Summer skills practice

[sweet2ndchance]

I'm looking for some things to keep ds learning and keep skill areas sharp this summer.

I would like to get him to move up a bit on reading this summer if possible as well. I've found a series of books that are at the learning level for him and I plan to buddy read them with him this summer. I had also planned on having him do Night Zookeeper. He's an animal lover so it seems like a good fit for him plus he can work at his reading level instead of his age level if that makes sense. It doesn't seem to be very popular at all on these boards though. Would anyone consider Night Zookeeper just for the summer as a fun way to keep learning? Is there something else I should consider?

He uses Zearn for some of his math right now and I had planned on just having him continue with it. He doesn't need a lot of math work. He easily completes his lessons and is working ahead of grade level for the most part in math. Really, I just want to combat summer slide in math with him. Should I consider anything else for math? He's not really excited about doing Zearn during the summer so he would love a change of pace but I just haven't come across anything that fits. Beast Academy frustrates him more often than not. He's good at calculations but math puzzles don't seem to be his thing. Prodigy just seems too gamified and last time we tried to use it, it was really weird on the placement. Like it was giving him long division problems to solve when he was just learning about multiplication.

It doesn't have to be online stuff that we are looking for and I don't mind (in fact I prefer) printing at home. He's already signed up for lots of summer EC so I'm hoping for something we can spend 60 - 90 a day working on ELA(with a focus on reading instruction) and math skills. Any suggestions?

[Miss Tick]

One thing that was popular here for dinner was a diy summer reading challenge. You could have him take time spent reading or set book challenges (a book about a poem, 6 new vocabulary words, recommend a book to a family member, etc) The prize list was things we prize as a family - some food, some other things like going to the pool, favorite breakfast, etc. I had fun planning it out and the flexibility made it more fun to do.

For math, did you ever read that huge thread about alternatives to math curricula? I read and researched that one summer when I was preparing for a multi-age co-op class. The best book I found in there was Amazing Math Projects, by Laszlo Bardos. It had projects that were truly about practicing the math concepts introduced. The other neat resource we used was most of James Tanton's Exploding Dots video series. Mr. Tanton and @Farrar@ also have numberless math problem books. If these are overshooting your ds' age or abilities you could try googling the Pizazz! math books. There are a bunch out there. Each page of repetitive problems ends with a joke. Lastly, all the games - Rat-a-Tat Cat, Zeus on the Loose, the 24 Game (there is an addition subtraction only version, I believe)

Straddling those two really paragraphs are all the kids books about math like anything by Mitsumasa Anno, Greg Tang, Marilyn Burns, etc. And my personal favorite, Bean Thirteen by Matthew McElligot which is all about divisibility and prime s by extension.

Here's to an enjoyable summer!

[sweet2ndchance]

I missed that thread about alternative math. Google is not being helpful at all in finding it. Do you have a link or is it pinned somewhere?

[Miss Tick]

Found it! It was "relaxed", not alternative.

 

[Nm.]

What grade for math?  For zearn- I have skipped modules I don’t need and that helps it not be a daily thing.  It’s also okay to move them up an entire grade if they are ready to move on- everything is reviewed.

[sweet2ndchance]

5 hours ago, Nm. said:

What grade for math?  For zearn- I have skipped modules I don’t need and that helps it not be a daily thing.  It’s also okay to move them up an entire grade if they are ready to move on- everything is reviewed.

He's working at a 4 to 5th grade level in math.

[HomeAgain]

3 hours ago, sweet2ndchance said:

He's working at a 4 to 5th grade level in math.

You might look at Middle School Math With Pizzazz. You can pull just the pages that review his work this year.  My kids enjoy the riddles and silliness of them.