Keeping up with academics

Hi,

Just wanted to see what everyone Is doing with their kids to make sure they don't forget school concepts. My6 year olds are in camp and now I'm considering Saturday tutoring or Kumon. is anyone else doing this? if so, what program are you using?

TIA!

Re: Keeping up with academics

We do it at home, I have 6 year old b/g twins. I'm a high school teacher.

I purchased one main review book. The best book I could find was The Original Summer Bridge Activities. I like it because it also incorporates Science, Social Studies and Fitness.
We do about 3-4 pages every morning at 8 am, before camp.

This is their last week of camp so I am planning many day trips to museums, planetarium, aquarium, and zoo. They have a summer journal (extension from school) and they can write and draw about what they see.

As far as writing, I try to incorporate it into play and fun activities. They wrote/drew birthday cards for their cousin, they will help write the shopping list, etc. Yeah, it takes a while because I have to spell everything but they are learning in a fun way.

As far as math, I try to incorporate it into shopping. If I am purchasing something small I might ask them what my change should be or to check the change. I am always asking them the time on a non-digital clock, how many hours/minutes until? etc. We bake, cook. I have them to measure the ingredients for me.

Science experiments and crafts from pinterest. I try to tie the craft to something historical.

Public libraries' summer reading club. We go every Monday afternoon and report on the book(s) we read. 1/2 minimum of daily reading.

My daughter would sit for hours, not my son he's definitely more physical so I try to incorporate as much movement whenever possible.

Re: Keeping up with academics

We read every day for 30 minutes (15 in the morning, 15 at night).

Also, we work on sight word flashcards, math, writing and spelling the rest of the week. We do it as a lesson plan/scheduled time every day.

DD is going into 1st and she needed a lot of extra help during K so we are trying to stay ahead so 1st is easier for her.

Re: Keeping up with academics

I am having my sons first grade teacher tutor him once a week to keep up with the skills he learned. He isn't behind on anything, just as a review into second grade. His teacher thinks its great.
I try and do it with him and DD but they really don't want any part of me .

I do make them read to each other, I have flash card sight words and they are 2 sided. They were testing each other and then I said they needed to come up with a sentence using the words on the card. They seemed to really like that. For math, there is actually a math bingo app that I really like and the kids love to play with.

Re: Keeping up with academics

Every day my kids need to do a Raz Kids (Reading) and IXL (Math).

These are programs our district set us up with. Plus the kids enjoy reading books from the library.

Re: Keeping up with academics

My soon to be 3rd and 5th graders have to do 2 assignments on the jognog app 4 days a Week. It's not much, but its something. They hate it, but I like it because it aligns with common core and is sufficiently challenging.

Re: Keeping up with academics

I purchased a great first grade work book from Walgreens for $10. It's about two inches thick and covers math, reading, verbs adj. etc, money, time, writing....it has so much more I'm very happy with it. We do 4 pages a day a ( I skip around the book so he works on a variety of pages)

I also just signed him up for a summer reading program at our library. He reads 2 books a week.

Re: Keeping up with academics

My DS teacher (1st gr) made a math packet for everyday of the Summer for the kids and I have him do reading comprehension in his writing book as well as reading 20 minutes at bedtime.

My DD does reading and journal writing about the books. I also bought a K-1 math workbook for her.

My little guy (4) has alphabet/simple word writing books and connect the numbers.

Re: Keeping up with academics

My DS is 5.5 and going into 1st in Sept. Honestly, I don't see anything that important or difficult about 1st grade that he needs a program to keep up with over the summer. I see the summer as a time for him to enrich his life in other ways that there is no time for during the school year. He likes to read and does read a lot and we signed up for a book club at the library where he reads books each week and reports on them to recive a prize. I signed up for a number of science, space, etc. classes at our library and have been and plan to continue to take him to acquariums, museums, zoos etc. He also plays the piano and will continue to take lessons over the summer... I find this type of learning to be way more important than him doing work book pages or going to kumon (which is essentially just doing work book pages.) Maybe when he is older and the course work is more difficult I will change my approach but, for now, this is what we have been doing and it works!

Message edited 7/3/2013 11:45:09 PM.

Keeping up with academics

He journals daily. 4-5 sentences with a picture. I do not care wht he writes about...but I make a point to have it out and when we see people, he shares his summer vacation journal...so that seems to keep him going.
He writes his color words and number words once a week to keep them...he is okay with that.
Flash cards we do... Twice a week.
We have been doing science projects and he does a log on them in his journal.
We just finished such a fun experiment...taste testing skittles and m&ms to see if people can taste and identify colors and tastes.
Again, he was writing and reading colors...all while graphing his data.
Wth the data we are going to do different graphs...pie, bar...working vent diagram in there.
He really loved doing it...we took pics of everyone while testing so I told him we could print out pics and add them to journal.
We are reading...he is reading easy books...I am reading non fiction and working on comprehension

Re: Keeping up with academics

Re: Keeping up with academics

Posted by PatsBrat

Posted by itsbabytime

My DS is 5.5 and going into 1st in Sept. Honestly, I don't see anything that important or difficult about 1st grade that he needs a program to keep up with over the summer. I see the summer as a time for him to enrich his life in other ways that there is no time for during the school year. He likes to read and does read a lot and we signed up for a book club at the library where he reads books each week and reports on them to recive a prize. I signed up for a number of science, space, etc. classes at our library and have been and plan to continue to take him to acquariums, museums, zoos etc. He also plays the piano and will continue to take lessons over the summer... I find this type of learning to be way more important than him doing work book pages or going to kumon (which is essentially just doing work book pages.) Maybe when he is older and the course work is more difficult I will change my approach but, for now, this is what we have been doing and it works!

This is the way summer SHOULD be. Unfortunately common core makes it hard to have a carefree summer of spontaneous, natural learning.

Re: Keeping up with academics

I'm having my DD (going into 1st) read 3 books a day and recording in a reading log (her goal is 100 books by end of summer, she's already up to 34!). Plus she has her journal from school that she's writing in a few days a week. Other than that, nothing much.

Re: Keeping up with academics

I signed DS for the library reading. We read every night and ask questions about it.
He is taking a reading class for a month through the district as well (summer school).
As for math, he LOVES his numbers. We count, add, subtract and my MIL purchased him an awesome review book.
His school also sent home a "bridge packet" to work on over the summer.
DH and I are also paying for private speech once a week so he doesn't regress going into First grade (DS was in special ed. Kindergarten).
We will do museums, parks, aquarium, etc as well.

Re: Keeping up with academics

Before we left for vacation and now that we have returned I have my kids work on work books that I got them at Costco. I have them do a couple of pages every day. We still have a lot of fun things planned to do together. I don't think a few minutes a day will lessen the fun they have in the summer. eta: I also have my son read one book a day to me.

Message edited 7/7/2013 11:41:30 PM.

Keeping up with academics

I feel like with 12hrs a day to kill...30 mins of refresher work a day still leaves me to have to find entertainment for the other 11.5 hrs.
I am a huge believer that kids now do not write enough to build proper hand muscles and grip.

Re: Keeping up with academics

Posted by adeline27

Posted by PatsBrat

Posted by itsbabytime

My DS is 5.5 and going into 1st in Sept. Honestly, I don't see anything that important or difficult about 1st grade that he needs a program to keep up with over the summer. I see the summer as a time for him to enrich his life in other ways that there is no time for during the school year. He likes to read and does read a lot and we signed up for a book club at the library where he reads books each week and reports on them to recive a prize. I signed up for a number of science, space, etc. classes at our library and have been and plan to continue to take him to acquariums, museums, zoos etc. He also plays the piano and will continue to take lessons over the summer... I find this type of learning to be way more important than him doing work book pages or going to kumon (which is essentially just doing work book pages.) Maybe when he is older and the course work is more difficult I will change my approach but, for now, this is what we have been doing and it works!

This is the way summer SHOULD be. Unfortunately common core makes it hard to have a carefree summer of spontaneous, natural learning.

This thread is just about keeping up with academics.

I'm pretty sure every poster on this thread will say their children are having a carefree summer with spontaneous, natural learning ALONG WITH keeping up with academics. What makes you think my kids or any of the other children mentioned in this thread do not? I did not mention my child's Karate class, two week trip to Italy visiting many historical sites, family camping trips..... some of the people on this site are such

Re: Keeping up with academics

Posted by PatsBrat

Posted by adeline27

Posted by PatsBrat

Posted by itsbabytime

My DS is 5.5 and going into 1st in Sept. Honestly, I don't see anything that important or difficult about 1st grade that he needs a program to keep up with over the summer. I see the summer as a time for him to enrich his life in other ways that there is no time for during the school year. He likes to read and does read a lot and we signed up for a book club at the library where he reads books each week and reports on them to recive a prize. I signed up for a number of science, space, etc. classes at our library and have been and plan to continue to take him to acquariums, museums, zoos etc. He also plays the piano and will continue to take lessons over the summer... I find this type of learning to be way more important than him doing work book pages or going to kumon (which is essentially just doing work book pages.) Maybe when he is older and the course work is more difficult I will change my approach but, for now, this is what we have been doing and it works!

This is the way summer SHOULD be. Unfortunately common core makes it hard to have a carefree summer of spontaneous, natural learning.

This thread is just about keeping up with academics.

I'm pretty sure every poster on this thread will say their children are having a carefree summer with spontaneous, natural learning ALONG WITH keeping up with academics. What makes you think my kids or any of the other children mentioned in this thread do not? I did not mention my child's Karate class, two week trip to Italy visiting many historical sites, family camping trips..... some of the people on this site are such

Who the heck said ANY of that????? Certainly not me, that's for sure. Talk about stirring the pot...

Do what you think best. Clearly you know everything.

Message edited 7/5/2013 12:07:40 AM.

Keeping up with academics

Thanks everyone. The grils are in camp all day and we have been reading two - three books a night. I think I am going to pick up some workbooks to have them work on during the weekend. I was able to get a copy of their reading list for their new school on-line (we will be moving to Nassau County by the end of this month).

Re: Keeping up with academics

We got ABC Mouse for my 1st grader & she LOVES it.

Keeping up with academics

ABC Mouse is awesome...we have every grade and DD plays it every day.

Keeping up with academics

I got the Summer Bridge Activities book because my DD still reverses some letters and numbers. It gives her daily handwriting practice besides the reading/math piece.

Even if Common Core wasn't a factor, I'd still do this work. I used to teach and would go from grade to grade with the same kids and it always depressed me how much they'd forget over the summer.