Summer Plans

It's summer vacation and once again I'm excited and motivated for another summer of learning with my kids! Here's hoping that the motivation lasts all summer and extends to regular blog posting!

To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to do much besides summer bridge books and flashcards this summer, but I changed my mind because of two things:

1. Wild One has a huge desire to learn to read.  And not just any books, but chapter books.  :)  I told her that we would take it one step at a time, but I just can't ignore her enthusiasm to learn!
2. I stumbled upon the "Alphabet in Simple Science" over at Memorizing the Moments.  If you haven't see it yet, you should definitely check it out!  After reading through the posts, I was inspired to try it with my kids!

I've decided to adapt the science curriculum that Kaysha at Memorizing the Moments has developed to make it work for all 4 of my kids.  For the younger 2, we will focus on letters and sounds and the introduction of science concepts.  For the older 2, we will delve deeper into topics and maybe even do some science notebooking (I've created some experiment observation pages that I plan to share).

In addition, Wild One will be working through the First Start Reading program with me.  In fact, the order that letters and sounds are introduced in this curriculum will determine the order that we tackle the "Alphabet in Simple Science" series.

As for the older 2, they will both be completing their summer bridge books as they do every year (I take them out for ice cream when they finish it).  Pinky has been struggling a bit with math this year, so she's also working on the Math Mammoth review books this summer.

 I also picked her up this book just to prove to her that math can be fun.  

We'll also be reading plenty of books, and I plan to continue our "What We're Reading" posts throughout the summer.

This summer we're finally trying out the Summer Challenge that Carisa created at 1+1+1=1 too!  I had fun stocking up my prize bucket and coming up with tasks for the kids to complete to earn a point.  I will share our prizes and challenges in another post.

Finally, I have taken on my own sort of challenge and am working on organization (a task that will take much longer than just this summer).  I started by listing 40 areas of my house that need to be organized using this printable from White House Black Shutters.  I plan to take them on one at a time and document befores and afters.  If I feel brave I may share those here too.

Well, that's another ambitious summer for us.  What are your summer plans?