This summer brings with it a couple of goals. One of my priorities is to get our homeschool going. What does that mean? It means getting our routines and curriculum set, it means assessing my learners and it means making plans and gathering materials. Lots and lots of plans and materials!!! Bradley will be homeschooling Jude in the fall (he will also go to little gym or something) so I want it to be ready to go!!

The past week has found me obsessively pinning on pinterest, seeking authentic learning opportunities that are meaningful to the kids and easy for me to direct. The following are a sample of some of the things we are incorporating. Feel free to copy anything you want and ask for links to pins. I’m happy to send anything your way! I will also be publishing more of our activities as summer continues…

Gigi’s goals: learn multiplications, work on capitals and punctuation in writing, learn proper spelling of high frequency words

Jude’s goals: learn to write and read his
own name, develop letter knowledge and learn number/quantity associations

Both: have fun, go on field trips, be crafty, learn, laugh, read, write, swim

20120701-150823.jpg

Our daily schedule. I wanted a way to provide structure and predictability while also working in our daily needs like chores. This has been our easiest AND CLEANEST break ever so far! And, miraculously, no whining about it. Each kid has a section with four cards with their directed independent routine type activities- like read for 10, write a letter, practice your name etc.

20120701-151029.jpg

These are simply zip bags with paint inside, reinforced by tape on all the edges. Perfect magic pad for math, letters or spelling!

20120701-151147.jpg

Gigi got a letter writing kit for Christmas so she has complete autonomy for sending loved ones messages. I wrote the necessary addresses (including the return address) on labels, threw in stamps, a fancy pen and lots of cards and paper. I’ve continued to replenish supplies and always wonder what she writes in those letters!

20120701-151419.jpg

20120701-151451.jpg

I made a pile of books for the kids for ease of publishing and in case we ever need an emergency field journal. I included lined and plain paper to encourage illustrations or sketches along with the important words.

20120701-151849.jpg

I’m going to include this in my classroom- each time the child walks by they ‘give it five’ and say the equation with the answer, or, like with Jude, just say the letter and/or sound. Supposedly this method makes for a quick study and the kids have the fact by the end of the day. I’ll let you know how it goes! 😉

20120701-152103.jpg

Our first theme is summer and seasons. We’ll be doing all kinds of summer themed things, but this is a future collage looking at holidays, clothing and weather associated with different times of the year. We’re also making tissue paper sunshine sun catchers, sponge water soakers, painting with ice and more more more!

20120701-152336.jpg

I’m not terribly excited about this, but what do I do to get the pencil grip and basic practice? We have other tools as well- more sensory types of things- but I want to see what he will do with this type of abc practice. We will also have a daily cut and paste activity centered around the letter, a letter craft daily… We’ll see what sticks!!

😳

20120701-152632.jpg

And this is to take with us anywhere this summer! The object is to match objects to the color to see if we can find 18 things! This looks like fun to me. Am I strange?

Come back often and we’ll have much more to share!


Comments are closed.