Summer time, and our kids’ brains go on vacation. At least, that is what it seems like when we start up school again in the fall!
I have always been amazed that math textbooks are written so that the time period of September through Christmas vacation is “review” to try to help the children remember all the skills they forgot over the summer! As a homeschooler, if you finish a Saxon Math book mid-year you can go immediately into the next Saxon Math book at around lesson 40 and never miss a beat because lessons 1-39 do not teach any new concepts but just review the previous math book. You can get ahead fast in math this way, if you don’t take big breaks of summer forgetfulness!
So, instead of letting those brains veg all summer, how about a daily bite-size? Just enough to keep skills sharp!
This is how my friend Kathy runs her summer homeschool. When summer begins, Kathy makes “Summer Packets”. These are just a few pages stapled together and put in a folder with the child’s name on it. Every morning her children come after chores and breakfast and get their Summer Packet. The work is fun, can be done totally independently without Mom, and takes about 20 minutes. Each packet has a short page of math review, an English page, and some project page that sends them off on a science experiment or nature collection. The children also do their daily free reading. This way the 3 R’s are covered. Kathy buys workbooks and rips the pages out to staple into her Summer Packets. When school starts again, their skills have been maintained, and she can jump right in where they left off. Summer no longer takes a big toll.
At my house, I make each child a chart that must be checked off daily. Louisa’s chart has a column for each of these ‘daily do-‘s”: Chores, Scriptures, Journal, Math (10 problems), Piano, Secret Service, and Free Reading. (She has a lot because she is older and used to this system. If you are just starting out, 3 or 4 items on their charts are enough!) I ask each child what is important to them to set as a summer goal, and we add those items too. (I make myself a chart also, and stick it right up on the wall by the kids, so they see I am working on goals every day too).
Each day, before any kind of play, the charts must be complete and checked off. This is just as much a means of keeping me, their mother, on track as it is training them to do some daily maintenance! It is amazing the difference you will see in your kids if you do a little every day!
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