I started doing this last year (between 2nd and 3rd grades) because I found it a useful place to put things we were too busy to get to during the regular school year, and because J just simply does better with some structure. Not a whole lot, though. It's summertime after all! (Click HERE to see last summer's plan.)
After we completed "Brawn Week," (click for explanation), we began doing the following:
Bible
During the school year (3rd grade) we read John through Hebrews. We just kept going through the summer and read through Jude. We went back and did Luke again at J's request. This has been a wonderful experience together.
Math
Math has not been a favored subject, as I've mentioned in the past. Back in the spring, I signed up for Time4Learning in hopes of getting past J's self-determined brick wall. It wasn't that he couldn't do the work. It was just highly distasteful to him. Using the Time4Learning format caught his interest enough to catch him up to grade level very quickly. (See HERE for my full review of the website.)
Since then I discovered something that I suspected would be a fantastic fit for J: Life of Fred. We got the first book that is currently available (Fractions) and there was actual cheering going on when I brought it out each day! (I will do a separate post on this series in the future.) We completed the fractions book and have started the next book about decimals and percents.
History
We're going to Colonial Williamsburg this fall! The second half of 3rd grade we spent a lot of time studying about the colonies. Once summer began, we read through a guidebook that I had kept from when L and I visited many years ago. He and I know our stuff now, by golly!
Latin
I didn't want J to lose his vocab skills from last year, so we kept that up through various games throughout the summer. We finished Lively Latin Book 1 last year and will begin Book 2 when regular school starts up.
Gardening
Though not a "subject" it has definitely been an education! J has helped with all the steps involved and is especially enjoying the results. We all are!
Music and Art
These were incorporated by basically telling J to go play. (I'm such a slave-driver in the education department.) Lots of drums were played, some piano, and quite a few pieces of artwork were produced. (A future post may be about his "studio" upstairs.)
Along with regular chores, visits to the park, library and to be with the cousins, summer has been wonderful and too short at the same time. We've got another "Brawn Week" coming up soon as we transition to the new season. At least one of us is excited about that. Can you guess which one?
No comments:
Post a Comment