 year old and the 9 year old use their Summer Bridge Activities books as well as read as time allows. I can already see it helping keep them fresh on what they've already learned in school and I'm sure they will be ready to go in September! One side note - I bought a similar book at KMart called "Summer Activities" published by Cookie Jar Publishing for $4.99. Guess what....it is almost the same book as Summer Bridge....I mean the same exact pages/activities!!! The only difference is that Summer Bridge has a few extra pages/activities. I wasn't very happy when I discovered this!

I recently purchased this for my son. My daughter and I have been using Summer Bridge since Kindergarten. She definately enjoys the books. She asks me to purchase her one each summer! She is now finishing 4th grade and is eager to start her Summer Bridge book. The book becomes part of our summer routine. Everyday she does her Summer Bridge page and reads for one hour. After she completes those activities, she is free to play or we all go to the pool. The activities are fun. The each page (front and back) takes 15 minutes to 30 minutes to complete. The activities in the first two sections are designed to review the material learned during the previous school year. The last section begins to expose the student to material they will learn in the upcoming school year. The first section is 15 days, the second is 20 days and the third is 15 days. Each day the student completes one page. When the student completes each section the receive a "reward" or "treat" that their parent has agreed to in advance. I try to limit the reward to about $5 (unless they want to go somewhere educational like the zoo). In the past our rewards have included a trip to the used book store, going to Dairy Queen, or a trip to the local zoo.

My son is enjoying this book very much. I believe it is also keeping his skills sharp.

My 5-year-old (entering 1rst grade this Fall) does this with much more energy and enthusiasm than she ever did her homework all year long! All I have to do is mention it and she's pulling it out of her desk. She's so proud of how much she's done so far (already over 50 pages), and she needs little help from me in understanding the assignments. I couldn't be happier with this purchase!

I didn't want our son to forget what he had learned in Kindergarten over the summer, so I decided to challenge him for the 3 months he was off. This book was EXCELLENT! It breaks up the months and the activities so it's not all of the same thing until they get sick of it. The reward system worked great and if we missed a day, our son knew exactly how many pages he had to make up. I will definitely buy the 1 to 2nd grade book in June next year!