Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Summer Plans for our Homeschool.

Today Jarod finished all his Kindergarten Work. So he will be entering first grade. Chord still has a little more work to do but he's almost done too with his second grade work. This year I think I am going to still do some schooling through the summer. Not everyday or everything but just things to keep their memory of what they have learned. Like Jarod I will be doing more reading with him and working also on his math and handwriting. Chord will be working on his handwriting and his math and of course I will have him read during the summer too. I also have a music and art curriculum that I might start in Summer so when Fall comes they won't be overloaded with school work.

These won't be everyday (well maybe the reading) but I will space them out and make sure they are retaining what they have been learning. Jarod's math will be his flash cards that I got him. I have been really having to teach him visually and actively. We go out side and I make a chalk link from 0-10 and have him stand on a number and then I ask him a math addition number and he hopes how many spaces I tell him to get to the answer. I have also took coins and he counts them out as he looks at his flash cards. He is really coming around now to understanding what adding is. After a while I will do subtraction with him too. I just want him to really understand the concept of this first. For Reading I plan to get books from the Library that he and I can read together. This I hope will help him learn his phonics a little before we go in depth with it in his first grade work. As for writing I will just print stuff off for him to do.

For Chord's math I will probably introduce multiplication more. He knows a lot of the small number multiplications since he was in first grade but I want to make sure he understands this more and I have flash cards for him as well. Though he will do well with just looking at the flash cards or listening to what I am asking him. He is a very visual and auditory learner. I know he will catch on since he knows the basics of multiplying anyway. Then again for his writing I will just print some stuff off for him to do. He reads independently and chapter books and he loves reading anyway so I know that won't be a big deal. Then I will just ask him about what he is reading to make sure he is comprehending what he is reading.

We read from the Bible everyday (for the most part if I don't forget, I know bad mom LOL)so that is a given anyway. There will be day's where we won't do all these things but I think this year will be important to keep these things going. I have noticed the boy's behave much better when there is more structure in our day then when we don't have anything planned. Not to say we have every hour of the day planned but when they are having to do something everyday at some point they know what is expected and they focus on that instead of in total chaos. So during the summer we will do some school like work but it will be a lot more relaxed and we can do these things any time during the day, week or month.

4 comments:

kel said...

Sounds like a good plan.
We do a watered down schedule in the summer but we most definitly do not take the whole summer off ugh I shudder to think what kind of shape especially Brae would be in if we did that.

Anonymous said...

We *should* do stuff in the summer too... But to be honest, *I* need the break more than the kids do... You see, when I was growing up, I HATED school. (Seems ironic that I would choose to homeschool, when I dislike school so much. *rofl*) ... And I just don't have the desire to do it though the summer as well. *sigh* I am SUCH a bad mom!

Unknown said...

Kaylie was doing a money packet for school yesterday and I noticed she really needs extra help there. She has no idea what coins are what and the value, I think Keith has it down but then he's still learning it so she needs a refresher course.

Ruth said...

Thanks for sharing your use of chalk outside! My boys have those thick chalks for drawing on the drive. I think I'll use that and water painting to get my 4.5 yr old to learn his alphabet over the summer. Let's see.