After my years of doing this, I learn a few things every time so this year will hopefully be easier than the rest. Which is a good thing, when you look at our summer calendar! Between VBS, Beach trip, Louisville trip, lots of camps, and Rebecca starting marching band, our summer is already packed. Poor SoloHombre just looks at our calendar and faints. But I assure him it is not nearly as overwhelming as it looks, AND it's all fun stuff!!!
So, here are my goals for this summer, i.e. -- all the fun we are going to have!
1. After doing a Sunday School study on Peacemaking for Families, I was inspired to do the kid version of this with my girls this summer. It is called The Young Peacemakers and the book I ordered includes a teacher manual and a CD that has all 12 comic book style lessons for the kids. Granted, it was quite a chore to download, print one copy, then take to Office Depot to make 2 more copies and bind them together (there are 10 pages in each lesson), but I am hopeful it will be an investment in peacemaking in our family!
2. Since Katie loves math and is going into 3rd grade, we decided to work on learning multiplication this summer. Found this great little sheet on Pinterest to help with that. I also found this trick for learning the higher numbers, although when Leah tested it out she said it was too hard! :)
3. The brainiacs also love workbooks, so I always invest in the Summer Bridge Activities books for them. They usually want to sit down and do all 500 pages the first day, but I am going to try to spread out the fun.
4. Rebecca and I started the James study for teens during school but didn't get too far. I am hoping we can work through that this summer since she showed a real interest in it earlier.
5. Also on Pinterest I found this great little free "VBS" study on The Armor of God. Again, crazy printables, but not as bad as the other. I have thought about how to include more kids in this, but we are just doing one day a week and I really hate having to commit to a time on anything I don't have to. Hhm...
6. And, of course, our lovely Book Bingo! If you saw my post on Facebook from 5/22, it is bigger and better than ever this year, at their request!!! I debated even doing it this year, since my kids love to read so much, but they begged for it so they got it! I do make them stretch their boundaries by making them read books they wouldn't normally choose, like non-fiction. Also, since this year's bingo sheet has 66 squares on it, I included things like "read 50 verses in Proverbs and memorize one", "draw a picture from a book you read", "find a new recipe in a cookbook to cook", etc. And of course all the good award books are on there too, like Notable Books, Volunteer State Book Awards, and Best Illustrated Books. That part can also be a bear because I have to look up all the books and see which libraries they are at, but its a fun job for me and we like visiting the different libraries! My big #1 rule about Book Bingo is that they cannot be books you have read before!
We usually do not do the library reading clubs, because they are just too crazy and the junk they get for "winning" is just that, junk. I'd rather give something nice or useful, even if it takes longer to get it. I'm thinking about just money this year, simply because that is their favorite motivator! I have not completely decided yet, but it's probably about time for me to do that!
I'm also hoping to tie in a Reading Timeline in their journals this year, but that is still in the making it up stage. We won't start that until after we get back from the beach.
7. Other fun things up my sleeve are implementing a Complaining Jar, which will be tied into chores. We have three short lists of Ways I Can Help My Family that rotate amongst the girls weekly. SoloHombre's big idea this year to potentially cut down on not doing what we ask them to do is to take money away if they don't do it when told/asked/reminded. Oh boy I can't wait to pull that one out! I also plan to pull out the Reporting vs. Tattling poster, and we are going to learn the proper way to set a table, so that the table setter of the week can do it right and we can all learn to not just throw napkins and utensils in the general direction of where people are sitting. (I'm sure this never happens at your house!) It would be great if we have time to make a Gratitude Notebook too. Oh yes! And I want to finally take my kids to Cheekwood and looks for some alphabet art.
We shall also have at least 2-3 weeks of break & catch up time, which is new this year. Hopefully that will help us not feel like we can't get back on track if we have a rough or lazy or fussy week. Then the last week before school starts I hope to do some serious menu planning and freezer meal packing for the fall. I know my girls, being the cooks they are, will LOVE helping me with this!!
By know you probably think I am totally crazy, but really when you break it all down week by week it is not nearly so overwhelming. The overwhelming part is in mid-April when I realize I need to start thinking about this and trying to get it all together before the end of May!! Luckily Pinterest has saved me here, as I started sticking stuff in a Summer folder once I got addicted, so it was just a matter of putting it all together in lesson plan form.
I am happy to send you whatever stuff I have that I made up, just remembering in this technological age that all the hard work I did is copyrighted by me.
I have:
Summer Fun Camp, which is an excel sheet with overview and materials needed for the week.
Book Bingo sheet
For Nashville folks I have an excel sheet that lists which library all the award book are located
How I Can Help my Family chore sheets
Everything else is downloadable from the links, and you can also check out here for TONS for graphic organizers and a plethora of FREE school worksheets!
Ok, now I have to get my kids up and feed them breakfast! Have fun!
O:)
Melissa
Melissa