Summer plans & independent work ideas

[lovinmyboys]

We are moving into a new season, so I am kind of planning a relaxed, but productive 10 weeks. I feel like we did pretty well during the beginning of the pandemic, but the last week things seem to be unraveling, so I want to introduce some more structure. 
 

My oldest is ok, so this is mostly for my 8, 10, and 11 yr olds. I’m thinking of doing a couple of rotations of three stations and each child will rotate through. Some ideas I have include keyboarding practice, reading a magazine, playing a one player game, doing a workbook (sudoku, crossword, etc), art for kids hub, and building something.

Any other ideas? What are you doing to bring structure to the summer? Any other summer bucket list ideas? I think we are going to try to fly a kite as that is something I have never done. 

[NewIma]

I love your stations idea! I usually make a bucket list and I think it will be extra important for us this year since there will be no camps or trips to the lake/pool this summer. I want summer to still feel fun and special! 

Summer Bucket List Ideas: hike, play in a creek, play in a sprinkler, water balloon fight, tye dying t-shirts, homemade hairwraps, frisbee, go out for ice cream, make slime, picnic, visit a new playground, and root beer floats!

We are going to have a weekly summer routine. Monday is art project day. Tuesday is baking and poetry tea party day. Wednesday is hiking/play in the creek time. Thursday is messy project day. Friday is board game day.

The other big thing we are doing is a homemade summer reading program. Our library is still closed so we are improvising! I found some summer reading bingo sheets online, and collected a small collection of used books to make a mini "library" or new to us shelf. I ordered a few prizes I know they will love. I am super excited about this! 🙂

 

 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by NewIma

[2_girls_mommy]

For my 6 yr old we are doing the online summer reading program. We mostly read at night at bedtime. She's doing a lot of crafting. Twice a week we are doing the Michael's online free zoom craft classes. We've also broken out different art supplies, rotating through. The past few days she's been doing the perler beads that you iron. Last week she and my teen each made a miniature room out if a show box. She's doing a lot of swimming in the blow up.pool. And each day I encourage some creative play with toys, something she hasn't played in awhile. She has two dance classes out if the house a week again which gives her sone outings too. 

My dd15 works 2 days a week, has the summer reading program to read for, and is doing three online summer camp classes- 2 through Varsitytutors and one from Ford's Theater this summer, plus she has dance classes again as well. We are working on Algebra ongoing on days she is home. 

[barnwife]

Well, our summer plans include...school. I am hoping to push through more or less as normal. That way, when baby #5 arrives in Sept., we can take time off then. As we transition back to doing to school when baby is (insert however old you want here), my plan is to do kind of what you are planning. My plan is to, as I can deal with it, set a timer for 15 minutes. They will each have a clipboard with some worksheets on in. Some will be language or math review and some will be fun stuff like crosswords, word searches, magic squares, I spy sheets, a drawing challenge, etc...Sometimes a sheet might say "practice typing" or "build a XXX out of legos."

They can do whatever they want from their clipboards during that time, as long as they are working. 

As for your bucket list ideas, how about making s'mores? 

[EmilyGF]

We're taking four weeks off. We finished strong last week with exams etc. I'm still finishing up my final reflections on the year, and my older three children will have reflections to work on over the next two days, but we're all done with lessons.

During our next four weeks, my kids will work on their spaced-reptition-system flash cards (Anki), finishing up any as-yet-unlearned cards but not adding any new vocab for Spanish (beginner) and German (intermediate). Hopefully that'll give them some breather room come next year because they won't have as many reviews. They also have daily math skills work and reading time. Otherwise, they should be pretty free to do their own thing.

On their own, DS15 will likely work on a math fair project or a science fair project focused on birds. DD13 has a job writing (!!!) and will likely do extra work for that, while also making videos with DD11 for their YouTube channel. DS8 has made huge strides with reading and I hope to make space for him to continue. He's also asked me to give him some more foreign language work.

[PeterPan]

Have you thought about having them each take a night of the week to cook dinner? Could get interesting and eat up some time. They might realize they need to plan, ask for groceries ahead, set things out to thaw/marinate, etc.

[lwest]

What about

-sewing: Could just be simple station to sew buttons?

-audiobook station: sit and listen with headphones in a quiet spot

-money: A station with coins and maybe you could make some cards with items and prices and have them make change?  Or some kind of budget activity?

-logic Games: There are some great logic games for one player (Cat Crimes, Traffic Jam, Gravity Maze, etc.)

-tinker box: collect broken parts, some electronics, empty your junk drawer, screwdriver and other tools in a bin and let them tinker?

-Some physical activity cards they have to do like plank for x seconds, sit-ups, jumping jacks, stretches, or maybe a balance board

-chore cards: need I say more?

-rocks or shells or something else from nature: set out a box with a nature guide and have them identify the different types

-story collaboration: some kind of activity where you would start a story and then each kid gets to write a new sentence

[Garga]

They could do some sort of exercise along with an exercise video. Something fun!  Keep it to 10-15 minutes or so. Maybe some sort of dancing video that they could learn and work on little bits at a time. 

Edited June 9, 2020 by Garga

[Momto6inIN]

On 6/8/2020 at 7:26 AM, NewIma said:

We are going to have a weekly summer routine. Monday is art project day. Tuesday is baking and poetry tea party day. Wednesday is hiking/play in the creek time. Thursday is messy project day. Friday is board game day.

 

 

 

 

I love this idea!

So far my 3 younger girls are doing a lot of reading and swimming and arguing 😏. The 3 oldest kids are all working, so keeping the 12 and 8 and 1 year old occupied is my challenge. We are doing Song School Spanish just for fun everyday, but no other school.