Summer Learning - Writing

One thing I really wanted to work on with Pinky last summer was her handwriting.  It's something she just doesn't enjoy.  She will draw all day, but just really dislikes putting pen to paper to write. I wanted her to write more, but I didn't want to fight with her to do it.  I came up with two ideas to help.

The first was Draw Write Now books.  Since Pinky already loves to draw I thought this would spark an interest in her.  I was right!  We started with Book One and have since expanded all the way through Book 4.  I make her do the writing before she begins drawing.



I picked up the books secondhand on ebay and used Melissa and Doug storytelling paper we already had on hand.

The second idea I had was probably MY favorite.  I happened to have a spiral bound one subject notebook on hand (probably leftover from back to school shopping in the fall).  On a whim I wrote a note to Pinky on the first page (even added a little picture to go with it).  I told her that we could write letters back and forth to each other.  Each night, before she went to bed, I would (secretly) write a little note and tuck it under her pillow.  After she was tucked in, she would turn to the next page and write a note back to me.  She usually added a picture too.  Sometimes she would answer a question I had asked or respond to something I had said and sometimes she came up with things completely on her own.  When we reached the end of the notebook, I picked up another and we started again.  It has turned into a wonderful keepsake and a way for us to strengthen our relationship.  We have kept up our journals since we started them last summer. 

Looking for more writing ideas?  Check out my Pinterest board:
Love of Learning - Writing

Summer Learning - Geography

Awhile back I read a blog post at Finally in First about a great activity to go along with the book Me On the Map.  You can read the original post here.


The story is told by a young girl who shows readers a map of her room, then continues, step by step, to show the larger picture: her house on her street, her street on a map of her town, her town in her state, etc.

This was a really fun way to begin to explore maps with the kids and to help them understand where they live in relation to the rest of the world.

Looking for more great Geography ideas?  Check out my Pinterest board:
Love of Learning - Geography

Summer Learning - Math

Being the wife of a self-proclaimed math nerd, it's important to us that our kids have a strong foundation in math.  Trying to make it fun can sometimes be a challenge though.

Last summer we worked on addition and subtraction facts with Pinky.  We also reinforced skip counting, telling time to the hour and half hour, and counting money.

While we did use flashcards - we made it a routine to spend 10 minutes with a set of flashcards each day - we also spent a lot of time playing games.


The hands down math game winner in our house is Sum Swamp Addition and Subtraction Game.  I found this at a garage sale for only $1 (and it had all the pieces - bonus!), but you can buy it from Amazon or Learning Resources.  The premise of the game is simple.  You choose a game piece and try to be the first person around the board.  You roll 3 dice - 2 number dice and one operations (addition or subtraction).  You arrange the dice into a math equation (always putting the larger number first) and solve.  The answer to the problem is how many spaces you can move.  There are, of course, some tricks along the way.  You can land in a spot marked "even" or "odd" and you must remain there until you roll the appropriate number.  The favorite part of the game for my kids is "the endless loop" which ensures that you will get lots of practice.  The game itself doesn't take long, but my kids beg me to play over and over.  It was $1 well spent.


Another fun math game is Eeboo Time Telling Game. The game can be adjusted based on skill level.  You can choose to tell time by the hour, half hour, quarter hour or down to the minute.  Each player chooses a clock with moveable hands.  A card is flipped over to show a digital time.  Players must then set their clocks to that time.  We very often change up the rules to this game or just use the clocks to practice without playing the game.  Pinky loves to use the clocks to play school with Chaos.

Of course, having fun with math doesn't have to mean spending money on a store bought game.  A great way to practice coin counting skills is to count real coins or even to set up a store and play with a toy cash register.

We've also had a lot of fun with Add it Math by the very talented Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Life of Fred: Apples has also made a few appearances this summer as well.  Both Pinky and Chaos enjoy reading about Fred and his doll Kingie.  If you've never heard of Fred,  you can read a sample here.

For my techie loving kids, we also watch a few LeapFrog movies (these are really more appropriate for Wild One and Chaos, but Pinky still enjoys them) - Numbers Ahoy, Number Land, Math Adventure to the Moon, and others are often available on Netflix instant streaming.

Looking for more great math ideas (most low or no cost)?  Check out my pinterest boards:
Love of Learning - Math
Love of Learning - Online Games
Love of Learning  - Education Apps

Another School Year Over

Do the school years go faster every year?  It seems that I had great plans to keep updating my blog, but, somehow, time kept slipping away from me!  We're nearing the end of the school year here which means I'm gearing up for another fun summer with the kids.  I have so much planned for this summer - the kids have asked if we will do "Mommy School" again!.  How can I say no? 

Before I start posting my plans for this summer though, I feel I should finish up the posts from last summer.  I have a half dozen posts just waiting to share with you.  I ran out of time to add pictures and edit them last year but am ready to share them now.  Look for new (old?) posts starting tomorrow with many more to follow this summer!

Happy (almost) Summer exploring!

 

Summer Learning - Reading

Our number one goal for learning this summer was to spend a lot of time reading.  I want to raise my kids to be avid readers who are excited to read new books.  I want books to be a part of their everyday routine.

Last year when Pinky was learning to read she set a goal to read 100 books by the end of summer.  I created a sticker chart for her and helped her find books that she was able to read (we read the entire Bob book collection and many intro readers).  It was hard work, but she was so determined. 


This summer she wanted to read even more.  We set her goal at 110 books.  It's getting trickier as her books are getting longer, and it's not quite as easy for her to ready a dozen books a day like it was before.  I mostly give her free choice of what she reads though I do make books available that I think she may enjoy and will allow her to improve her reading.  We have some basic ground rules: the book must have a story (not just one or two words per page) and no repeats.  If she reads a chapter book on her own we count it as 2 books.  I've also allowed her to choose to read a magazine in place of a book.  I don't want to be to strict on WHAT she reads, I just want her to read and enjoy it.  I think next summer we will set a goal for how long she reads each day instead of a certain number of books.  This is more in line with what her school requires (30 minutes a day, twice a day).

For Chaos, he is showing many signs of being ready to read.  He knows all of his letters and their sounds and can even recognize a few sight words.  We've begun VERY slowly introducing the Bob books to him.  I downloaded the Bob Books Reading Magic app for my iPhone, and he really enjoys it.  It's helped him become familiar with the books and words, which has helped him read and sound out a few words in the books.


To help him learn his sight words, I printed out our public school's Kindergarten sight word list on small cards.  I chose 5 words to start (the first sight words to appear in the Bob books) and taped them to his bedroom door.  I told him this was a "lock" for his door.  In order to unlock his door he had to touch each card and say the word.  To lock it when he left he had to do it again (in reverse order).  He thought it was hilarious and loves to "lock" his sisters out of his room.


We are continuing to reinforce letters and their sounds.  We love the LeapFrog movies (Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory, Amazing Alphabet Adventure, Phonics Farm, Let's Go to School, and Word Caper).  Many of these are available on Netflix for instant streaming if you subscribe.

Looking for more ideas?  Check out my pinterest boards:

Love of Learning - Reading

Letter of the Week

Love of Learning - Spelling

Next up in our summer learning series - Math! Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to some of these great parties!

Summer Learning

Another summer is flying by!  We've been busy here at the CampSlop house.  We've been checking items off our Summer Bucket List, the kids have been having a great time at camp (nature camp, Bible camp, art camp and Pinky's first overnight at Girl Scout camp!).  We visited family, went to the beach and made a lot of time for just doing nothing at all!

While we've been having fun I've also managed to sneak in some summer learning to keep the kids' brains from turning completely to jelly before school starts again in September.  Pinky, Chaos and I have been spending the little girls' nap time "playing school." 

We've been focusing on a few key areas this summer - reading, math,  and speech (for Chaos).  We mix in a little science and handwriting where we can too.  Over the next week or two I will publish posts outlining what we've been doing at home while we're "playing school."  I'll even throw in some of the fun we've had from our Summer Bucket List too.

Before I go, here is one of the simplest things I've done for summer learning. I picked up summer bridge books for both Pinky and Chaos.


While the books are great practice, they are a bit pricey (our local teacher store had them for $15 each). In order to be able to reuse these books, I am laminating the pages as we go and putting them in a 3 ring binder. When we're finished I can wipe the books clean and use them again.  Easy peasey!


Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch the Summer Olympics!!  I hope you're all enjoying your summer!

Toy Rotation - Update

We've been really enjoying our toy rotation this summer.  It's been so HOT that we've spent a lot of time escaping to our basement playroom.  Keeping up with the toy rotation has helped keep the room enjoyable.  (If you missed our first toy rotation post, you can check it out here.)

I've been working on fine tuning some aspects of the rotations. One area that we are tweaking is the number of toys for each rotation, particularly when it comes to sets and accessories.  I've found that the number really depends on which toys are in rotation.  For example, during the month of July my kids played with ONE toy - their Little Tykes Bounce House.  I also discovered that my kids do not want dress up clothes out of rotation (they threatened mutiny).  Now I choose 5 or 6 outfits each rotation so that they always have dress up clothes, but they change from time to time.

I also tried working in invitations to play.  On my second toy rotation, I turned the playroom into a store.  I added a shopping cart, turned the shelves to resemble aisles in the store and set up a table with a cash register.  I even included some posterboard and markers for the kids to create signs for their store.  The great part about this set up was that I stocked the shelves with the chosen 9-10 toys for that rotation.  They could choose to use those things as their store inventory or just play with them if they didn't feel like playing store.

Here's a picture of our current rotation:

Our most recent toy rotation


Five dress up outfits seems to be the right fit for the 3 oldest.


On this shelf: dollhouse vehicles, marble maze set, and 2 totes of dollhouse accessories (one for people and one for furniture)


On this shelf: K'nex, magnadoodle, hopscotch and doctor kit

The breakdown of toys is as follows:

Moving:

• Stick horses 
• Hopscotch set (bottom shelf - not put together) 
• Dollhouse vehicles

Pretending:

• Doctor kit 
• Dress up clothes 
• Dollhouse village

Thinking: 

• Magna Doodle 
• K'nex 
• Marble Run Maze

Now, I know you might be thinking - "What's with all the dollhouses?"  I acquired all of these dollhouses without really meaning to. Two of them were gifted to us as hand-me-downs, and one I picked up at a garage sale for $1. I intended to keep one and donate the other two, but the kids and I could never agree which to keep and which to donate. The kids LOVE to set up all 3 houses and play "neighborhood" with them. They were thrilled to see that I allowed all 3 dollhouses to stay and put them into rotation at the same time. We'll see how it goes.

The totes on the shelves contain the pieces to the houses - blue for people, red for furniture. I am still unsure on the "perfect" number of accessories for toys like the dollhouse.  Pinky certainly prefers to have more so that each room can be decorated, while Wild One would be happy with a mama, a baby and a crib.  I guess only time will tell how this rotation will work for us.  I will keep you updated!