What to Send Home This Summer (That Kids Will Actually Use)
Let’s be real for a second.
Most of us have sent home some version of a summer packet. A stapled stack of worksheets. A book from the dollar bin. Maybe a reading log nobody filled out.
And most of us have watched those packets come back in September, still in the backpack, crinkled at the corners and completely untouched.
Sound familiar?
Here’s the thing: it’s not because parents don’t care. It’s not because kids don’t need the practice. It’s because we’ve been sending home the wrong things.
Today I want to talk about what actually works when it comes to summer send-home materials, and why play-based learning kits might be the thing your families have been waiting for.
The Problem with the Usual Approach
There’s a reason workbooks don’t work for preschoolers. (And honestly? They don’t work great for anyone.)
Young children learn through doing. Through touching, playing, sorting, building, and moving. When we hand them a packet of tracing pages and number fill-ins, we’re asking them to learn in a way that isn’t actually developmentally appropriate for where they are.
And parents? They want to help. They really do. But when we send home materials that feel like mini homework assignments, we’re putting them in the role of drill sergeant instead of learning partner. That’s not fun for anyone.
The summer slide is real. But the solution doesn’t have to feel like summer school.
What Happened When I Changed What I Sent Home
The Family Learning Kit activities started during COVID, when families suddenly needed support at home and teachers needed something that could actually bridge the gap between classroom and kitchen table.
What I noticed pretty quickly was that these weren’t just survival-mode materials. They worked. Really worked.
Kids came back to school talking about the games they played. Not “I did my worksheet.” They talked about playing with their parents. About the math game they wanted to do again. About the activity they showed their grandma.
That’s when it clicked for me: the goal isn’t to replicate school at home. The goal is to give families tools that make learning feel like something they’d choose to do.
One teacher who used the kits shared that she sent several home after parent-teacher conferences, and for days after, the children came in talking about how much fun they had playing the games. That’s the kind of feedback that tells you something is working.
What Makes a Good Take-Home Activity for Preschool
Not all take-home materials are created equal. Here’s what I look for when deciding what’s actually worth sending home:
It has to be short and self-explanatory. Parents are busy. If instructions take longer than the activity, nobody’s doing it. Directions need to be simple enough that a caregiver with zero teaching background can pick it up and run with it.
It has to meet the child where they are. If it’s too hard, kids shut down. If it’s too easy, they’re bored. Preschool and Pre-K activities should feel achievable and fun, not frustrating.
It has to feel like play, not school. This is the big one. If a child looks at the activity and thinks “ugh, more school stuff,” it’s already lost. The best take-home materials feel like a game, not a task.
It should work with what families already have. The fewer special supplies needed, the better. We’re not asking families to run to the craft store. Low-prep and low-barrier is the name of the game.
That’s exactly what I kept in mind when building out the Family Learning Kit Bundle. Forty total activities covering math, literacy, and fine motor skills, all written in plain family-friendly language, all designed to feel like something fun to do together, not something to check off a list.
Ideas for How to Use It (Beyond Just “Summer Packet”)
The summer send-home is the obvious use, and honestly my favorite for this time of year. But these kits are flexible enough to use in a bunch of different ways:
Absent student packets: No prep, no stress. Grab a kit and send it home.
Family engagement nights: Give families something meaningful to take home and actually use.
Classroom centers: Works great for independent work too.
Blizzard bags or emergency sub plans: Already done for you.
Anytime you want to support home-school connection without adding to your to-do list.
One teacher mentioned using them for students who are absent and planning to use them in her Blizzard Bags. Another made take-home bags for her whole class to work on skills at home. The flexibility is kind of the whole point.
The Bigger Picture
Here’s what I really want you to take away from this:
Parents don’t need to be teachers. They need to be partners.
When we send home the right tools, we build trust with families. We show them that supporting their child’s learning doesn’t mean drilling flashcards or buying a workbook at the dollar store. It looks like playing a math game on the living room floor. It looks like sorting buttons together. It looks like reading a book and talking about it.
That shift, from “homework” to “learning together,” is what actually moves the needle. And it starts with what we put in their hands at the end of the year.
Ready to Put Together Your Summer Send-Home Packs?
The Family Learning Kit Bundle has 40 print-and-go activities across math, literacy, and fine motor, all written in family-friendly language so parents can run them without you in the room. No prep, low ink, and designed specifically for Preschool and Pre-K learners.
It’s everything you need to send home something families will actually use this summer.
[Grab it here] and give your families the gift of learning that feels like play.
Because our kids deserve better than a crinkled packet sitting at the bottom of a backpack.
