How to Turn Holiday Breaks into Playful Review Time for Kids Aged 6–12

When Vacations Bring Relief... and a Quiet Panic

For many parents, the school holidays come as both a sigh of relief and a growing concern. As routines relax and backpacks gather dust, there's that persistent question in the back of your mind: how do I keep my child from forgetting everything they’ve learned?

You’re not alone. Whether you have a 7-year-old daydreamer or a 10-year-old easily frustrated by math, most parents struggle with keeping learning alive during vacation. And no, worksheets and hour-long revision sessions aren’t the answer—especially if you’re hoping to avoid tears, whining, or your own burnout.

So, what’s the secret? Make play the path. Over the years, I've watched families rediscover learning not as a chore, but as shared joy. And holidays — free from rigid schedules — can be the perfect time to gently revisit lessons in engaging, non-pressure ways.

Start with What Lights Them Up

Before pulling out any materials, take a moment to observe: what excites your child during their free time? Dinosaurs? Building things? Making up funny stories? These are goldmines. Use their passions as springboards to weave in learning. If your child is obsessed with animals, create a pretend zoo game that includes math (counting cages, feeding schedules) or use animal-themed story prompts to practice writing and spelling.

As explored in this guide on igniting a love of learning through play, whenever a child feels emotionally connected to an interest, their brain opens up to absorb more. No flashcards required — just curiosity and creativity.

Let the Setting Do Some of the Work

Vacations often mean changes in environment — grandparents’ houses, road trips, nature walks. Each of these settings offers a fresh canvas for learning, if you know how to use it. Counting shells on the beach? That’s patterns and sorting. Reading signs during a road trip? Built-in reading practice. Measuring ingredients for cookies at auntie’s house? Fraction magic.

For auditory learners, even a long car ride can become a revision moment. Some parents I work with transform recorded lessons into short audio episodes — sometimes even turning their child into the hero of a story — so kids can learn without screens or textbooks. One dad recently told me how surprised he was when his reluctant 9-year-old started asking to “hear the next adventure with Ava the Astronaut” — a quick quiz-based recap cleverly embedded into a playful audio format using the Skuli app. By personalizing review moments like this, they become less about repetition and more about role-playing.

Gameify the Lessons—Differently This Time

Let’s be honest: most trivia-style learning games feel like sneaky tests. But what about role-playing as a journalist interviewing historical figures? Or creating a board game where the path to victory is paved with multiplication quests? You don’t need Pinterest-level DIY skills—just a willingness to be a bit silly, and involved.

One mother I know turned her daughter’s French vocabulary words into a game of "Master Chef International," where each word was an ingredient they had to pronounce correctly before "adding to the pot." Another family invented a card game based on geography terms, which started as a rainy-day project and turned into a hilarious sibling tradition.

If you’re unsure where to start, these tested tricks to make learning fun and stick offer a helpful springboard.

Capture What Matters, Skip What Doesn’t

Focus less on cramming content and more on helping your child connect with concepts they struggled with during the term. If your child blanked out on fractions or spelling words, pick just one to revisit through play each week of the break. Take a photo of the page they found rough and turn it into a quiz they can do with you at breakfast. By doing a little, and making it fun, you’re reinforcing without overwhelming.

And remember: if your child resists learning, it doesn’t mean they’re unmotivated—it means they haven’t yet found a way that speaks to them. Play isn’t just gentler on kids; it’s smarter for their growing brains.

Make It Feel Like a Game, Not Homework in Disguise

Let’s drop the disguise altogether. You don’t have to “trick” your child into learning. Instead, blur the line between play and review so completely that it never feels like school. Reading aloud becomes storytelling with voices. Math turns into building a pretend shop. Science is setting up a “potions lab” in the bathroom using food coloring and questions like “What happens when...?”

And yes, there are tools that help — some learning apps actually use game design principles in ways that feel joyful, not “educational.” But the most powerful tool is still your presence, your flexibility, and your curiosity about how your child learns best.

Let the Holidays Do What They’re Supposed To

If your child returns to school having laughed, rested, played, and re-engaged with a few tricky skills — albeit sideways — consider it a success. Learning doesn’t stop during vacations. It simply softens. It weaves itself into picnics and bedtime stories, into sidewalk chalk fractions and grocery store spelling games.

The next time you feel the urge to print out practice sheets over break, remember this instead: making review playful is not about shirking responsibility. It’s about trusting that joy, connection, and just a bit of creativity can often do more for your child than any workbook ever could.

Lean on your instincts. You're doing better than you think.