Summer School

Every year, since the twins (K & C) were in preschool, I have done summer school/ off-track school with my children.  Each year I will get a grade level workbook that covers all subjects and have them do about 4 pages a day in addition to reading. 

This year will be no different.  They are on a traditional school schedule and school was let out on Friday.   I have made summer chore charts using one of my favorite websites (http://www.dltk-kids.com/).

The twins', who just finished 5th grade, summer chores are:

30 minutes of reading
Math page
Handwriting
Times tables
Clean up

My daughter has been dying to read The Hunger Games as apparently all of her friends have read the series and have told her how great it is.  After talking it over with my husband (we both have read the books) I reluctantly agreed.  We shall see what her impression is and if she can really understand all the nuances of the books.

My son is going to continue reading The Warriors series, he's almost done with the first book and we'll be getting him the second book today.  He has loved the first book and gives me an update of what is happening each day he reads (I've never read the books, so some of the information is lost on me)



I have chosen to focus primarily on math this summer for them as they have both struggled over the past two years (they must be my children!).   I found dedicated math work books for their grade level at Staples.  I had no idea they would have anything like that and I just happened upon them while we were there shopping for something else.

Handwriting is a more general description.  My son has horrible handwriting (and this is not an over statement), it really resembles preschool handwriting in many ways.  He still struggles with squishing letters together in a word, and making spaces between words.  He, also, struggles with cursive.  I know most of his problem is being willing to take the time to make it nice.  Hopefully, by the end of summer he will have made some improvements.  He loves to draw and has talked about taking art lessons, I told that if he improves his handwriting he will improve his drawing.  I'm hoping that will give him some incentive.

Handwriting for my daughter is fine, so her handwriting chore will be more on the creative side.  I bought writing journals that they use in school and this will be where she will write her stories.  I have found story starters that will give her something to start with.  I plan on all three of my children using the journals for creative writing.  

Times tables is another area that my son struggles but my daughter has mastered.  As I figured it won't hurt her to review them and because I didn't want my son to feel bad that he had more work than his sister, I put it on both lists.  This will be simple drills with flash cards, starting with 1 and adding the next set as the first one is mastered.

The clean up chore is just that.  I will pick one area of the house that we will all work on each day.

My daughter (M),who has just finished 1st grade, has a somewhat different summer chore list:

10 minutes of reading
Math page
Handwriting
Workbook page
Clean up

The school that my children go to use the guided reading levels to level the children.  She is on a level I.  I was able to find what books are on this level by looking up the teacher book wizard on http://www.scholastic.com/.  I would recommend this site to anyone that wants to make sure the books their children are reading are on level for them.  You can pick between guided reading levels, lexile levels, and  DRA levels when you do your search.  It has been such a useful tool over the years!

She will also do a math page, and work on her handwriting.  But she differs from the twins in that she will be doing workbook pages out of her Comprehensive Curriculum work book.
                                                 


I have found a great website to help me with extra worksheets and activities. http://www.education.com/ will be my go-to website this summer.

I plan on only spending about 2 hours each morning doing school and then the rest of the day will be theirs to do whatever they choose.  I have found doing a little bit of school each day also helps with the boredom they suffer as summer wanes on.

Here's hoping for a great, successful summer!