Fourth of July

Last week we celebrated the 240th anniversary of America's independence with the usual fireworks and barbecue.

It has been so dry lately that many towns around here have placed a temporary ban on fireworks.  We watched the fireworks from the top of a parking structure.

We had a yummy dinner with one of my favorite foods, grilled corn on the cob, yummy!

A week without the girl

Ivy left for a week long mission trip in Chicago with some pretty stupendous people.

  She spent the week helping to fix houses, she specifically spent most of her time helping to build a fence.

Meanwhile little Liam had to spend all week without big sister.  I cannot express how much he missed her.  We daily went over how many days were in a week, how many days she had been gone and how many days until she got back.  Not that he spent the time twiddling his thumbs. 

We worked on school, we went lots of places including Grandma's house, the grocery, even Jungle Java, a fun indoor play area. He started summer speech, which he loves.  I got a box of curriculum books, thus a super fun box and paper to play with.  He even looked through the microscope, a totally self-directed activity.  He wanted to look at a dollar bill, then a flower petal, then a leaf, then he wanted to see what crayon on paper looked like under the scope.  Seriously, he spend more than an hour looking at all kinds of things.

Well Ivy finally came home.

We had a lovely reunion over spaghetti where she told us all about her time in Chicago.

Summer School - Day 5 - Get Ready to Go

This week has been so much fun warming up the kids brains and getting them ready for school.
Monday I talked about summer slide, Tuesday was all about summer reading - with a free printable, Wednesday was summer writing and Thursday was a really big list of math games.

Today I want to talk about how to start for success.

Adjusting from a more laid back summer schedule to a more rigorous school responsibilities can be unpleasant.   Get kids ready with communication and practice.

Communication

• Talk with kids about what is coming.  Homeschoolers can talk about how the schedule will change to include learning opportunities.  If you send kids to school talk about what to expect, how will evening and morning routines change, and what will happen at school.
• Give expectations.  If you want the kiddos awake at a certain time, let them know that.  If they need to put out their clothes the night before, let them know that too.
• Make a plan. Work with your child to come up with a way to make your expectations happen.  By including your child in the planning, they can take ownership of the behavior.

Practice

• Do little bit at a time.  With any goal moving slowly but surely will ensure greater success.  Waking up two hours earlier will just lead to a tired, crabby child.  But waking up 10 or 15 minutes earlier each day for a week will ease the child into the new habit. 
• Work on one habit at a time, working up to the full schedule change in a few weeks. 

I hope you have had a good time reading all about summer school this week.  Don't forget there are 90 other bloggers blogging about great topics this week.  Be sure to check it out by clicking on the button below.

Summer School - Math

Counting

Towers Up -counting with blocks
Gumball Counting - Play dough, do I need to say more?
Number Bowling
Dump Truck Counting 

Number Recognition 

could also be used for math facts - instead of just asking for the number ask a problem with that number as an answer

Flyswatter Math Game
Water Balloon Target Practice 
Coloring Race
Egg Carton Number Toss
Math Tunnel Game

Addition/Subtraction

Maths Chasey  - be the last one standing
Eleven - adding and subtracting with playing cards
Tens Go Fish - card game similar to go fish
Snap plus one - a card game
Fun Subtraction Game - a card game

Multiplication/Division

Jumping to 100 - skip counting with pillows (could be easily modified into an outdoor game)

Fractions/Decimals/Percents

Fraction Bingo
Fractionopoly - life sized board game

Summer School - Writing

What did you do this summer?

School is starting soon and it is time to get the kiddos' brains ready to go.  What a better way than to play with the age old back to school assignment: what did you do last summer.

Set up a writing station. 

Make writing inviting and fun.
Fill a small box or small basket with different kinds of paper or make some pre-made books (simply take 3 or 4 sheets of paper and fold them in half.)
Include some colored pencils/pens.
Glue or tape a clothespin to the box (or use one of the flaps of the box, like I did)
Write out  "What did we do this summer?" (or another writing prompt of your choice) and attach it with the clothespin.

Put in a conspicuous place.  Invite your kids to write. Embellish with drawings or photos, if you like.

Summer School - Reading

Hopefully you have taken advantage of the myriad of opportunities to read this summer.  There are summer reading programs at most local libraries, Barnes and Nobles as well as lots of other incentive program.  Then there is just the joy of sitting back, on the beach, or porch, or tree house and getting lost in a story.

But even if your kiddos did do any reading, it is not too late to warm up their brains.  Here is a fun game to play, book bingo.  Take your book bingo printable to the library, use stickers or stamps or just an "x" to mark your bingo sheet as you complete a row up, down, or diagonal.

Here is a free printable for Last Minute Book Bingo:

Weekly Play List

The Summer Plan

I am excited that we are starting up with some structured school activities.  We took the month of June off mostly because I needed a mental break.  I did too many teaching things last year and I definitely felt the effects of it.  I can tell it is time for the kids to have a little school in their life.  They are bickering more and are just plain bored of just sitting around doing nothing.   

I am {flexibly} scheduling three hours a day.  Both children will have structured and unstructured time.  There will be a circle time and outdoor play.  

The Little Dude will be working on letter recognition, counting, and fine motor practice (especially scissors) with lots of time for free play and reading with Mom.

Zippy will be playing with math, practicing focus, integrity, and tact, doing some nature study and reviewing a history curriculum. 

This Week We are Playing with:

Numbers: Squirt the number.   This is for both children.  I am arming my little one with watering cans.  Writing numbers on the driveway in sidewalk chalk.  The little one will have to water the number (number recognition).  This big one will have to water the product or sum of a problem (math). 

Lions and Tigers : Focusing on the letter L we are going to color lions, feed lions some alphabet letters, maybe even visit some lions.
 .  

What are you playing with this week? What is your plan for the rest of summer?  I'd love to know.  Leave a comment and share your plans. 

K is for Summer Kick Off

Happy Memorial Day.  It is the unofficial start of summer.   Lots of people are gearing up for the end of the school year by making summer bucket lists.  I've made a list or two myself in the past.

Let us Kick Off this summer!

This summer we are going to have a simple summer also known as the summer of open play.  No checklists, no challenge, just simple opportunities for imaginations to run free.  

What is free play?  It is not just saying "go outside kids", but providing opportunities for play.  {And free play isn't just for kids either.}

Some examples of free play are:

Water play

Cars

Sensory Bins/Boxes

Blocks

Art Supplies

Even a Simple Cardboard Box

A big thanks to Marcy over at Ben and Me for the idea for the letter K.  I could not think of anything.   Yep I'm also linking up with Marcy's Blogging through the Alphabet.

  

Wordless Wednesday - Shells

As we in the North are still in the grip of cold winter our Southern friends are enjoying warmer weather.  Shells always remind me of Florida. Saw my first Florida strawberries a few weeks ago. So this Wordless Wednesday is dedicated to warm weather and beaches.

A big Wordless Wednesday welcome.  If this is your first time here, thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a look around.  I write about life, homeschooling and take lots of pictures.  If you have a Wordless Wednesday post, whether it be word-full or wordless, please link up using the linky below.  I like to link up with other Wordless Wednesday blogs too.  Here are a few:
Project Alicia, Five Minutes for Mom, Create with Joy

Red White and Blue Fun with Beads and Pipe Cleaners

 

This is our patriotic tot time activity for the week.  It is a great way to work on small motor skills, color recognition and patterns.

 

 

 Little Dude sorted out the beads into piles.

Zippy thought one of the piles looked like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

 

So she made the Lower Peninsula to match.  {That little bead way up at the top there is Mackinac Island}

Summer Daze - week 4 - Backyard Water Fun

Fourth of July brought extended family and backyard water fun

Sprinkler:

Then we {ahem} tried to play a nice, genteel game of pass the water balloon: 

Which {of course} degenerated into an all out water war: