Joy of Learning

My approach to Summer School is different this year. Instead of “let’s see how much learning we can do while having fun” I’m trying “let’s see how much fun we can have while learning.” Instead of announcing it’s time to do school activities I simply pull out a game and they don’t even know they are learning to count money. 

Our first project was an autobiography. We learned the difference between a biography and an autobiography by looking at two books about Helen Keller. (Morgan loved Helen's example of determination and perseverance.) Then the kids worked on writing their own. It amazes me how different my two learners are.

 Morgan worked carefully. She thought about what to write and wrote slow and cautious. She drew her pictures with great detail. Zane quickly wrote a few sentences and wanted to draw his hand for every picture. He had two pages done and Morgan was still working on her first.

We've done a few "boring" worksheets as well but tried to focus more on reading. Fortunately, both of my kids LOVE to read. We've had some great conversations about the books we've read!

I saw this cute idea for an "I am" poster. I can't find the website now but it's somewhere out there.

Morgan helped me create a list of words that describe her and then I printed them in different fonts. Then we created a face that looks like her, with a flower in her hair.
 

 
We cut everything out and glued it all on pink cardstock to create her own "I am" poster so she can remember how amazingly wonderful she is.

The best part about Summer School... learning in your swimsuit. Yes!

Summer School

The biggest thing I learned from doing summer school with my kids was the need to be flexible. I wanted the experience to be enjoyable for all of us which meant that some days we just read for 20 minutes because there was lots of SUMMER to enjoy.

I quickly discovered that my daily plans were about 3 hours of school and that was too much. We didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped, but we did a lot.

I spent a great deal of time working with Morgan on identifying parts of a story and how to summarize.  I think she understands the concept better but we still need lots of practice. 

We did some fun stuff too...

 We made monsters!

 This activity was more for Zane as we counted eyes and noses. The kids had fun creating silly monsters and then we shot them over with rubberbands. That was the best part!

 We worked on figuring out where we fit into this BIG world. We learned about continents, countries, states, and cities. We also practiced our address and phone number. 

 The kids had fun seeing where they live compared to where other family members live. It all looks so close on the map.

 We worked on counting and adding money. How much does that ice cream cone cost?

 Zane worked on counting all the ice cream scoops. Yum!

 We did some fun art and sensory things too. I made kool-aid playdough (grape was the best) which they used to create letters and shapes and just create. Zane picked this fun shadow art project made with water colors. It took a little patience and a steady hand to get that cowboy just right.

We learned about the pioneers. Morgan helped me put together a skirt and bonnet for her to wear to our pioneer breakfast. (Brit, if you had kept yours, you could match your sister.)

We talked about how the pioneers didn't give up, even when the journey was tough.

 They just kept walking!

 Is this school?

Sometimes the kids didn't even know they were learning. What happens when you add liquid water to solid dirt? A whole lot of muddy fun!

That's the JOY of summer school!

Adventures in Cooking

We continued our measuring discussion the next day as we learned to use measuring cups and spoons. We found a yummy recipe for peperoni pizza, monkey bread style. The recipe used pre-made refrigerator dough. Where's the fun in that?!

Measuring flour is the most fun! Morgan and Zane fought over who would get to do that part. Morgan helped me calculate we needed 6 - 1/2 cup scoops to get the 3 cups of flour the recipe called for. Luckily they each got to scoop and measure 3 times. Phew!

Once the dough was ready, I pinched off little balls and Morgan rolled them in the pizza sauce. We piled the GOOEY balls into the pan with chopped up peperoni and grated cheddar cheese. Then we topped the whole thing with more cheese. (You just can't have too much cheese!)

We let it rise for a little bit but we were anxious to get that thing baking. We were surprised when we pulled it out of the oven and it had nearly crawled out of the pan!

The kids were amazed that what started out as scoops of flour turned into such a delicious dinner. Served with a side of salad, we couldn't even finish our pan of "Monkey Pizza" in one night.

Home Ec Class

As part of our Summer School adventures, we learned to sew. I could never get Brittany interested in sewing. She always had other things to do. But Morgan has been begging me to teach her to sew.

We learned about measuring and using the right tools when we measure. (You wouldn't want to use a ruler to measure the distance into town. Zane said that would take us all day.) I sent the kids on a scavenger hunt and they had to find things outside that matched the list of measurements I gave them. We mostly have sticks and rocks it seems, but they easily made the sticks the right length and easily completed the scavenger hunt.

Then, we measured fabric and Morgan cut out some rectangles. She helped me stitch them together to form tabs. 

 

I stitched on the velcro and then stitched them onto the curling iron, blow dryer, etc. cords. I have one very tidy basket now with all the cords neatly contained.

We finished another baby blanket for a new baby in our ward. It looked a little plain so Morgan helped me make pink yo-yos to attach to it. Spiced it right up! (I'm grateful to all the Relief Society sisters that helped stitch this one together!)

 Since the sewing machine was out, I grabbed an old t-shirt and turned it into a cute skirt for Morgan.

 

 I love the stripes!

Hopefully Morgan will continue with her love of sewing as she gets older.

An Educational Journey

I've been planning our summer school adventures for a few months now. I have LISTS of things I want to do with the kids to keep them learning all summer long. The first lessons I've learned are you have to be flexible with the schedule and I, yes me, have to have patience. 

 I've got workbooks and a binder for each of the kids. My thought is at the end of the summer they will each have a portfolio of all the things we did over the summer. Maybe they will think it's super cool and want to do it again next summer. Maybe.

I've created a weekly planner to organize my lists of things to do. I created a daily worksheet to give Morgan some basic practice on the things she needs to work on most: time, money, calendar, and math facts. I also threw in a little writing corner where she will write about one thing she is thankful for each day. And I've printed off some worksheets from the internet. (Yay for Pinterest!)

Ready, set, go!

The kids have been SO anxious to start. The last day of school was Tuesday. I thought we would take the rest of the week off and hit it hard on Monday. Now, we have Brit and Levi coming to visit and we are going to spend a week in Utah. First lesson learned - be flexible with the schedule.

We sat down today to work on our first project and a page from their workbooks. Zane was struggling with writing a nine so I was going to hold his hand and help him. Suddenly he acted like he didn't know how to hold a pencil. We struggled. I got frustrated. Jokingly, in my frustration, I told him I was going to kick him out of my school if he didn't follow directions. I know. Not the best thing to say. Even in joking. It took several minutes of crying and apologizing for us to be friends again. He finally forgave me and I promised never to kick him out of school. (Man I need to learn to play nice!) Second lesson learned - be patient.

This is going to be a challenge but hopefully it will be fun too, for us all. 

We are off on an educational journey!