Thursday, May 24, 2007

Summer Plans

I need to keep up with school this summer. While I love the lazy days of swimming, picnics, and having to be nowhere, I also know that we need to continue with some sort of learning routine.

I was thinking of doing an "outing" every week or two, and prior to visiting, we would learn about the destination. I know some of you are thinking "good luck", but my kids thrive on some sort of routine. I also want, and really need, to keep up with reading and most importantly, math.

I need to come up with a way to motivate. It's hard to compete with the swimming pool and play station, especially when you are armed with addition and subtraction flash cards.

How do you keep up with things during the summer? I'd love to know . . . .

4 comments:

Owlhaven said...

We have multiplication games the kids can do on the computer, and I ask them to read BEFORE they can play video games. Half an hour of reading earns half an hour of video games. They can earn up to an hour of video games in a day.

Mrs. Darling said...

Oh my thats a hard question. I homeschool through the summer too. Last year when we went on our lakehouse vacation the middle of July I never truly got back to it after we got home. This year we go for a week to the lake again and I'm taking some school stuff along so the kids don't get out of the habit.

Tink needs a schedule. Is left to her own devices all day she just gets into trouble. The problem around here is that the doorbell rings all day long when the neighbor kids are home. I find summer schooling works best when we just do about an hour of reading and Math. I cut out all the extras like literature, history, science and art.

An hour of Reading and Math is very doable. We do it before the rest of the neighbor kids are out of bed. Tink usually has some worksheets to do after the hour of schooling so that takes more of her time. She continues with violin and swimming and that too helps to add structure. In June we have a week of Bible School for three hours every morning so I count that as school for her.

I would say the best thing to do is make sure you get the schooling done in the morning so it doesnt interfere with park days and other summer fun. And definitely dont do a full load. Ive tried and it just doesnt work.

Hope this helps a little. Its just plain hard on every level to school through the summer but for some of us it has to be done.

ccw said...

The library is how I keep up with reading. They offer a summer reading program that rewards reading time/books with small prizes. After so many hours/books, they get to pick a free book. I "require" 30 minutes a day but usually more is done.

As for the rest of the work, I buy the Summer Bridge Activities workbook. It paces at a page a day with rewards (chosen by the child) after so many days of work. The degree of difficulty varies with each page and at a page a day it is easy to keep up. Plus, these books come with flash cards and other materials in the back of the book.

Becky said...

I bought a Summer Bridge book for Hannah, and I will get preschool books for my other two girls (it will not be hard to motivate them - they always want to do what big sis is doing!). We will participate in the summer reading programs at our library and at Barnes and Noble, and Hannah's rewards for reading a certain number of books is Jibbitz for her Crocs! :) My homeschooling friend and I are going to do a unit on Little House on the Prairie for our five children (2 in 2nd grade, 1 in Kindergarten and 2 in preschool). There should be plenty of material there to keep all ages involved! (Plus, living in IL, lots of prairie-related field trips!)