Monday, June 6, 2016

Summer Homeschool Schedule

This time of year, the internet abounds with bloggers posting about the summer plans.  Heck, we even made our own Summer Bucket List!  However, since I'm a full time mommy and full time teacher, school year evenings usually consist of making and cleaning up from dinner, lots of grading, errands and chores.  Xander didn't learn a thing in preschool (well actually, he learned some incorrect "science," but that's another story), so instead of winding down for the summer, we are excited to start up his summer school!

Balancing Choices
 The biggest challenge for me was to find a list of school activities that was manageable.  I tend to get a bit overzealous and bite off more than either of us can chew, so the goal was to do something that we could do most days this summer.  I decided on 4 things that needed to be done daily, with an option of 2+ additional things to be rotated.  I made these check-off sheets and laminated them, so that he can keep track of what he has done.  We'll keep a tally on the one for the weekly list, to make sure we are rotating.

 Daily Work
  • Christian Light Publications Math - Level 2 (~10 min)
    • Since these are simple, self paced workbooks, I'm hoping we'll start them together this summer, and he can take them to kindergarten with him, since kindergarten math will be too easy
  • Read Primary Math 1A/1B with Mommy (~10 min)
    • We're going to read through these together to get more of the problem solving math skills
  • 30 min Non-Fiction Reading of Xander's choice
    • We have oodles of books that he loves to peruse.  Everything from books about specific animals to How Things Work books.
  • 30 min Any Reading of Xander's choice 
    • To be honest, Xander would have probably done this and the nonfiction reading on his own anyway.
  • Pick at least 2 other learning activities listed below (most take 5-20 min)

2-3 Times per Week
He gets to pick which ones of these he wants to do when, but I'll have him cross them off the list, so that he gets some variety during the week.
   
Earning Money
Last summer I wrote about "Hiring" My 4 Year Old.  I still want to teach him about earning and saving money, but I don't want to pay him for helping out around the house.  I feel like that is just being a helpful member of the family.  Therefore, I pay him for his school work.  We had been on a sticker system for my school year, but now that we're on summer and more work is expected, I needed to change the system.  He's going to get a dollar a day for every day that he completes all 6 activities.  He can also earn a bonus dollar if he completes at least 25 learning activities on the weekly work page.  However, I don't want him doing more than 5 of any one category to count (otherwise he'd do nothing but iPad games, learning videos and keyboarding).  



I hung his lists next to his desk (on the side of my desk)
Our IKEA bins have been re-purposed yet again to hold his worksheets/workbooks.



Friday, June 3, 2016

Summer Bucket List

Finally!  School is out, the freedom of summer is here!  Since last summer was spent fixing up the new house, I decided that I want to squeeze every ounce of fun time with Xander I can out of this summer.  So what did I do?  Made a list of course!

Xander actually helped me quite a bit.  We had fun brainstorming what types of things would be special enough to go onto our bucket list, and what things were more everyday type things.  We also made sure to leave space to add new things we think of.

Some of the Summer Bucket List
Picnic in the park
Learn to ride a bike
Go to the zoo
Decorate T-Shirts
Go on a hike
Go bowling
Go on a picture walk (giving him an old digital camera)
Pajama day
Fix ALL the Legos
Decorate cupcakes
Sprinkler party
Go to Chicago to visit friends
Splash Park
Make Ice Cream
Movie and popcorn night


I'd love to hear what is on your list so that we can add to ours!

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