Structure

I was talking with a friend last week about what I do with my kids during the summer.
She asked me to give her a list of what I did (after I had explained it to her)
...I thought that I blog-post might be more helpful
(that way I could include links and other things as well)

Let me begin by saying that I feel that learning should not stop once summer break begins. It is too easy for kids to loose what they did learn the previoius year by doing nothing all summer long. And in the same breath, very challenging for their teachers come the new school year when they spend half of the first sememster re-teaching everything that your child should already know --  that is just not fair to our teachers who work hard enough and get paid so very little.

This is my opnion....all of it.
You don't have to agree with me, or how I strcture my summer for my boys, but this is what I do.

I feel that a little bit of structure is good -- even in the summer; and possibly especially in the summer -- even if it is just for a half an hour or an hour every morning (which is about how long all of this takes each morning).

So, if you're bored already; feel free to move on, but here's what we do pretty much each week-day moring.

We begin the morning by having (what I would loosely term) a devotional.
Collin will read a chapter in the Scripture Reader
(we began this at the begining of last school year by
1: reading scriptures as a family in the morning before school; and
2: helping Collin to improve in his reading/vocab skills)

and then we will sing one of the Primary songs that they have learned/are learning this year for the Primary program.
(So this month, we are focusing on "My Body is A Temple")
After that we will practice the scripture for the month.
(There are so many children in our Primary that have already passed off all the Articles of Faith -- my boys included, that the Presidency decided, in continuing to encourage the children to memorize scripture, to have those that wanted to, memorize each of the scriptures that went with the theme for each month in Primary)
You can find cute little scripture cards HERE.

To conclude, we have family prayer.

I find that opening our day with a devotional, of sorts, allows for a more calm spirit (sometimes) in our home...and in the process, I am (hopefully) teaching my boys the importance of scripture study and prayer to be apart of their day.

After breakfast they do school work.

I found the below workbooks at Borders when they were doing clearance (but didn't get them then -- I ended up buying them at Mardel) and knew that they were just what I wanted for the boys.
They are spectacular!!!
It is just two sheets of work per week-day for the summer (1sheet front and back).
Covering spelling, handwriting, math, fitness...and all age-appropriate.
With a few "grade-coming-up" things that they might come across in their class come fall.

Plus it has a reading list in the front of the book that is age-appropriate as well ---

The boys do just a little bit more besides their workbooks --

JACK:

Jack is young for a first-grader (his birthday is two days before school starts); so his handwriting and reading are not so great (at least in my opinion). So we have been working on that (besides what is already in his workbook) each day.
I found these flashcards at Borders (and did actually purchase them); and they are
WONDERFUL!
They are the basic words that you would read every day -- words like: my, her, his, your, two, once, could, look, long --

So we go through both sides of the flashcards each morning.

Then Jack and I finish with reading.
We began with extremely simple readers and have moved on to these (still very simple) Rookie Reader books that we get at the library.
I also have gotten Green Light Readers as well.

Since Jack is still struggling with his reading, we will continue to work on the sight words and the readers most days after school or before bed so that he can continue to improve.

COLLIN:

He does his workbook and then we do ten-minute math.
His teacher the last two years, to help the kids retain and improve on their math skills, would have ten-minute math wich is doing a hundred problems in 10 minutes. Begining with single addition then moving through subtraction, multiplication and division. After a child has passed the ten minute in a certain thing, they would move onto 7 minute and then 5 minute.
We just do it so that he can keep up on his skill. I'm not so concerned with him finishing all the problems in 10 minutes, just the idea of doing it and staying focused enough to finish it.
(I found the drill worksheets on THIS site)

Collin ends with doing two sentences of dictation.
His handwriting is dreadful.
Mostly because he is in such a rush that he is sloppy (though I have seen some pretty great handwriting from him...so I know he is capable).
So the dictation makes him slow down and use good handwriting and pay attention to the punctuation as well.

Collin will continue into the school year with the reading list after school/before bedtime.

When they are done with their schoolwork (which typically only takes a half hour to 45 minutes to complete) they are free to do whatever they want for the rest of the day.

This kind of structure works for me with the boys during the summer months. It is a managable amount of time and they have enjoyed (for the most part) completing and learning  (and realizing they already know some) new things.