Word Nerd Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 What does afterschooling look like for your family in the summer? My DH and I have been talking about all the things we'd like to do over the summer with the kids, including our educational goals for them. In addition to planning various day trips and 4-H project work, I want to be more consistent and intentional about afterschooling. I have Story of the World, a Sonlight timeline, All About Spelling, Math Mammoth, and Prima Latina that I'd like to work on together, and they'll participate in the summer reading program. I'd like to do some kind of theme and set it up so that they can earn a patch or badge or something in different subject areas, but I haven't figured out how it will work yet. I thought about having a treasure chest theme and possibly even setting the assignments up as workboxes, then they could earn "gems" or other treasures. Last year I took so long trying to figure out what theme I was going to use and how I would set it up that we never really got around to starting. :rolleyes: I want to follow through this time around, so I hope by sharing my plans here I'll keep myself accountable! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 What does afterschooling look like for your family in the summer? When my kids were still in school, afterschooling in the summer consisted of a lot of travel and field trips - museums, state parks, National parks, hikes, theater - and huge amounts of free reading. Plus several weeks each year spent in Germany for them to improve their language skills. We never did formal seat work during the summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimitBreak Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 I'm going to continue with grammar & math. Last summer we did both subjects. I'd like to be more consisent this time around. Ds will continue with weekly piano lessons. Practice is already consistent (at least 4x/week). This summer I'd like to be more consistent on theory and do it weekly. Swimming lessons are at 4x/week. He was doing this 2x/week during the schoolyear and really loves it. We will try karate 1x/week this summer. I actually thought about making our own "patch/badge" program. I was driven almost nuts thinking on how it would work. I finally decided that the 2 activities I would focus the most this summer are: *Fishing *Astronomy He became interested in fishing because of the Wii game, Animal Crossing. We took him fishing at a local forest preserve lake. We also took him to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Throughout the summer, we would like to expose him to as much fishing topics as possible. I'm going to think of each experience as a "patch" earned. Maybe if he stays interested for a few years, he can learn how to cook a freshly caught fish....I could then award him a badge called "Poseidon", or something like that :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBM Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 My son will be taking a public speaking class at our high school this summer, an online writing class from Northwestern U, and spending two weeks at Idea Math in Andover, MA. He'll also continue with saxophone lessons. In his spare time, he will probably work on math, read (school assigns summer reading), and hang out with buddies. We live in a suburb of Chicago, so in addition to the above, we will be visiting various museums, attending concerts (Blues Fest in about a month!) and trying out new restaurants <--- my favorite. Should be fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 My oldest and I are going to continue our journey through TWEM. He also has summer reading for school. My youngest is ready to start phonics. My 10 year old is researching the buildings in the Lego architecture series. When he writes a short report about the building and goes through the editing process, he get the Lego set. My dd6 will be reading many books about lots of things. We will continue cleaning and observing the creek near our house. We will be visiting local museums and the zoo. We'll spend a few weeks at the beach and study about manatees. My DH and I are visiting Thessoloniki, Greece and Rome, so I am sure that will come into something we study. My oldest is taking APUSH next year, so we'll probably study some American history. I am thinking of taking more subject certification tests, maybe physics, chemistry, and English. I may also take the class to prepare to teach AP Stats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 They are each trying one new sport via day camp. Both are taking cartooning. Each chose some kid classes at the local community college (ranges from pet care to seasonal art) Lots of swimming. Older dd wants to learn to sew and to cook more. Summer reading program. As far as school, I actually bought a summer workbook....we never get as much school done over summer as I expect and these are to just keep something easy. But I'm aiming at keeping up math and spelling for older, math and phonics for younger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 Here's a link to our summer plans. Great ideas! This sounds a lot like what I have in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimitBreak Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Here's a link to our summer plans. I like the name "Mommy Camp" :D I will think of a similar name to make my 'schooling' sound more interesting to my ds! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApronMama Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 During June and August, the entering 3rd-grader will be working on math facts and handwriting daily (because he needs to), history, science and SSLatin twice a week (because he wants to), having "book club with Mom" to discuss some Mom chosen literature periodically, and very brief WWE2 narrations/copywork. The goal is 90 minutes to 2 hours a day four days a week, with nature study, field trips or just a break on Fridays and total free time the rest of the day. A mom of 4 boys once told me her secret to a succesful summer was to keep the kids busy with mom-directed learning or chore activities all morning and give them free time all afternoon. We are going to finish SOTW 1 and SSL in June. July we will only work on math facts, read leisurely and listen to SOTW 3 when it is convenient. We will do some traveling, participate in VBS, just have fun and take a break. August we will start Lively Latin, begin working our way selectively through SOTW 3 activities and related reading while keep up the dailies we did in June. Our pre-K guy will do a little pre-handwriting work and just join in the rest as he wants to. We'll take lots of days off just to go have fun too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aly9712 Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 7 year old daughter (rising second grader) will be doing EPGY for math/language. I will expect her to do daily cursive copywork as well from whatever she's reading. I'm also hoping to do maybe 2 science inquiry based projects at home. She'll also be in a bunch of interest based camps (art, engineering, swim). That's about it for us....along with weekly library trips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted May 20, 2011 Author Share Posted May 20, 2011 Someone posted a link to this blog post on Facebook about making summer bingo cards (unfortunately, the link to the template no longer works), and I think it looks a fun way to keep track of what I want to do with the girls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mich311e Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 I just wanted to post that our "Mommy Camp" caterpillars arrived today. I just started blogging their progress here if anyone wants to follow along. :001_smile: We recently did the caterpillar/butterfly experience. It was so cool! My son was so proud when we let them go. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheri Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 My boys will be going into 8th and 10th. Earlier today, I started working on their summer reading lists. For the rising Sophomore: Life of Fred Alg for the 10th grader because I think he needs to beef up a little more before Alg 2 in the fall. Critical Thinking wkbk He'll have a pretty big summer reading list because he devours books. For the rising 8th Grader (who is also dyslexic) Reading Detective Rx A Reason for Spelling - his spelling quiz grades bring down his English grade :( Life of Fred Pre-Alg His summer reading list will be light. For both: lots of swimming and time at the Y Summer camps unlimited XBox --- bwahaa....in their dreams! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 We're technically still HSing since dd begins charter school in the fall, but their play preschool will be done at the end of the school year so I still will have them more each week than normal. I'm planning a combo of new school stuff (starting logic, the next Singapore book, Happy Phonics), more discovery-based learning (dissection kit, lots of walks, growing ladybugs), and swimming lessons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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