Planning school for the summer??

I know it is only April………why would you say I am planning school for the summer?!?!? To be prepared.

We are actually almost finished with this year’s school.  Well, we have a few more math pages left and then it will be time to do testing.  For the most part we are done with our “core” and are just finishing up little things.  It is starting to reach 80-90 degrees here in the Carolina’s —time for outside fun!

I would love for my children to do absolutely no school all summer, but I find that if I don’t have them do some structured stuff each day—the day turns into —too much tv, tablet, or computer time.  This starts to breed anger and self centeredness among them—never good when you have 7 at home!!

We ALL need to have a plan to do something otherwise we start getting lazy and start doing things we shouldn’t be doing—thus my reason for schooling through the summer.

This won’t be at all like we did throughout the year.  If my children worked diligently, they could technically be done within an hour or so after starting.

Here is what we are going to do:

We will continue on with our XtraMath online flash cards.  If you don’t know about this—it is wonderful.  It is a free program, you sign up and choose which math facts you want your children to master and then each day they go and work for about 5 minutes to complete them.  About once per week, I receive an email that gives me progress reports.  It lets me know which days they did it—so I can check:)  and how many they have mastered.  It will completely replace your physical flash cards or written math facts quizzes.

I then evaluated my children’s school for the year and have decided we are going to work on our penmanship and writing skills more this summer.  I get lapsed, I let them be sloppy and don’t always correct.  Thus the reason for focusing on that this summer. I copied from Ruth Beechicks book You can teach your child successfully Grades 4-8.  Her ideas for writing.  This is a great resource book, I have used this since I began homeschooling 15 years ago.

Basically you give your child a passage to copy at the beginning of the week.  They then go through and do different English lessons with that passage.  Basic, simple, but still engaging.  They may copy it again later that week.  I will require that it is copied neatly, perfectly, or it will be written again.  This will be for my 4-7 graders.

Download writing practice for 4-7 th grader

I will also have my 1st-2nd grader practice with the same type of work.  It is not as in depth, but it will help her practice doing cursive writing more.

Download cursive penmanship practice for 1-2nd grader

Before we start this, I will have them perfecting their cursive lettering.  I will use this sheet and let them practice before we embark on our summer writing.  I will probably use this over the next month, using one quote each week.  I will have them copy it, correct any changes, and then have them recopy it again to look exactly as the model.

Download cursive writing practice

Spelling…….we do spelling lists each week, but I am not overly concerned with spelling.  It will come naturally as they read more and write more.  I took Ruth Beechicks list of the words she recommends for grades to know.  Most of them my children already know how to write, so this will be an easy lesson each day.  I am going to take the number of words they have to learn and divide them by the number of weeks that we have school.  I will then require that they learn that many words each week.  After I quiz them, I will highlight them on the sheet to know they are done.  They can choose any that they would like for the week.  Easy, just another way to implement some basic word spelling.

Download Spelling Word Lists grades 4-8.

The first page is grades 4-6, the second page is 7-8.

I will then have them choose some  reading books.  I will require reading for AT LEAST a half hour each day.  Some of them will want to read more but I will set a minimum.

Easy school.  I also found another resource from Scholastic that had a great download for writing prompt ideas.  It is FREE and gives ideas for writing based on special happenings on that day throughout the summer.  I may use this too, if I find that I don’t have enough school for them.  Check it out.

I will continue to check out books from our local library and do reading with the younger children each day as well.

Hope this gives some help or ideas for what you can do this summer with your children.   Be blessed and have a great Tuesday!!!!