Four months of fun ideas ?

[Sukale]

I am ready to call 2nd grade over. We are where we need to be (or above) with everything except spelling and handwriting. I think I am going to put 3rd grade off until September. Between now and then we will work on improving printing and get started on cursive. Any ideas on a spelling program that we could cover in about 4 months? Other than that I want lots of read a louds and FUN. Give me some not to miss books and any fun board games and other ideas that you have to fill up our days until September. 

[momee]

We sewed our own colonial dresses and went to colonial Wmsbg.

 

We mummified a chicken

 

We completed all of the art activities on this cd - but for our grade level

http://www.christianbook.com/home-art-studio-on-rom-kindergarten/9781936195435/pd/195435?dv=c&en=google&event=SHOP&kw=homeschool-20-40%7C195435&p=1179710&gclid=CjwKEAjw3fG4BRDsn9GAv7T2zEkSJACNJdjgJdPxa0vZakDat4eDTYkgXkaTtijYIIVZjzvY5z5XUBoCjprw_wcB

 

we've had lots of fun using these

http://www.amazon.com/Original-Butterfly-Garden-with-Voucher/dp/B00000ISC5

 

we learned to use a microscope

 

we did this pond nature study

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1052391

 

we listened to tons of these while looking at clouds or having a picnic or making cookies

http://www.amazon.com/Jim-Weiss/e/B000APPFU0

 

we did some of this

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=professional+face+paint+kits&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=47411423570&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6258670839525868411&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_9qxmdzl0wg_b

 

I think pinterest could be your next time suck if you need ideas :)

 

[Carrousel]

If you're needing additional spelling work, fun ideas for spelling practice:

write words in something messy-- sand, shaving cream, pudding

spell while jumping rope or on trampoline

sidewalk paint or chalk

water colors, paint, chalk, pastels

playdoh

stamping letters

banangrams or scrabble tiles to build words

write with glue and cover in glitter, colored sand, etc.

bite off pretzels into letter shapes to spell

use large sheets of paper with letters on them and build a crossword puzzle on floor (or tape off and play boggle)

 

Lots of good spelling review ideas on pinterest.  Also search sight word games, and there are tons of those that can be modified for spelling practice too.

 

[Sahamamama]

Burlap Embroidery

Cut squares of light-colored burlap, put a square in a large embroidery hoop, use yarn to stitch a design with a large embroidery needle. You can hang the finished piece in the hoop, or put it in a frame.

 

Fabric Scrap Paper Dolls

If you Google this, you'll find printable patterns, which you can print on cardstock. Give your daughter a supply of doll patterns, fabric scraps, glue dots or a glue stick, tiny buttons, bits of yarn or lace or ribbon, craft scissors, and a small lunch box to fit it all into. Here's an example.

 

http://chasingcheerios.blogspot.com/2012/01/fabric-scrap-paper-doll-kit.html

 

Visit a farm

Go fishing

Grow something in a garden or in a pot

Make bread at home

Make butter (to put on the bread)

Read Pippi Longstocking and then make pepparkakor.

Read Blueberries for Sal and then go blueberry picking (or make jam from fruit).

Take naps in a hammock ;)

[bluejay]

Spelling Workout is good.  It gets repetitive but it works.  The chapters are short.  If you do them everyday you can finish it quickly.  Also, I know some folks frown on "workbooks" but we like the "Big" series of workbooks.  They have tons of exercises that students REALLY use, not the stuff you find in "Brain Quest" (though the latter is okay for very light work).  If you get bored with Spelling Workout, switch to that one for a while.  There's also Handwriting without Tears but we haven't used ours.  We are not yet at the cursive stage so I can't recommend anything there.

[eternallytired]

As far as "fun" goes, it really depends on your kid(s).  What are they interested in?  What sorts of things do they like to do?  Here's some of what we have chosen as fun:

 

- Cursive.  Weird, but both kids wanted to learn.

- Typing.  Conveniently, they thought this would be really neat to know.

- Several hours at the creek each week.  This counts as educational, in my book, because they're watching the behavior of minnows, hunting for frogs or tadpoles, watching birds bathe, building dams, floating various things over rapids and under bridges, sitting in the rapids in various positions to see what happens, etc.

- Cooking.  They want to know the science behind it, but they'll be equally delighted to make things for eating.

- Logic puzzles and games. These are especially awesome for car rides, if you don't have a puker.

- Sports skills. While I learned all of this in school, they need me to teach them the basics of volleyball, basketball, hockey, badminton, frisbee-throwing...  It's great for nice weather, and it keeps everyone active and healthy.

- Various educational computer games and apps. Prodigy, Lightbot, Tynker, Stack the States, and Stack the Countries are a few recent hits we've enjoyed during daily Technology Time.

- Art. Free time is great for trying new techniques and new media.  My kids love air-dry clay, from which they make coil pots, pinch pots, and sculptures.  Oil pastels are fun and different, and collage can turn out pretty cool.  Scour the web for inspiration.

- Writing.  Especially if I turn them loose on the computer where they can have fun inserting clipart in their story or crafting Paint illustrations, they can spend a couple of hours writing terrible tomes about kid heroes.  (Bonus: Give your child a blank book to write in, and they can work on handwriting and spelling at the same time!  Even on the computer, however, they notice which words and phrases have the wiggly underlines and thus work on spelling and sentence structure while they're having fun.)

[BlsdMama]

I am ready to call 2nd grade over. We are where we need to be (or above) with everything except spelling and handwriting. I think I am going to put 3rd grade off until September. Between now and then we will work on improving printing and get started on cursive. Any ideas on a spelling program that we could cover in about 4 months? Other than that I want lots of read a louds and FUN. Give me some not to miss books and any fun board games and other ideas that you have to fill up our days until September. 

 

 

What do you have as a yard?

 

My kids enjoy the outdoors more than anything... We are in the planning stages of perennials here - planting for butterflies and hummingbirds. The feeders have been accumulated - homemade feeders for woodpeckers, finch feeders, suet feeders, hummingbird feeders, and the newest addition - an oriole feeder!

 

It is the planning and execution of outdoor activities I think kiddos most enjoy and INVEST themselves in.

A garden.

Flowers.

Chickens.

Birds.

A tree.

 

We added a firepit this past weekend - for nights out under the stars at home.  My children love to camp, but we do not ever do it as often as we mean to... It just takes SO much work!  And yet we still want them to have that joy of sitting around the fire and looking at the stars.

 

Whatever it is.

And if your yard does not lend itself to these ideas, what community resource can you utilize?

[shadah]

I made her a "journal" with pages like:

Books I want to read

Draw something in nature

Write something

Listen and draw - She likes Librivox and will either draw or color something and then glue it in.

Draw the weather this week

Sing four songs and write the titles

Play a math game

Draw what you ate today. Was it healthy?

Shop in the sales paper this week. What did you buy and how much did you spend?

Make a calendar

....

You get the idea. She loved it so much she wants me to make them for her friends. I filled half a composition book with these. I repeated her favorites. The other half of the notebook she will likely do herself. She just needed a good start. I like that everything is in one place for now. She can transition from one activity to another without me right there. I have been using it to combine some subjects and finish projects we started but never seem to get to.