Learning Throughout the Summer

Summer is half-way over for most of you and you may already be running out of ideas to keep your children from asking 10 times a day to watch a movie or have a snack. Let's get real people! It takes planning. Planning takes time.

But not ALWAYS.

Although I love structure and organization (I would be lost without it!), there are so many days where we drop everything and go with what the kids are interested in.

It's "Life-schooling"!

It's FUN.

It creates MASTERY of LEARNING in our kids and if we're all being honest, the parents can get more involved and interested than the kids. (We've all heard the stories of the parents taking over the Science project for Little Junior, right? Ah-hem.)


After reading The Big Book of Homeschooling by Debi Pearl, I have condensed the book for you (because I love you) and have given you the "meat" of the book. I haven't added everything and I have added some of our own ideas as well. This book is NOT just for homeschoolers. It's chocked full of ideas for summer fun and learning alongside your kiddos.

Enjoy and happy learning!

 *Note *Because these are notes, some may not make 100% sense with you. You will just have to get the book! {grin}

MATH:
- Toss Across with math problems written on them.
- Math line on rolled out paper...play games.
- Dot-to-dog flashcards
- Money jug to put change in daily, then use at the end of each month for ice cream outings. Count that money!
- Take kids to the grocery store with a list and budget. See if they can stay under that budget.
- Give kids a few dollars to budget our a lunch they have to buy.
- Refrigerator math...vis-à-vis markers and magnetic ABC's, numbers.
- Side walk Chalk
- Measuring tape to measure circumference of foods.
- ABC and number cookies...make from scratch using cookie cutters.
- Baking/measuring

VOCABULARY:
- Talking "in code" with high vocabulary words
- Flash cards in the car
- Punctuation Bible lesson...leave out the capital letters, punctuation, and an open spot for a missing word.
- Play the synonym game...call out a common word such as house and the kids have to think of a word like "dwelling", "home", "cabin", etc. See how many you can think of!
- Play the homonym game..."I SEE the SEA."
- Play the antonym game (opposites)
- Card hunting...make index cards with words. Hide them. Kids find and make sentences out of them. Write down the results and reread them often.

PHONICS:

- Take a sentence strip and ask the child to tell you a sentence. Write it down, then cut out each letter and have child put it back together.
- My Pile, Your Pile...use sight word flashcards and if child get it correctly, he keeps it in his pile. If not, Mom/Dad keeps it in his/her pile. Winner is who has the most in their pile.
- Cutting out from magazines things that start with letter "A", etc.
- Write books WITH your children. Illustrate. :)

READING/WRITING:

- Tell stories! (use character traits)
- Make a family newspaper. Re cap on all the things you did in the past week. Print out pictures to post and send them to family/friends. Keep some to look back on as family treasures.
- Use props when telling stories.
- Make a school year book of special outings, science projects with short explanations for each. Can just print out from the computer.
- Volunteer at the library to put away the non-fiction books. Volunteer older children for story hour.
- The Knowledge Book...Post questions on the fridge. Kids can team up to research the answers.
- List of "Family Fun Night" ideas.
- READ ALOUD (especially adventure stories!)

PENMANSHIP:

- Have "littles" write in shaving cream, salt, etc.
- Homemade cards sent to loved ones
- Copy recipes from cookbooks, buy a notebook and have her cut out pictures from magazines to glue in and write about.
- Teach them calligraphy
- Boys can burn Bible verses into wood.

SPELLING/GRAMMAR:

- Pull spelling words from daily essays that contain misspelled words.
- Label furniture, appliances, etc. with flashcards.
- Make a large cross word game out of cardboard to do on the floor.

SCIENCE:

- Planets...paint Styrofoam balls and hang them from a fan to watch them revolve around the sun.
- Make a solar system on the ceiling.
- Make a life-sized diagram of the human body.
- Explore and collect insects. Read books about them. Put them on a Styrofoam board and label them.
- Enter your creations at the County Fair.
- Museums and field trips.
- Aquarium
- The zoo...do something different each trip. Have kids find 5 mammals, 5 fish, etc. or play bingo.
- Robotics. Ask for a tour at a local university.
- NASA
- Monarch butterflies on milkweed. Plant a butterfly garden.
- Gardening
- Make a nature notebook

HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY:

- Put maps or large diagrams (human body, solar system) under a plastic table cloth or shower curtain on the dining room table. Also, herb or plant posters.
- Read Around the World in 80 Days and map it out.
- Make history films. Dress up and invite the neighborhood!
- History record book...make a notebook for each unit study.
- Read What Would Our Founding Fathers Think?

FOREIGN LANGUAGE:

- Write what is for lunch in Spanish on the refrigerator.
- Listen to songs
- Pick different countries, make a dish from that country, learn some of the language and pray for that country.
- Prepare their hearts for ministry. Ask often, "So what are you going to do with this life God has given you?"
- Foreign language flash cards all over the house.

HOME ECONOMICS:

- Print out the list of awards from Faith Contenders! Earn badges.
- Quilt making...use thrift store clothes.
- Chemistry...cooking, herbs, the human body, medicines, chemicals, making gun powder and household products from scratch.
- Hospitality Celebration...prepare for visitors: clean house, cooking, place cards, flower arrangements, sing hymns. Read Making Sunday Special.
- Have a  garden seedling sale.
- Plan dinners with kids.
- Have a child in your lap or next to you as you sew, bake, garden, change a tire, etc.
- Play pretend, house and store.
- Larry Burkett's Kids' Money Book
- Stewardship Street by Pam Forester (This is a genius way to teach younger children about money by making a little town out of milk cartons.)
- Make a recipe book
- Daily schedule on white board
- Chore charts
- Buddy System
- Volunteer! Your kids will feel needed by others.
- Mailbox Express...small notes to each other, gifts, verses, poems, pictures, candy, etc.
- Preparing to be a Helpmeet...A Checklist for Preparing Our Daughters by Sandi Queen (If anyone finds a boy version of this pamphlet, will you please let me know?!)

BIBLICAL STUDIES:

- Biographies of great Christian missionaries and faith (YWAM)
- Great Commission
- Illustrate Bible stories and verses
- Read stories/verses in front of others...public speaking.
- Study JOY...bitterness is like the flu! (Hebrews 12:15)
- Quiet Time tapes
- Steve Green CDs (Bible verses to songs)

MUSIC:

- Make up songs to memorize verses.
- Take up a new instrument with lessons.
- Play good music in the home always.

ART:

- Make homemade finger paint and pottery
- Rock painting
- Illustrating stories
- Mixing primary colors
- Study great artists

SHOP CLASS:

- Keep old electronics and experiment with them.
- Keep a scrap pile handy.
- Dissect road kill (wear gloves, mask and eye goggles.)
- Organize screws and tools properly.
- Teach him how to use each tool.

PE:

- Sing and dance as you mop or sweep.
- Jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups.
- "Faithful Workouts" video
- Volleyball, basketball, baseball, kickball, jump rope, hiking, bike riding, swimming, canoeing, Frisbee golf, football, obstacles coarse, sac races, hopscotch.


Another book you may enjoy if you enjoyed this is The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith.