Jingling Our Way Through Summer School

In the summer, I put together a little box of daily “summer school” work that each child has to complete before any sort of ipod Touch-ing, DSi-ing, Wii-ing or TV-ing can ensue. Actually, they only have to do Summer School M-W-F mornings and on Tuesday and Thursday, we have free days to do whatever they choose.

I know, I'm cruel and horrible and as my son says daily "you're mean".

I do this so my children don't lose any of the information they have learned during the school year.  I don't want my children forgetting everything they've learned!

Thus far we are three weeks into Summer School at home and we have been to the city once each week as an extra curricular activity to visit the Planetarium and the Aquarium. We've hatched chicks, we've gone swimming. The girls have horse riding lessons and horse camp (next month) and gymnastics. My son has fencing and Robotics Camp and golf lessons next month. We are busy!

We are busy learning and having fun!

This year I purchased summer curriculum books for each child that has daily assignments that cover math and reading and some spelling for my daughter. It is pretty simple stuff which is all review for them so they can do it independently (most of the time).

Here is what I am using:

For my son going into 4th grade

  1. Summer Bridge Activities from Rainbow Bridge Publishing – each day has two pages of activities that cover all subjects.  This is VERY easy for my son and he is already bored with it. 

  2. Reading For the Gifted Student from Flash Kids - I assign five pages on the days we do school.

  3. Math For the Gifted Student from Flash Kids - (again) I assign five pages on the days we do school.

  4. Geometry & Measurement from Kumon - I assign 2-4 pages  a week. I simply show my son and example and he is able to work his way through the worksheets. He usually asks for extra sheets from this book.

  5. Shurley English from Shurley English - this I teach to him, it is simply review at this point to keep his grammar skills sharp over the summer.

  6. Math Perplexors from MindWare products – Each page is a separate mind bending puzzle with a simple form to help them figure it out. This is something we do randomly.

  7. summer reading - my son is allowed to read whatever he chooses(not really whatever he chooses because of the content, but he reads at a high school level so it is sometimes hard to find appropriate books for him) , but he had to read one hour a day. Sometimes I let it slide and he only has to read 30 minutes. Right now he is currently reading book 6 of the Harry Potter series(he is completely bored with this series and I have to find him something new to read)

  8. journal writing - each evening after dinner he must write about his day. I don't care what he writes, how sloppy it is, just as long as he writes something.

For my daughter going into 2nd grade:

  1. Growing With Grammar - we are finishing up this workbook from our regular school year

  2. Daily Reading Comprehension from Evan-Moor - (we are finishing up this workbook from our regular school year and will not use this again next fall) - reading strategies and skills needed to improve comprehension and raise test scores

  3. Daily Language Review from Evan-Moor- covering grammar, punctuation, usage, and sentence editing skills (we are finishing this workbook up. I like this as supplemental and will use this for the school year in the fall)

  4. Building Spelling from Evan-Moor -grade level spelling (we are finsihing this workbook up, I will not be using this workbook again)

  5. Beginning Arithmetic from Rod & Staff - black-and-white, straightforward, no-nonsense, traditional mathematics with an emphasis on drill and memorization as well as practical application through word problems.

  6. journal writing - daily writing after dinner about her day

  7. summer reading list - I simply choose books at her lexile level.

For my little one who is just 5, she will be attending Kindergarten in the Fall, but LOVES to do homework at home with her siblings.

  1. Numbers 0-20 from Home Workbooks - Skills cover number and number word recognition, counting, fine motor, and more

  2. Preschool & Kindergarten Skills from Home Workbooks - Skills cover classifying, letter recognition, basic sight word recognition, number sense, and much more

  3. Set of 6 ABC Series & 3 GHI Series from Rod & Staff -  Six workbooks (the add'l 3 extend the ABC's) give practice in coloring, cutting, pasting, and following directions while learning neatness and carefulness with books. 

  4. Kumon Flashcards from Kumon

  5. Brand New Readers from Candlewick Press - we are working through these books, basically memorization at this point.

I know this may seem like quite a lot of work for my children during the summer months. However, they are used to it, they don't know anything different because I have always had school over the summer months. This summer is actually less than normal. We pulled out of Kumon for the summer (they all wanted a break and my bank account thanks me). I used to take each child to a private tutor once a week and she would assign additional work on top of what I supplemented at home. I am not using the private tutor this summer either.

What is noted above is allthe school work my children are doing. Which is basically a pretty easy summer for them. Also, even though the lists are long, my children are done with everything I assign in two hours and it's only three days a week. We then have the rest of the day to play and "learn" other things.