Busy Summer

Summer is getting to be a little busier than I planned, but I seem helpless to slow it down.

The second week of June, we spent in Edisto Beach, SC, which is not a real touristy beach and I felt that we were just enjoying each other and the down time. Samuel and Chris loved playing in the waves together and finding shells to bring home. It was great that they got to spend so much time together every day. I did not bring Samuel's workbooks with us. We read together as a family each night and Samuel had a book he had brought to read for fun and finished a few chapters.

When we got back, it was to an e-mail from school that we were to pick up a Math workbook for the students to finish during the summer and turn in to their teachers. So, now we have Math every day, cursive 3 times a week, and a summer reading list to work on (complete with "book reports" - one page that is half filled with a drawing). All this to turn into the teacher at the beginning of the school year.

I am actually fine with this in theory, but I had planned on doing my own math and writing reviews with him in a more fun/less workbook-y way.

Then he has friends wanting play dates, swim lesson once a week, our family volunteer commitment once a week. VBS one week, zoo camp one week, fun day camp one week. I am working about 5 hours a day Monday through Thursday, and I am starting to feel like that old commercial "Calgon take me away!"

I really didn't realize I was "overprogramming" but that is exactly what happened. I have to find a way to slow things down, at least for Samuel, so that summer can be a more relaxed, fun time for him.

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.

Crayon Logic

One of my favorite things about the internet is that you can find such great ideas from ordinary people just like you. Not like me, though. I am a great collector and user of other people's ideas :-)

One of these great ideas is using ordinary crayons in logic puzzles. I have seen wonderful logic books, mainly from Critical Thinking, but they are very expensive, and well, it's still a workbook. My child looks at all things workbook with suspicion. But I have great luck in using games to teach. And this looks suspiciously like a game to me, and for a very reasonable price.

I just purchased the Level 1 logic set. I plan to use it on summer days that are too hot or too rainy to be outside. I'll let you know in a future post how much I like it.

Check it out at Ginger snap shots.

Summer Reading

Samuel is participating in four summer reading programs.

The first one is for school. He is to read books from the list in this post (although I don't think he has to read them all) and complete this book report form for each book read. I like it because it gives a little bit of writing practice, but let's him be creative by drawing his favorite part of the book.So far, he has read "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", "Morris Goes to School", "Frog and Toad Together" and "Each Peach Pear Plum". The Morris and Frog books are chapter books and he would read one chapter per day, which is why the list is pretty short. Plus the fact that he is also reading other books for other lists.

The second one is from Barnes and Noble. After reading and recording eight books on a reading log, he gets a free book from a list that you can see on the website.

The third one is from the public library - ten books read (including those read to you if you are a beginning reader) gets a little backpack filled with coupons for things like a free frosty at Wendy's or admission to the art museum.

The last one is from our church. This is the first year for this so I don't know what the prizes are. The goal is to read (or have read to you if you are a beginning reader) 25 books by the end of the summer. For each 5 books read, you get a prize. Each reading log has space for 15 books. For each reading log completely filled and turned in, you get a chance for the "big prize" drawing at the end of the summer. I don't know what the big prize is, probably a bible. The only rule is that you have to include at least 5 bible stories on your list. I have started asking Samuel to read stories from "The Beginner's Bible" at bedtime, but I haven't put any of these on the list. I think they should count, though, don't you?

Summer Planning

I have just begun thinking about summer. It might have something to do with the fact that we have had several below freezing days in a row and snow two days in a row. I know my friends to the North are saying, "that's nothing", but to us in the Ohio Valley of KY, it's something.

So, on to to summer...

The obvious start is reading and read-alouds. This will continue as part of bedtime, as usual. Nothing to plan other than to make sure I have some good books in my running list that I can check out from the library. I will include some biographies and historical literature in this category.

My idea from there is to have each day be a specific "camp" day. So far I have

Art Camp

• Watercolor Tutorials from Hearts and Trees (scroll down to the links on the sidebar) - currently she has 8 lessons
• Usborne's I Can Draw Animals - I'm on the waiting list to check this out of the library. If I like it, I'll buy it.
• I also may purchase the Clouds Art Show pdf, also from Hearts and Trees
• Field trip(s) to the KY Museum of Arts and Crafts and the Speed Art Museum

Cooking Camp
Kids Cooking Lessons from Kids Cooking Activities, possibly finishing with a end of summer Pizza Cooking party with a few friends. There are 13 lessons and I may combine the Assistant Chef and the Chef in Training program because he already has kitchen experience.

Science/Nature Camp

• Walks at local parks, exploring some we haven't been to before
• easy science experiments from a kit he received for his last birthday and this website
• Field trips to the Science Museum

And that's as far as I've gotten. I know I don't want to forget math, but we use math almost day, and I know that his skills are already at first grade level, except perhaps with money and time. However, having never used a formal program before, I don't know how to come up with "math camp" ideas.

My other thought is to have a whole week devoted to each subject on a rotating basis so he would have a whole art camp week, capped off by a field trip to a museum on Friday and then we wouldn't do it again untit it came up in the rotation again. However, I'm leaning more toward each "subject" being a day of the week.

But this is just my preliminary thoughts, so I'll be searching and looking for ideas all the way up to June, which is when we will start our summer, probably with a vacation.