During summer break I want to keep my children flourishing and to keep my oldest daughter from losing what she learned this year in Kindergarten. Therefore I’ve written a Monday-Friday schedule to follow for both my daughters during summer break. When I was writing up their schedule I wanted to keep it simple, flexible, and thorough enough that it would help them keep up with their learning.
I forgot to include writing on our list and hand wrote it in afterwards.
For completing their Monday-Friday lists, I don’t make them follow any specific order. The idea is to check off the correct category as we complete a corresponding activity. In which I allow them to choose what they want to do for each. I try to keep it relaxed all awhile following a routine that keeps me on point as far as making sure I go over the basics as much as possible with my children. We started yesterday and being on day two we’ve been able to complete our lists both days, and neither of my children had conveyed feelings of being overwhelmed which is great sign so far.
During calendar time I simply go over the month, year, and day of the week. Our season pocket I don’t keep up with because my youngest is constantly switching out the pieces. Currently she has the season of Winter up, and she tugs on the plastic part in which the season slot isn’t in good shape any more. Today since they didn’t show interest in listening to me go over the days of the week I followed up with a video they both like.
Today I pulled out our counting bears set. They’re great because during the time we have them out I’m able to work in color learning, the concept of sorting, basic math, and fine motor skills by using the tongs to pick up the bears. If you don’t have counting bears and aren’t interested in buying a set, you can easily grab colorful candy, colorful cereal, or even beads and get the same benefits out of it. I brought out a dry erase board and markers along side the counting bears in which I wrote out basic math problems and introduced the concept of fractions to my oldest as my daughters drew upon the empty space of the board.
I allow my daughters plenty of free play time as well. In which after counting bears they took a break from learning and began to pretend they were at a beach. We grabbed out a fish blanket, a shark pillow, a beach ball, and an old pillow that my daughters pretend is a floaty. Eventually we threw the beach ball around to get in a little active play time as well.
I took my daughters outside after we were done with our pretend play time because I knew it was supposed to rain and wanted to give them a chance to get out before it did. Although my youngest lasted 20 minutes outside due to the heat. She refused to wear shorts. They both played in the dirt, and then began to play with chalk. In which they gravitated towards a tree to draw all over that. I’ve learned to just go with it otherwise I only stress myself out worrying about how they’re doing everything. I’ve learned if we’re outside they’re going to find dirt, and it’s not worth being stressed over.
My oldest daughter didn’t feel like practicing her sight words today and kept arguing with me that she wanted to watch videos. As a compromise I found sight word videos online in which we watched that reinforced sight word learning in a way that she approved for the day. Although the second video we watch was long and her attention span swayed away from it. She focused long enough to qualify the video as sight word practice and check that off our list for the day.
Sight word video short.
Sight word video longer.
My youngest daughter made her way to her bedroom as my oldest took a break from playing and learning in order to have screen time. In our home screen time is a huge argument I try to do right and limit it although it’s met with much hostility and arguments from both my daughters. I allow them more than I’d like to admit sometimes although we fill our day with plenty of hands on learning to counterbalance it. My youngest daughter sat in her reading chair and asked me to read to her which doesn’t happen often. She grew tired of it, and grabbed her doll to play doctor. In which I asked if she wanted me to read to her doll to calm her down during her checkup in which she agreed. Giving me a longer opportunity to read to her.
My oldest daughter has always been a reluctant learner. It is a struggle to get her to stay on point and find interest in reading and writing. Today wasn’t different than most days. Eventually she came around and wrote two pages. The only advice I can offer to someone with a reluctant learner is stick with it, keep trying let them take breaks when needed and keep trying new strategies and eventually something will stick.
As my oldest daughter focused on writing, my youngest daughter and I drew together. I drew a person made of shapes to work in a conversation about shapes for the day. Afterwards she decided she wanted to practice her scissor skills in which I allowed her to cut up a piece of paper however she wanted.
In order to to check off dance to educational songs for 20 minutes my daughters chose to do kid workout videos on the television. They have been enjoying Would you Rather workouts.
Would you Rather
Another Would you Rather that they like.
When we finished checking off our list I allowed my daughters to watch what they wanted and have screen time. Honestly keeping two kids busy an entire day every day is exhausting and eventually I run out of ideas and let them watch television. After my youngest daughter went to bed my oldest daughter and I had our nightly 30 minutes of play time of her choosing. In which we played a round of hide and seek and then she chose to play Halloween Costumes Get up and Move Alphabet Sounds Game.
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Above images are my Amazon picks.
Learning with Nana Hedgehog 