Yes, we do take "breaks" so it's not like we are hard core all.the.time. We are definitely year-round "schoolers" in this household. But in all seriousness, when we stop learning, we stop growing!
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Summer School Activities
SO! This is what our summer "school" will look like:
Math Journal/ Lollipop Logic Workbook/ Life of Fred: Cats
- I've been intrigued by the whole concept of Math Journals after reading a blog post at Royal Little Lambs. I loved the approach so much that I am incorporating it into our summer plans. I plan to share more on that later....
- Big News!! Well, I suppose it isn't official yet, BUT my heart strings have been pulled in the direction of using a 'boxed' curriculum for next year; the curriculum focuses on Early American History in Social Studies, so I thought we'd begin to lay the foundation of the States using this workbook. And yeah, I've been saying since last summer how I wanted to do a State Study and we just haven't been able to fit it in, plus I never took the time to put it together-- but alas, I found a company who did it all for me!! This is actually a year's worth of curriculum, so we may take it that slow.. or opt to do at least two states/ week. We'll see!!
- I found out about this company through another TOS Review Blogger, checked out the website and fell.in.love!! We will be doing Earth & Space, but there are many other science related subjects, as well as history, art, and more! It supports Classical, Charlotte Mason, & Montessori educational styles. I've purchased our Science Encyclopedia and we are almost set to start. I hope this open-ended type of activity sparks an interest in T. These cover quite a age range, K-8, so I understand that we won't delve into as much depth and research as your older child... nonetheless, I hope he enjoys it... and if so, I plan on looking into the Life Task Cards.
Read, Read, Read (him to me and me to him)!!! Although T has never been a big fan of Explode the Code, it is the phonics curriculum we have been using the past few years, & after Christmas I purchased Book 4 and it turned out to be a BIG change from the previous books! Smaller space to write and much more reading. And I kind of find it odd that instead of doing vowel combinations, Book 4 is about compound words and breaking words up by syllables--- I would much rather him work on those tricky vowel combos, so I think I have to go up a few books and then come back to the book we have down the road. Not sure if I'll purchase it over the summer or just hand tight until the Fall.....
- I haven't a clue what grade level he is reading at, though I am nosey and would like to know! As applicable, we'll be working on those tricky vowel combinations that we see pop up in our read-alouds and some more sight words. T has recently finished Owl at Home and is now reading through Mouse Soup (both are by Arnold Lobel). He grumbles at first, but then gets the hang of it and I am SO proud of him. Neither book is something he can read by himself; typically he needs help with three or more words on the page. But, sometimes I wonder if it is more of he actually doesn't know or just lack of confidence. We'll keep track of his reading so we can participate in the Barnes n' Noble summer reading program, too. I also have plans to laminate our Candy Land cards so that we can use a dry erase marker to switch up the game for whatever we are working on at the moment be it math work or phonics.