Fun summer enrichment for 7 year old

[Anonymous]

Looking ahead to summer, are there any great solo summer enrichment activities for home you recommend (besides the classic frequent trips to library)? He's interested in video games and likes math, so anything interactive for math and coding that's age appropriate would be great, as well as interesting podcasts to listen to while building Legos or doing art. .
We do plan to take some time off work to travel and see family, have him signed up for a few weeks of day camps, and will spend as much time at the city pool and local beaches as we can. He won't be on a computer alone all summer, by any means. But we do have a few full and partial weeks of "down time" and would love ideas.

[Anonymous]

activities:
jigsaw puzzles
reading (with a goal in mind)
sudoku
chess (play against computer)

podcasts:
Why In the World
Brains On
But Why

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:activities:
jigsaw puzzles
reading (with a goal in mind)
sudoku
chess (play against computer)

podcasts:
Why In the World
Brains On
But Why

Thanks! He likes the first 4, appreciate the podcast recs!

[Anonymous]

Scratch is a computer language developed by MIT to allow kids to teach themselves how to code in a fun way. it’s designed for kids 8 and up, but there’s also a Scratch Jr designed for kids 5-7. He might try if he’s not ready for Scratch yet. I don’t know anything about the junior version, but my kids loved Scratch.
https://scratch.mit.edu/parents/
https://www.scratchjr.org/

Hoagies has links for enrichment for all ages and subjects.
https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/links.htm

Cyberchase (animated PBS show) is great for introducing math concepts (although recent seasons have shifted focus). Earlier seasons can be seen here:
https://pbskids.org/cyberchase/videos/?selectedID=...5c-0ec9-4490-9f88-7890cfb1689a

The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives has lots of ways to explore/play with math concepts:
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

I’ve always known cooking was great for math, but poster 08/04/2020 11:44 took it to a whole other level. I wish I’d read their post when my kids were still young.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/901600.page

Get him a tape measure and/or a timer. Let him go crazy measuring things and timing himself. He’d probably enjoy looking through the Guinness Book of World Records which you can check out from the library.

If he doesn’t know how to tell time yet, get him an analog watch. They make teaching models:
https://www.amazon.com/teaching-time-watches/s?k=teaching+time+watches

Games of all kinds have math components from counting spaces to keeping score. Some, like Sleeping Queens and Monopoly, have more direct math applications. Others, like Checkers and Othello haveconnections to geometry and higher math that I don’t really understand, but nonetheless acknowledge.

If he hasn’t learned money yet, I highly recommend it. I think it’s one of the very best math topics for young children because it lays a basic foundation across many areas to build upon.

I don’t know about his reading level but:
He might like Magic Squares. There’s an early reader that introduces the subject, but of course he can do magic squares without the story
https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Magic-Squares-Step-Into-Reading-Step/dp/0375806210

The Sir Cumference picture books are great for introducing geometry concepts in a fun way.
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B00699FJ34?_encoding=UTF8&node=283155&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-sidecar-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader

Secret Codes:
The Mystery of King Karfu is a picture book mystery with a secret code to solve.
https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Karfu-Casebook-Seymour-Sleuth/dp/0613084128/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1A66SKJS5ELHF&keywords=seymour+sleuth+cushman&qid=1652614197&s=books&sprefix=seymour+sleuth+cushman%2Cstripbooks%2C47&sr=1-2

For a more in-depth look at secret codes, The Third Grade detectives is a series of chapter books that uses them in their cases.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=3rd+grade+detectives&i=stripbooks&crid=29831519WN50I&sprefix=3rd+grade+detectives%2Cstripbooks%2C37&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

My kids (grown now) enjoyed the Zoombinis and The Incredible Machine computer games. While I am sure those versions are outdated, there may be aps available now. In the case of The Incredible Machine, I think there would probably be copycat versions if nothing else.

Here are some summer festival we’ve enjoyed. While these aren’t specifically math oriented, they might be fun for your family as well. I don’t know how COVID will affect them this year. Also, look for the math festival which takes place in the Spring. (I haven’t participated in that one, but it looks great)

National Math Festival
https://www.nationalmathfestival.org/about-us/who-we-are

Montgomery County Heritage Days
https://www.heritagemontgomery.org/things-to-do/heritage-days/

Washington Folk Festival at Glen Echo
https://fsgw.org/washingtonfolkfestival

Artscape
http://www.artscape.org/

Maryland Renaissance Festival (be warned, Portapotties only)
https://rennfest.com/

Smithsonian Folklife Festival
https://festival.si.edu/

[Anonymous]

Outschool

VA Science Center at home programs

National Zoo at home programs