Normally, August means the kids head back to school, with pool fun reserved for the weekends. But with many Arizona kids now attending school from home, there’s no reason they can’t find ways to enjoy the pool during the school day without distracting from schoolwork.

Here are some tips for keeping school at home cool by incorporating your pool.

1. PE in the Pool

Daily exercise is not only good for kids’ health, but also essential for letting them burn off energy so they can focus better on their schoolwork. Your pool is a built-in PE dream! From diving board games to races, pool play is the perfect way to break up the school day while keeping them moving.

2. School in the Pool

If you’re homeschooling young ones, there are so many fun ways you can use your pool to teach fundamental subjects such as math and spelling:

• Creating a pool noodle “abacus” for teaching addition and subtraction
• Toss plastic letters in the pool and have your children find the letters that spell out a word
• Teach fractions and measurements by using teaspoon, cup and gallon measurements
• Use frisbees and sponges to play this math toss game
• Teach buoyancy by having kids build a boat and place gradually heavier objects in it to see what floats and what doesn’t

3. Make Pool Time Reading Time

Have your child sit on a step in the pool and read their book or textbook out loud. This will both keep them cool and help make their reading assignment a lot more memorable.

4. School with a View

Eventually, our Arizona weather will cool off some from our record-setting heatwave. See if you can setup their workstation within view of the pool or even outside, so they can enjoy the sparkling blue water while in “class.” You can even experiment with making it part of a “class change” in their schedule—for example, when it’s time for history class, they go to their outdoor “classroom.” 

We know attending school from home is going to be an adjustment for everyone. Hopefully with these fun and easy tips, you can find ways to make the experience a little more fun for your kids (and for you, too!).