Productive activities - Summers, Gaps, Weekends

[Dusenkids]

What to do during a 5 month gap?

We are projected to end Adventures in September, but we aren't going to buy ECC until next tax refund. So, I will have about a 5 month gap. I don't like the summer break concept. I like to have freedom to take off as needed, do 4 days in a week or shorter days, at will. So, I need a 5 month plan.

I have PLL, so we will have that, Spelling Power, and a 1/2 level of Singapore. So, the plan is to have those 3 basics. But that still leaves the base curriculum. One idea that I had is to get the Apologia Anatomy. I would use the JR notebook, so that would give her some writing. What else? Do you have any suggestions about anything that you would have loved to do, but didn't have the time? Or something that you did and loved? I can probably purchase a book or two, if I am planning ahead, but not something big.

I do best with having a plan. THat is why I LOVE the grid. I see at a glance what needs to be done, and I work through it. I would consider this an add-on to 2nd grade for my oldest, though anything that can be done together is great. I am open to all suggestions! History, Bible, geography, home ec, science, any other electives. I don't need a ton more, maybe 2 things to work through, but I need ideas to figure out what I want.

I was thinking about a Sunday School idea that might work for you. I'm not sure if you are familiar with Kay Arthur. She writes several inductive bible studies. I used them a lot when I was teaching adult Wednesday night group. My mom used the children's series with her Sunday school class (2-4th grade). I really like the ones I have used and I know Mom would use her's again. You might have to get a couple to fill a 5 month gap. Might be an option. Good luck planning

[ Editor's Note: One Kay Arthur Bible study is used in EX1850. }

[DS4home]

Another option to build around could be to read more of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Use the books as a starting point to build a unit study around. There is a unit study already written for these books called The Prairie Primer, but I would think with a little creativity and a MFW background you could maybe put some things together without having to buy anything. Adventures uses two of the books, so that leaves seven more that could be read I throw that out there because I am also thinking along these lines

Dawn

[Julie in MN]

I'm not sure about the anatomy, since it's a really thick book for 2nd grade, & you'll be studying anatomy in RTR anyways. You might think about choosing something MFW doesn't cover as extensively, such as weather or rocks or such, but each family likes different things.

Oh, what I could do with 5 extra months! Just some of my always random thoughts to throw into the mix:

- Go thru my last year's grid and do everything that I skipped, such as science experiments, nature walks, music study, art projects...

- Review, review, review. Go through our notebooks and nature notebooks and learning games and Bible verses and poems...

- Expand. If we were growing a plant, we could keep a longer science journal to record its progress, or grow a second plant (similar or different) and graph a comparison. If we tried a food, we could try another recipe, or another ripeness of fruit, or another type of bean, or create a recipe book. If we enjoyed nature walks, we could look up the names of the plants we drew or visit the same sites at a different time of year. I always wanted to make a "memory work" box or notebook. We often added another book of the Bible to read thru, and my ds would just write a sentence about it each day. I don't know if you've already done K & 1st, but we went through the 1st grade Proverbs in 8th! And Uncle Rick audios of Proverbs is still a favorite of my now 9th grader

- Add. I'd like some dedicated time on chores, on manners, on exercise, on nutrition, on typing, on handwriting, on copying verses and great sayings, on just looking up interesting things. I always look for ways to get my kids out in front of people, such as a science fair project, speaking opportunities, or being in a play.

- Service. Calling or visiting family on their special days, writing to the lonely or the servicemen, cleaning our church or our park, just reading about Bible translation needs and missionary letters...

- Cleaning. My dream would be to spend a week on each room, rearranging, sorting, scrubbing corners, fixing broken odds-n-ends, replacing bulbs and batteries, cleaning out pencil drawers, dusting blinds and windowsills, oh, maybe a month on each room

- Field trips. We used to do these every-other-week. I had ds make a notebook page on each one, and I put them in chronological order, and it was another good review tool. Even things like learning to ride a city bus and opening a savings account can turn into learning opportunities. The librarian gave us a great tour, and we saw many areas of the library we would have liked to explore further. Our little county museum had a library for researching family members. We've never seen all the rooms in the Art Museum.

- Read, read, read. Read-alouds, book basket books you didn't get to, go through your home library, read current events using God's World News or Weekly Reader or something.

- Learn about the various holidays. About.com gives good info and activities about each holiday. We have a book called The Teacher's Calendar that tells about things that happened each day of the year (suitable for kids). I love doing an Advent study, and one year we went over our church -- the people, places, times.


Oh, I'll stop now
Julie

[spaldingclan]

One of my dreams is to learn more about the old testament holidays, I know we do that in CTG, but it would be fun to do a little of that during your hiatus.

Also, perhaps spending more time on some of the "extras" like art, music, nature walks, diving into a project or an area of interest that your child has. Do you already have Drawing with Children? What about learning a new skill like knitting, sewing, woodworking etc.. becoming a pen pal and writing letters, volunteering your time (meals on wheels, at the library, local animal shelter etc...).

Perhaps pick 2 or 3 subjects and do little mini unit studies on them.

I love Julie's idea about character building. Perhaps spend a little time on the Fruit of the Spirit.

anyway, those are just some of my thoughts. So many fun things to do and ONLY 5 months to do them all!

[Cyndi (AZ)]

Since you'll be starting ECC at the end of your gap, why not start working a little on maps? Paying attention to the names of the streets on the way to the grocery store, library, etc. See if they can tell you which way to turn at the light. Can they draw out the route when you get home? Which way is North? Where does the sun rise/set? How far away is a mile? How many miles to Grandma's house (or something else)? You'll study map scale and directions in depth in the first 2 weeks of ECC. If you get a little jump on that, the first 2 "full" weeks of ECC may go easier for you all.

Also, I really recommend doing a simple Bible lesson everyday and having dc copy a Bible verse to practice handwriting/copywork/dictation, and narrate the story back to you.

Hey - you could redo ADV's Thanksgiving week, too. And build a study around Advent in December.

[SonShineJewel]

For Bible:
You could get the FREE devotional from Keys For Kids or take a look at Wonderzone (We LOVE them!)

Geography:
Timberdoodle has a Really Nice daily geography book with beginning map skills. I think it's in their 1st grade curr. package.

[jasntas]

You have gotten lots of other great ideas but I thought I'd give you more to think about. As though you need more.

If you are interested in doing a few unit studies you could get a lot of free ideas, printouts and stuff from homeschoolshare.com. To go along with Julie's idea of lots of field trips you might do a unit study on, say, the zoo. Then go to the zoo to finish off that study. (We just went to the zoo with our homeschool group today. I think the guide was a little annoyed with my ds who she admitted knew more about a lot of the animals than she did. )

I think homeschoolshare.com also has some units on character studies as well.

Or since it will be around Christmas, you might do some studies of Christmases around the world. That's one I would like to do but never have the extra time.

There's also a few of the Apologia science books I would love to have the time to cover. I don't believe they will be covered in MFW. (Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day, Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day and Land Animals of the Sixth Day). But those might be a little too advanced for your crew just yet. I don't know.

Anyway, HTH

[erikdeb]

When we had a gap (before ADV), we did Apologia Zoology 1, and the Pearables book on Responsibility for Boys (you would obviously do the girl version), along with our math and LA. We also worked on typing, art, and music. We also did some extra cleaning lessons, so chores would go smoother when we were back into "regular" school.

[Mexmarr]

Thanks for all the great ideas! Many of them triggered ideas of stuff that I already have!!!!

I have the geography like the one from Timberdoodle. We had started it before Adventures. But it kinda got left by the wayside. Mine is by the same people, but a 1-3rd grade book together. That would be a great option.

I also have the Apologia, Who is God. It was given to me and stuck on my shelf, before I had ever heard of Apologia. I just pulled it out and WOW!

I also have the Pearables girls Home Ec books, the girls version of the Boy's responsibility book. They weren't what we needed at the time. I need to pull them out.

I WILL save the Thanksgiving week of Adv. for Nov.

We will also still have the art from Adv, too.

Plus, I am still pretty sure I want to do the anatomy.

So, I think that I am going to come up with a great plan for this gap that I was so worried about!

[Cyndi (AZ)]

All these ideas have me thinking, "oh there's so many fun things we could do over the summer!" No way -- we're taking a break! Yep yep yep. A break. No more reading idea threads for me . . .

[MelissaM]

Since you're going to be doing ECC, one thing you could do is put together a few mini-unit studies for countries that are not covered in ECC. I think the list of countries covered is in the online sample? You could keep it really simple, just checking out library books on the country, locating it on a world map, etc. Find a cookbook for that country and plan a meal, make simple costumes, find out what animals live there and get books about them to tie in the science, whatever appeals to you.


Melissa

[cbollin]

I will be starting ECC with my ds 10 in Aug. However, we're coming from Abeka history 3. We haven't finished the text since we have been kind of bored with it. We haven't finished even half of the book! I would like to cover more American history before diving into ECC in a fun, light way this summer. What books from Adventures or elsewhere would be good? I thought about just using the library along with a few videos and possibly crafts?? Just looking for low cost ideas, since we won't be able to put in a full year before starting the ECC. Wish we had done Adventures this part year, but I can't change that now.

Any ideas???
homemama
MFW-ECC with ds 10 starting in Aug.

light time summer American History unit for 3rd graders....

School House Rock - America Rocks

Learn about Memorial Day.
plenty of 4th of July books -- maybe RedWhite and Blue, and/or Story of 4th of July from ADV. celebrate it! do the parade. all of it. Sing some Patriotic songs and learn them. (there's a cd in ADV for that)

Find a "this day in history" site and learn something cool on a few days.

from ADV, you could read American Pioneers and Patriots.

take plenty of summer family field trips to any historical site in your state or nearby. Pick one... any of them.. is there a living history museum near you (you know.. .. the ones where the workers walk around in historical time clothing and show their skills in jobs and things like that). I'm in Memphis. So history for us is watching the river flooding and going to the Pink Palace museum. I know, gas prices are crazy, but... Check around your city.... history is everywhere. find out what was the first fire station in your town. Or anything like that. This is weird, but I was driving in Memphis yesterday and came upon a part that once upon a time was a train depot station. and this street still has the look of super small town america with buildings and everything. I thought I was lost. I couldn't believe it was still memphis city limits. mind boggling.

but yeah, our vacation is not for Williamsburg. but we can look on websites
virtual field trips: check out colonial williamsburg
http://www.history.org/
and jamestown and yorktown website
http://historyisfun.org/
That's right... tomorrow is Jamestown day, isn't it? may 14! there you go.... perfect way to kick off the history summer.

and then in ECC in weeks 3 and 4 you'll get time for some US geography and historical fiction and US fiction.

Keep it light and fun. don't worry too much on it.
-crystal

[jasntas]

Crystal gave some great ideas. Other sources you might check out could be homeschoolshare.com. I know I seem to promote them a lot but for supplementation for us they have been great. Sort of a free one stop shop type thing, I guess.

They have lots of U.S. unit and lapbook studies. A couple of good ones for a summer study might be the following:

How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA unit study and lapbook
President's Day lapbook

There are also lots of fairly inexpensive resources on Currclick.com. One possibility might be U.S. History Little Books: Famous Events or Presidents' Day Fun Lapbook from Hands of a Child for instance.

Oh and there is also the PBS DVD series Liberty's Kids. Mine weren't all that interested in it during ADV but I thought it might be worth mentioning anyway. My DH and I actually enjoyed watching this when it played on PBS. (Don't tell anyone. ) It's available through interlibrary loan for us so you might check your library. Liberty's Kids the complete series is also available on Netflix for instant viewing. AWESOME!!! I can't wait until we are studying AM Hist again in the last years of the cycle.

Don't forget to check the ADV archives here on this board for extra ideas as well.
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewforum.php?f=24


OK, I really need to go fold some laundry or something. HTH

[jasntas]

I'm back again.

I was trying to decide what we were going to do this summer for 'summer school' and this topic really got me thinking about it. (We usually school 2 days a week over the summer). I didn't even think about doing a 4th of July study but I really like that Crystal suggested it.

As I suggested before, I think that the unit study and lapbook 'How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA' from homeshcoolshare.com would be a great mini substitute for ADV and it's free. Using the 'How to Make a cherry Pie' book this unit study includes geography, history, science, LA, applied math, life skills, art and music. (I would also suggest using a patriotic CD).

I think another great option might be 'The Fourth of July Lapbook with Study Guide' from currclick.com. This one is currently priced at $13. The description from the web site is as follows:

Celebrate the Fourth of July with this 2-folder lapbook. It teaches your child about the beginning of our country, starting with westward expansion, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence. Then your child will learn about the fun side of the Fourth of July- Baseball, Fireworks, Parades, The Liberty Bell, Uncle Sam and much more! There is even a page for your child to draw his/her own fireworks!! Comes with a study guide page for each topic! No need to research the info yourself.

These are just suggestions and you may find something totally different to use. Just remember to keep it light and have fun with whatever you decide to do.

Since we did complete ADV I'm sort of thinking of going with a possible variation of the following from currclick.com for our summer studies:

We Love the USA - small fee
We Love the USA add on - free
Memorial Day Mini Study - small fee
Flag Day Holiday Study Series - small fee
Flag Day Mini Helper - free
Independence Day Holiday Study Series - free
Veterans Day Mini Study - small fee

If we went this route I would not plan on completing all of these studies but I would pick and choose the things I think we would enjoy the most and/or that I would most want my dc to learn. I know, I get a bit overambitious sometimes. We may just do the 'We Love the USA' or the 'Independence Day' activities and call it a day. Who knows, I may end up taking a completely different route.

I just thought I would add what I may do for a fun summer study in case anyone else might be interested.

Can you tell I love American History?

[homemama]

Tammie,
Thanks for posting all those lapbook studies. All this gets me really excited about the summer instead of dreading everything. I think we could have fun with this and I won't feel like I cheated ds out of history this past year.
Maybe even make that Fourth of July cake that you always see on magazines with strawberries and blueberries.
If you all have any more ideas, pass them along, I'm enjoying going over all the possibilities!

homemama

[Julie in MN]

I have decided (after help from you all) to do ECC with my 2nd and 8th graders this coming school year. I really wish I had done MFW from the beginning! I will be doing Adv for third grade, so we won't miss out on that, but I really feel like my daughter has missed some great stuff in K and 1st! What would you recommend we pick up, as individual items, from those two curriculums to do over the summer? Bible? Any great readers?

Well, there are lots of great options there. Some of it would depend on your child's interests and needs (re: reading & math) and your budget For instance, from the K set, I can think of some options (I've been thinking of them in terms of afterschooling my grandson):

- Get the K lit pack and do a weekly book/activity theme, either one a week or more per week (you'd have to do about 3 a week to get through the whole package during 12 weeks of summer, which could be do-able if you have the time & don't do anything else)
- Add the K manual and do more with the weekly theme in terms of the character lesson
- Add the student sheets to do badges, maybe make the little books, maybe solidify reading of short vowel words if needed?
- Add the Deluxe items that go with the weekly themes, especially if your kids like hands-on & you have the time: ant hill, dinosaur book, butterfly garden
- Or just do the Deluxe items that are extras: music, literature guide book, cuisenaire rods & book

I also used the MFW-1st Proverbs portion for my son in 8th grade!

Hopefully someone who's done 1st will chime in! I'll be listening, too, since next year I might be thinking about parts of 1st for my grandson, too

[2girls2boysnme]

Thanks for your answer Julie! Well, all of those ideas sound great, although I am limited by budget a bit... Her needs are for reading practice and math facts. I hesitate to purchase individual items from MFWK because I am sure I will buy the deluxe package for my son next year, and they will all participate in the fun stuff. Maybe I need to focus on items from the first grade package.

[Cyndi (AZ)]

MFW1 is so interwoven with lessons from the TM, the Bible Reader and the Bible Notebook, I don't know how you would pull anything out to use individually. You may use a child's Bible, like "The Beginner's Bible" to read from and then have dd keep a sketchbook of pictures that she draws or traces with a 1-2 sentence description of the story.

Getting the pattern blocks and rods and books from MFWK and MFW1 would be excellent hands-on math fun!

summer reading from the library for a 2nd grade girl who didn't do MFW1---
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 552#p88552

[2girls2boysnme]

You are awesome, thank you! I will look for these titles at my library throughout the summer

I think I will also go ahead and pick up the mfwk for my DS and use some parts of it this year...

[asheslawson]

summer reading from the library for a 2nd grade girl who didn't do MFW1---

I ordered the first part of this list from the library
Are a lot of these titles used in the FIAR books? I'm curious, because I have never really learned to read a book to my kids any other way than just saying the words that are printed. I know we can probably get so much more out of them if I have some ideas!

I found some fun little unit study books fairly cheap on homeschoolclassifieds and ebay. The are called "teacher created materials thematic units". They have tons of activities to do and many of them revolve around a specific book. For instance 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs' and 'the great kapota tree' for the "weather" unit. I also found five senses, environment, medievil times, cowboys, and there are tons more. I am going to work through a few of these this summer with my kids and my daycare kids (won't be doing everything in the book - so that's why I wanted to find them inexpensively...I bought some in lots for around $10 for 4 books, and a few I found for about $1 with about $4 shipping.) My kids have previewed our summer activities and they are looking forward to them, even my daycare kids are excited.

[jasntas]

For an upcoming 2nd grader:

If you wanted to do a couple of unit studies based on particular books you might go through the unit study level 3 list on homeschoolshare.com. Many of their unit studies include social studies, science, LA, Math, cooking, etc. Some also include Bible as well. They are free and many of the studies also include a lapbook. I took a look at their unit study for the book Leah's Pony and that particular one also included Bible/character development. I have run across others in the past that do as well but I can't remember which ones off hand.

HTH

[kw4blessings]

We are about to finish Adventures in two weeks - Yay! My plan is to continue with MFW ECC in the fall...However, it looks like if I wait till after Labor Day or end of August to start back up we would be taking a 4 month summer break!! I know that isn't a terrible thing to take a long summer vaca, my kids are still young, but last year we got restless. We do have one week of VBS, a month of Summer Reading (which is largely at home reading) and one camping trip planned but other than that nothing. I am fully intending on lots of outside playing...But when the heat hits, things hit the fan.

Our budget is tight this year so museums or water parks are out. Any suggestions for a summer "theme"? Something we could start maybe in May and pick at over the summer months?

Maybe a fun unit study on a topic your kids are interested in? My dd is obsessed with horses and if we have a summer with a lot of extra time (not going to happen this year!) that's my plan.

My summer plan is to keep up with math (dd's weak area), summer reading program at the library, split up the science/art/music we missed from first grade into one day of the week each, and pool days on Friday.

Enjoy your long summer!!

[4monkeyz]

Thanks ladies!

I remember dreaming about having extra time back on this thread. Maybe you'll see some ideas:
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10913

Julie - there are some really good ideas on that link! Thank you.

It got me thinking, we did miss some of the art assignments and we also didn't do the Proverbs study in First bcs. we were doing Adven. so those are both really good summer options....maybe do messy science things outside, like a big volcano or shooting a liter of soda. I also like the idea of working on character. Keeping up with chores, visiting the shut-ins and working with the food pantry would be doable with the kiddies. Things to think about and pray about.

[Joyhomeschool]

We have struggled this last year to fit in read alouds and music/art. So this summer instead of only doing Math and LA and library books, we are going to read our read aloud (as many as we can) and do all our art and music for the next year. I'm not anticipating every year to need this kind of jump start but thus year for certain as I'll have a one year old in the mix. Have you ever tried this?

[kw4blessings]

Vicki,
We are planning to do the same thing, catch up on missed work this summer. We will finish 1st tomorrow (yay!), so we don't have read-alouds scheduled. But, we missed a bunch of the art appreciation/music this year and...( &) embarassed to admit) science. So, along with 3 days/week of math, we'll do our library's summer reading program, art on Monday afternoons, science on Wednesdays, and music on Thursdays. I also hope to do some nature walks this summer as this was also grossly neglected this past school year (newborn in February, so I have a decent excuse ) I'm optimistic for a fun, yet still structured summer where we can catch up on all the good stuff the Hazells have worked so hard to include!

Just had to add.... I was talking to my kiddos this morning about tomorrow being the "last day of school." My almost 5yo son looked up at me, almost in tears and said, "You mean we are not going to do school again ever?" Little ones are so literal aren't they? I assured him that, no, we were only done with his sister's 1st grade year and that we would still be learning through the summer. AND, most importantly, I reminded him that he will be starting Kindergarten in 2 months. His face lit up . I hope the enthusiasm for learning continues like that for a long time to come!