I know with school nearing a close for many of you, you’re wondering what you’re going to do so your kiddos don’t forget all those precious tidbits you so carefully lodged in their brains over the course of the year. While I don’t plan anything super hard core for summer (we all need a break, me included!) I do keep the kids reading over the summer, mostly fun books. They get to pick what they want to read and as long as it’s appropriate for them, that’s fine.
Just to keep all of the other subjects fresh in their minds, we also do some activities out of the Carson Dellosa Summer Bridge activity books! They’re literally ZERO planning on my part, and great for keeping kids skills fresh over the summer.
Keeping up with your students reading, math, and other basic skills over the long summer break is important. I’m not sure if this happens to your kids, but it seems like a few weeks after school is out my kids seem to forget everything they’ve learned the previous year.
Depending on the day, I usually have the kids are do 1 lesson per day out of their workbook. I don’t usually force the issue too much, there tends to be a time each day where they start getting bored, and the Summer Bridge activities are the perfect solution! The great thing about them, is that they’re colorful and fun, so it’s not hard to get them to do a page or two.
Just to make it a little more fun, we use our Educational Insights Smens pens to make it a little bit more fun. They LOVE IT!
And I kid you not, one of them said “Wow, this is so much more fun than regular school!” and the other came up later in the day and actually asked me if she could do some school in her new workbook! Are you serious? YEAH!
Interested in some summer bridge activities?
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Continue with an academics routine, just adding a little more fun activities.
Oh, I have subscribed to your e-mails a few weeks ago.
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I stock up on some simple workbooks, plus have geoboards, dice (up to 20-sided plus operations dice to practice simple addition/subtraction), pattern blocks, tangrams, etc. My oldest really got into reading chapter books over the last few months, so we visit the library at least once per week to have story time for all three, check out new books, and take part in the summer reading program (where the kids earn books for reading…it’s awesome!).
We continue our DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time in the summer as well as studying more summer themed things so we can explore and visit and learn. For example, yesterday we went to the beach then learned about why the water is salty.
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During the summer we have “table time.” During this part of the day we do summer bridge activities write stories and do other learning related activities. My boys must complete this time before they can use any technology. The boys honestly do enjoy this time that we spend each day.
We also join the summer reading program at our local library and since my 4 sons are quite competitive, they read alot in order to earn prizes quickly.
For summer we have done unit studies by Amanda Bennett. They are called “Download and Go” such as a unit on Dolphins (when we went to the beach) or Whales, Davey Crockett was fun too. My oldest is 6 so we don’t do a lot of “work” with handwriting etc but since you download the file, you can print what you want and make a lapbook (if you wanted too- I haven’t though.)
It includes activities and a comprehensive reading list. The preparation is only what you want to put into it. (such as library resource books). You don’t even need books because she incorporates links embedded in her file.
Would like to try this summer bridge idea!
Thank You Erica, your emails are a great resource and encouragment 🙂
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This is our first year homeschooling. We have been re-reading our favorite books from the semester we just finished and adding in related field trips for a fun way to reinforce the lessons. We do phonics games online and a math worksheet a few times a week.