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.
- 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.
- All About Spelling 2
- He loves spelling, so we will keep making progress with it. We usually do half of one of their suggested lessons in a day (so review, a few of his trouble words, 5 new words with tiles, and a couple of written phrases).
- Read Non-Fiction book with mom
- While he is going to do a lot of nonfiction reading on his own, I also want him to read some science or social studies with me. That way we can discuss things and clear up any questions he has. I have several books on evolution, space, matter, etc. that I'd like to go through with him.
- Keyboarding without Tears
- This was $10 for a year and Xander LOVES it. He did the first three weeks of lessons in the first day. I figure typing is an important skill, especially since he doesn't like handwritng.
- Watch Learning Video
- These include Popular Mechanics for Kids, Magic School Bus, Liberty Kids, Mathtacular, Times Tales, Little Pim, Disney Imagineering, as Bill Nye and Signing Time from Netflix
- Logic
- We have a bunch of logic games like Cannibal Monsters, Rush Hour, Penguins on Ice, and Temple Trap. He's welcome to complete some challenges in
- We have Primary Logic Grades 2-3, although when we finish, I was thinking of getting Visual Discrimination
- For our workbooks, I photocopy the pages so he can redo them in the future, particularly the pages he finds difficult.
- Language Arts
- We will rotate between some analogy puzzles I picked up at a garage sale, and worksheets from Scholastic Success with Grammar Grade 1 and Scholastic Success with Reading Comprehension Grade 1
- Map Work
- A friend gave us a bunch of Highlights Which Way USA magazines and maps, which we'll use
- We also have Scholastic Success with Maps Grade 2, which we'll work our way through
- Practice Piano
- iPad Math Game
- Art Project
- These might be anything from painting to doing a craft kit.
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.
