School's out, but learning's still in!
School’s out! Woohoo! I’m so excited and so are my boys! So, what does summer mean to us? Does it mean we stop learning? Absolutely not!
It does mean lots of time spent outdoors in the dirt, mud, river and sunshine! It means arts and crafts and things we don’t have as much time for during the regular year 🙂 We are currently starting an art book and plan to learn the basics of art over the summer. The boys are looking forward to that.
I’m not stopping reading and math. We are just tweaking how we are doing them. For example last week the boys watched read-a-louds on YouTube and then they narrated back the stories to me. We’re also working through a unit study on butterflies which includes reading about them, drawing them, copying Bible verses for handwriting practice and observing them in nature. We’re also going to plant a butterfly garden next week!
Jake is also continuing his cursive practice for about 5-10 minutes/day/3 days a week. He actually likes cursive so its not really an issue with him. We also built a word wall and he practices the words on it each day.
Of course we’re not stopping our Bible! So, we read from the Bible each morning and the boys memorize new verses each week. Right now, we’re going through 2 programs. One is called Little Lads of Virtue and address character training. The other is Bible Road Trip and travels through the Bible in 3 years. These are both super neat! They don’t take very long each morning but we do them first thing to lay the important foundations first!
Jake is also doing 3 days a week of 10 minute math, which could be anything from an online program to a few pages in his Living Math program or just hands on math (cookies anyone?)
I’m still working with Gabe on his phonics and counting. He’s also solidifying the colors in his memory and learning to do new practical things.
So, while summer time is a time for more play its also a time to keep on learning. I’ve been adding responsibilities to the boys’ days too. For example the other day they washed the front of the house. They had a wonderful time, got really soapy and saved me the trouble of washing it myself. Win, win!
What’s your summer look like? I’d challenge you to keep learning, it will make the start of the next year so much easier and help prevent boredom this summer!