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Use it or lose it they say. Research shows that children who don't come from enriching home environments with books and learning activities lose skills over summer. If you're browsing here you probably have activities in your home to keep your children's brains active and growing. If you're looking for more, the titles here are specifically designed to keep children up to speed with core skills.

The Summer Splash series provides a colorful variety of exercises in the areas of math, language arts, social studies and science. You get a little bit of everything. This series is out of print so we have just a few copies left.

Bright and Brainy from K - Gr 5 and Use It! Don't Lose It! for Gr 5 and up are both written with teachers and a school year in mind. They work just as well over summer though. Purchase the level for the grade your child will be going to go into and they'll start the school year ahead. Another option is the Common Core Language Arts and Math Workbook. Again you get a little of everything with room for your child to grow.

Reading is obviously important too. For young children self-selected books and read alouds with parents are sufficient. If you want to supplement our reading comprehension titles can be found in our Reading Comprehension section. We also carry a few series of novels from our favorite publisher. These are high interest, easily accessible stories, that will work well at the beach in the car or tucked up in bed.

Conversation is always important. Use the prompts in Nifty Fifty or Quotes to Spark Discussion and you'll never be at loss for interesting (and educational) conversation.

During the school year the focus is on facts and the three 'Rs - reading 'riting and 'rithmetic. Don't forget the fourth "r" - Reasoning. Summer is the perfect time to start a thinking skills program with your child. The exercises are more like puzzles than traditional work and most children enjoy completing them.

It's not difficult to avoid skill loss. Simply build a few learning activities into each day. Ten minutes a day (or twenty minutes three times a week) is all you need to build instead of lose skills.
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Can You Find Me  PreK Can You Find Me PreK

Grade(s): PreK
Pages: 101

Can You Find Me? develops skills in reading readiness, science, math, and social studies using five basic thinking skills: similarities and differences, sequences, classifications, analogies, and logic. Each riddle requires identification of two or more clues to deduce the answer. Activities may be enhanced by teaching additional information about the animals, objects, shapes, letters, and numbers used in the riddles.

Our Price: $16.99
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Building Thinking Skills Beginning Building Thinking Skills Beginning

Grade(s): Pre K
Pages: 224

Building Thinking Skills® Beginning provides highly effective verbal and nonverbal reasoning activities to improve child?s vocabulary, reading, writing, math, logic, and figural-spatial skills, as well as their visual and auditory processing. This book is designed to be used as a hands on program utilizing attribute blocks sold separately.

Our Price: $26.99
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Summer Splash Learning Activities Grades K-1 Summer Splash Learning Activities Grades K-1

Summer Splash Learning Activities will keep your child mentally active and learning all summer long. The self-motivating, hands-on-activities in this book will review topics your child learned in kindergarten and prepare him or her with the skills necessary to leap into the first grade!

Our Price: $4.99
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Can You Find Me K-1 Can You Find Me K-1

Grade(s): K-1
Activities: 80
Pages: 101

Can You Find Me? develops skills in reading readiness, science, math, and social studies using five basic thinking skills: similarities and differences, sequences, classifications, analogies, and logic. Each riddle requires identification of two or more clues to deduce the answer. Activities may be enhanced by teaching additional information about the animals, objects, shapes, letters, and numbers used in the riddles.

Our Price: $16.99
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Thinking Skills & Key Concepts Thinking Skills & Core Concepts (Kindergarten)

Grade(s): K
Pages: 272

This book uses powerful lessons to develop thinking skills important to academic success while teaching the key kindergarten common core concepts. Enhance cognitive development through discussion and observation. Students develop analytical skills as well as deductive and inferential reasoning skills as they work through the exercises.

Our Price: $21.99
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Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade K Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade K

Help kindergarten students master Common Core skills such as short and long vowel sounds, capitalization and punctuation, comparing numbers, and more with Common Core Language Arts and Math for Grade K. Includes explicit references to the standards on each practice page that will let parents know that activities provide direct support for skills being taught at school.

Our Price: $9.99
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Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 1 Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 1

Help first grade students master Common Core skills such as comparing two texts on the same topic, understanding word roots, solving word problems, and more with Common Core Language Arts and Math for Grade 1. Includes explicit references to the standards on each practice page that will let parents know that activities provide direct support for skills being taught at school.

Our Price: $9.99
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Thinking Skills & Key Concepts Thinking Skills & Key Concepts (First Grade)

Grade: 1
Pages: 272

This book uses powerful lessons to develop thinking skills important to academic success while teaching the key kindergarten common core concepts. Enhance cognitive development through discussion and observation. Students develop analytical skills as well as deductive and inferential reasoning skills as they work through the exercises.

Our Price: $21.99
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Building Thinking Skills Level 1 Building Thinking Skills Level 1

Grade(s): 2-3
Pages: 370

Building Thinking Skills®
teaches non-verbal and verbal reasoning. These skills are rarely explictly taught in the classroom but are essential for academic excellence and success on any assessment test. In print for over 30 years this is a world-wide top seller. Also available in software - a game like presentation of the same exercises.

Our Price: $29.99
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Thinking Skills & Key Concepts Thinking Skills & Key Concepts (Second Grade)

Grade: 2
Pages: 160, color

This book uses powerful lessons to develop thinking skills important to academic success while teaching the key kindergarten common core concepts. Enhance cognitive development through discussion and observation. Students develop analytical skills as well as deductive and inferential reasoning skills as they work through the exercises.

Our Price: $21.99
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Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 2 Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 2

Help second grade students master Common Core skills such as understanding point of view, forming contractions and possessives, counting by 5s, and more with Common Core Language Arts and Math for Grade 2. Includes explicit references to the standards on each practice page that will let parents know that activities provide direct support for skills being taught at school.

Our Price: $9.99
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Summer Splash Learning Activities Grades 2-3 Summer Splash Learning Activities Grades 2-3

Summer Splash Learning Activities will keep your child mentally active and learning all summer long. The self-motivating, hands-on-activities in this book will review topics your child learned in second grade and prepare him or her with the skills necessary to leap into the third grade!

Our Price: $4.99
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Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 3 Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 3

Help third grade students master Common Core skills such as using prefixes and suffixes, determining the main idea of a text, understanding multiplication, and more with Common Core Language Arts and Math Spectrum for Grade 3. Includes explicit references to the standards on each practice page that will let parents know that activities provide direct support for skills being taught at school.

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Summer Splash Learning Activities Grades3-4 Summer Splash Learning Activities Grades 3-4

Summer Splash Learning Activities will keep your child mentally active and learning all summer long. The self-motivating, hands-on-activities in this book will review topics your child learned in third grade and prepare him or her with the skills necessary to leap into the fourth grade!

Our Price: $4.99
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Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 4 Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 4

Help fourth grade students master Common Core skills such as determining a story’s theme, using prepositional phrases, understanding fractions, and more with Common Core Language Arts and Math for Grade 4. Includes explicit references to the standards on each practice page that will let parents know that activities provide direct support for skills being taught at school.

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Summer Splash Learning Activities Grades 4-5 Summer Splash Learning Activities Grades 4-5

Summer Splash Learning Activities will keep your child mentally active and learning all summer long. The self-motivating, hands-on-activities in this book will review topics your child learned in fourth grade and prepare him or her with the skills necessary to leap into the fifth grade!

Our Price: $4.99
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Summer Splash Learning Activities Grades 5-6 Summer Splash Learning Activities Grades 5-6

Summer Splash Learning Activities will keep your child mentally active and learning all summer long. The self-motivating, hands-on-activities in this book will review topics your child learned in fifth grade and prepare him or her with the skills necessary to leap into the sixth grade!

Our Price: $4.99
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Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 5 Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 5

Help fifth grade students master Common Core skills such as making inferences, using verb tenses, rounding decimal numbers, and more with Common Core Language Arts and Math for Grade 5. Includes explicit references to the standards on each practice page that will let parents know that activities provide direct support for skills being taught at school.

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Quotes To Spark Discussion Quotes To Spark Discussion

Grade(s): 5-9
Activities: 55
Pages: 64

Ignite interaction and discussion with intriguing quotes! The 55 quotes in this book are specifically chosen to instigate dialogue on interesting ideas and possibilities.

Our Price: $12.99
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Summer Activities for the Gifted Student going into Grade 5 Summer Activities for the Gifted Student going into Grade 5

Grade: entering 5
Pages: 191

Thought-provoking exercises designed to challenge your advanced learner during the vacation months helping your child to transition seamlessly from one grade to the next.

Our Price: $8.95
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Use It! Don't Lose It! Language Arts 6 Use It! Don't Lose It! Language Arts 6

Grade(s): 6
Activities: 55
Pages: 180

Five practice problems a day, every day for 36 weeks are set up in a spiraling scope and sequence. Students practice each skill at regular intervals and every time a skill shows up, it has a new context requiring students to dig into their memories, recall what they know, and apply it to a new situation.A perfect book for keeping skills intact over summer or supplementing a bored child during the school year.

Our Price: $14.99
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Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 6 Common Core Language Arts and Math Grade 6

Help sixth grade students master Common Core skills such as using maps and other graphics, understanding pronouns, finding percentages, and more with Common Core Language Arts and Math for Grade 6. Includes explicit references to the standards on each practice page that will let parents know that activities provide direct support for skills being taught at school.

Our Price: $9.99
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Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Figural Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Figural

Grade(s): 7-12+
Activities: 259
Pages: 280

Building Thinking Skills® provides highly effective nonverbal reasoning activities to improve vocabulary, reading, writing, math, logic, and figural-spatial skills, as well as visual and auditory processing. This exceptional skill set provides a solid foundation for academic excellence and success on any assessment test.

Our Price: $29.99
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Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Verbal Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Verbal

Grade(s): 7-12+
Activities: 350
Pages: 384

Building Thinking Skills® provides highly effective verbal reasoning activities to improve vocabulary, reading, writing, math, logic, and figural-spatial skills, as well as visual and auditory processing. This exceptional skill set provides a solid foundation for academic excellence and success on any assessment test.

Our Price: $29.99
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