I’m wary of the summer learning slide that inevitably occurs a little, and realized today that Travis needed some brushing up on rhyming words. What better way to engage him in summer learning than by turning it into a scavenger hunt?

I had to set this up the night before because the clues were scattered all over the apartment. You’ll need to plan carefully, using words that rhyme with easy-to-spot items in your house. As your child arrives at each new item, the next flash card will await them.

You can draw all your words on index cards, but I took a shortcut and used picture flashcards from a school workbook, given my limited drawing skills! So when Travis came down in the morning, there a picture of a fish was waiting at the foot of the stairs. He immediately wanted to know what it was for.

“What rhymes with fish?” I asked. He wracked his brain, and when he spotted a dish on the kitchen table, he made the connection.

Inside the dish was the next card, a picture of a duck. Duck and… truck! (Note: I made this easier by having the truck within sight on the highchair tray. You can make it more of a challenge for older kids, but given all the rhyming options for each word, I knew visibility would act as a prompt for my six-year-old).

The truck was atop a picture of a nest. Now Travis was getting the idea, because there was a suspicious vest lying on the couch in the middle of summer. A clue! Jar led to car…

…and a toy car was on top of an image of a queen.

This one was tough for him, so I guided him through several rhyming options until he got to…

…Green! Now there was a sock. Rock! And outside on the patio, under a few painted garden rocks, was a packet of new bubble gum.

You can make the prize big or small, anything at all that will delight your child and reward this summer learning game.