It’s National Summer Learning Week!
Governor Josh Stein has proclaimed July 6–10, 2026, as Summer Learning Week in North Carolina, joining communities across the country in celebrating the importance of keeping children learning, growing, and engaged throughout the summer months.
Led nationally by the National Summer Learning Association, Summer Learning Week highlights the many ways young people can learn and thrive beyond the classroom. This year’s themes include Literacy & Learning, Internships & Career, Arts & Sports, STEM, and Community & Leadership.
For families, educators, summer program leaders, and community organizations across North Carolina, this week is also an opportunity to recognize a simple but important truth: Summer is full of opportunities to learn.
Why Summer Learning Matters
Summer may be a break from the classroom, but children continue learning wherever they go and whatever they do.
Reading together, visiting the library, exploring outdoors, cooking a meal, playing games, singing songs, attending a summer program, or simply having conversations about the world around them can help children continue building important skills.
Summer learning opportunities can also help children maintain academic skills and return to school ready to learn. Yet access to structured summer programs is not available to every family. A 2024 Gallup survey found that nearly half of U.S. children lacked access to summer learning programs, with cost among the major barriers.
That makes the resources, activities, and support provided by families, schools, libraries, summer programs, and community organizations especially important.
Leap into Summer Learning with NCECF’s Free Toolkit
The North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation invites educators, summer program leaders, and community partners to put National Summer Learning Week into action with our free Summer Learning Toolkit: Leap into Summer Learning.
Created with input from parents, providers, and community partners, the toolkit provides practical, customizable resources organizations can use to promote meaningful summer learning and help families keep children engaged, curious, and learning throughout the summer.
The toolkit includes:
- A Summer Action Plan and customizable template to help organizations map out 12 weeks of summer programming.
- A staff presentation and talking points explaining why summer learning matters and how providers can support literacy and development.
- Ready-to-use newsletter articles, weekly social media posts, and text messages to share activities and information with families.
- English- and Spanish-language resources families can use to continue learning at home.
- Digital resources, including a Linktree and QR code, that make information easy for families to access.
- Printable materials, including stickers, a summer reading challenge, and activity resources.
- A customizable proclamation that local elected officials, school leaders, and other community leaders can use to officially recognize Summer Learning Week.
Whether you’re running a summer camp, library initiative, child care program, family engagement effort, or community organization, the toolkit is designed to be flexible and easy to use.
Download the resources, customize them for your community, share them with families, and help make summer a season of learning and discovery.
Readers Are Built Everywhere — Including During the Summer
National Summer Learning Week also reinforces the message at the heart of NCECF’s Readers Are Built campaign: Readers are built everywhere.
Strong readers aren’t built only in classrooms – or only by reading books.
They’re built through everyday experiences that help children develop language, vocabulary, comprehension, curiosity, and confidence.
Throughout the summer, families can help build young readers by talking during car rides, singing favorite songs, playing games, exploring new places, reading together, and choosing high-quality digital activities that turn screen time into learning time.
Readers Are Built encourages families and caregivers to use five simple activities — Read, Talk, Sing, Play, and Screen Time – to make literacy development part of everyday life.
Summer offers countless opportunities to put those ideas into action. A trip to an outdoor market can become a vocabulary game. Cooking together can introduce new words, numbers, and sequencing skills. A walk on the beach can spark questions and conversations. Singing, storytelling, imaginative play, and shared screen experiences can all help children build the skills that support later reading success.
Because when children are learning, exploring, talking, playing, and connecting with the adults around them, readers are being built.
A Statewide Commitment to Children and Families
NCECF developed the Summer Learning Toolkit in collaboration with North Carolina’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading communities as part of our broader work to ensure children across the state have the support they need to thrive from birth through third grade.
Since 2015, NCECF has led North Carolina’s participation in the nationwide Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, working alongside families, communities, and partners to help more children succeed in school and beyond.
The Summer Learning Toolkit and Readers Are Built campaign are two ways we are helping families and communities turn knowledge into action by providing practical resources that support children’s learning and development.
And summer learning isn’t only about reading. Children can strengthen math skills, explore science, express their creativity, build relationships, and discover new interests throughout the summer.
This National Summer Learning Week, we encourage families, educators, community organizations, and local leaders across North Carolina to celebrate the many ways children learn—and help make those opportunities available to more children.
Let’s make this a summer full of growth, discovery, learning, and plenty of reasons to leap for joy.
Download the Summer Learning Toolkit: Leap into Summer Learning and discover more ways to keep children learning all summer long.
Visit Readers Are Built for simple ideas and free resources to help families build young readers through everyday moments.