Last Day of "Away" School

...equals first day of summer home school! We do some after-schooling during the school year, but summer is so much more fun. Samuel loves school and learning, and is actually excited that he has some summer assignments.

In addition to the summer reading list where he has to turn in simple book reports (consisting of the title, author, sentence about the book, and a drawing) at the beginning of the school year, this year, he also has a summer cursive practice book with 3 assignments per week scheduled. Each page has 2 exercises, out of

1. practicing a particular letter,
2. copying a verse, quote, or grammar rule, and
3. listing certain things (like nouns that have a "b" in them, for example, or names of 4 of your friends).

His teacher also sent home a "bored bag" filled with little strips of paper with something to do written on each one. They can simply reach in, pull out a strip of paper, and follow the instruction. I'm planning to get him a special notebook to record the ones he chooses. Here are some of them:

1. Begin at 34. Count as far as you can by 10's.
2. Write words belonging to the _ig family. Read your list to someone. Write a story with those words.
3. Write the vowels on a sheet of paper. Think of three words for each vowel sound.
4. Go outside. Find out which direction is North, South, East, and West. Write what you see when you face each direction. Illustrate.
5. Cut pictures of foods. Make 5 categories: Dairy Products, Meats, Furits & Vegetables, Breads & Cereals, and JUNK. Arrange the picutres in the right category.
6. Plant something outside or help take care of a garden.
7. Write all the number facts you can think of that have 12 as the answer. (they did not do these facts in the first grade)
8. Use only the letters in your name to make as many new words as you can.
9. Find an object in your house that begins with each letter of the alphabet.
10. Fill the sink with water. Put a towel down on the floor. Gather objects that can get wet. Predict which ones will sink and which will float. Test your predictions.

And there are many many more. If I get any comments asking for more of these, I'll write them in another post.

For my part, I plan to

1. Have him read for 20 minutes every day and write his book report on finishing a book.
2. Do his cursive book 3 times per week.
3. Choose from the bored bag 3 - 5 things per week.
4. He will have swimming class once per week and 1-2 hours 2-3 times per week in the neighborhood pool.
5. Read alouds according to interest. Right now we are reading from the Burgess Animal Book. We recently tried Twenty-one Balloons, but he wasn't ready for it, which disappointed me since I was really enjoying it. I have a list I work from, but only continue to read a particular book if he's interested. If he's not interested, that book gets moved to the bottom of the list. Usually by the time it comes around again, he's ready for it.
6. We're going to learn to sing "In the Garden" for my father for his birthday in September, since that's his favorite hymn (he calls it "Andy Walks With Me").
7. We'll continue to work on the States Song (Turkey in the Straw tune) and the Bible Book Bop (a Go Fish song), both of which we currently get lost in the middle :-)
8. Playing Yahtzee is a great way for practicing addition, including regrouping and carrying (when we add up the final points), with some minor introduction to multiplication. We just started a new game tonight and it went so well, I told him we could play every night.
9. We will continue our weekly service committment helping in a local collection ministry (they collect and sort donated items to send to area ministries, sometimes having a "drive" to meet a specific need).
10. Other learning opportunities as they come up. We are always on the look-out for these opportunities.