Summer School Cart
What’s In My Summer School Cart: Keeping Learning Fun, Colorful, and Organized!
Hey friends! 🌞
I wanted to share a little peek into our summer school cart—because YES, we’re that family that keeps learning going all summer long (but makes it fun, promise!). If you’re juggling preschoolers, toddlers, and kindergarten prep like I am, I hope this gives you a few fresh ideas to keep little hands busy and growing minds engaged. 💕
🎨 Mini Colored Pencils
First up—my favorite item in the cart: mini colored pencils. These are a game changer! They come with their own adorable little holder and a built-in sharpener on top (why don’t all pencils come this way?!). Everything stays neat, clean, and ready to go. We use these daily for our workbooks—perfect for tiny hands.
🖊️ Supply Container of Essentials
I keep a little container filled with jelly roll pens, beginner pencils, and our go-to beginner pencil grip. It’s all about making writing feel doable for little fingers just starting out.
🔤 Tactile Cards from Lakeshore Learning
These came highly recommended by a teacher at the Lakeshore Learning Store and they’ve been amazing for our mini group time. My five-year-old and two-year-old both love them. Each card has a capital and lowercase letter—we talk about the letter of the day, trace the letter with our fingers, talk about the sound it makes, and come up with words like “A is for apple.” Simple, fun, and effective!
If you have a Lakeshore Learning Store near you they should have these available. If not, here is an Amazon Link.
📚 Bob Books + Beginner Readers
If you’re starting your reading journey, Bob Books are a must. My daughter is a beginning reader, and we’ve been keeping up with practice using these. If you’re just getting started, Amazon has a great selection of beginner reading books and alphabet books. These are perfect for building confidence little by little.
➗ Math Workbook + Writing Notebook
We’ve also got a pre-K/kindergarten math workbook to help her practice numbers over the summer. And of course, a plain white wide-ruled notebook for writing her first and last name, new words, and practicing sentences.
🌉 Summer Bridge Workbook
This book came recommended by our daughter’s soon-to-be kindergarten teacher—and we love it! We do a page (or five 😅) every day. It even comes with a sticker chart and an award at the end, which is so motivating. Highly recommend if you’re prepping for kindergarten. Here is the link for the Summer Bridge Workbook.
🎨 Dot Art Galore!
Both my kiddos love the dot art supplies. We have dot markers and a bunch of dot-themed workbooks. My daughter uses the sight words workbook, while my son just loves dotting everything in sight (including the table, but we won’t talk about that 😅). We grabbed ours from Lakeshore, but I’ll link a few from Amazon too!
Vehicles Dot Art Workbook Link
Unicorns Dot Art Workbook Link
🚗 Disney Cars Dry Erase Workbook
For my two-and-a-half-year-old, this dry erase workbook is gold. He’s not quite on letters yet, but he loves tracing the lines and doing the activities. Great for pre-writing and fine motor skills!
🔐 Montessori Lock & Key Games + Lovevery Activities
We added a Montessori-style game from Lovevery (linked!) and some fun key locks from Lakeshore. These are great for fine motor practice and beginning reading. My son can’t read yet, but he’s obsessed with unlocking everything—which is half the fun!
🧮 Lovevery Counting Game
This one’s hard to see in the video I posted on Instagram, but it’s a lovely hands-on counting activity. If you haven’t looked into Lovevery’s subscriptions, I highly recommend them. I’ll do a full post on this soon because they’re just so thoughtfully made.
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I hope this little breakdown helps you set up your own summer learning station! Whether you’re homeschooling year-round or just trying to keep the school cobwebs away until fall, having everything in one cart has made our days feel more structured (and more fun!).
Let me know what’s in your summer school cart! Happy learning, mamas! 💕📚✏️
