Sunday, June 10, 2007

Hopper Summer Camp

I'm sure the boys wish they were in a summer camp right now!

It's Day One of "home all day with mom." The boyss got up (they've moved themselves into Katherine's bed for the duration) and made themselves breakfast, then by 8 a.m. our day was rolling. Here's a breakdown:
Math: Both boys have math work to do. Everyday Math may not be perfect for in-class work, but it's great for at-home review. A problem of this, a problem of that, nothing too long or involved and therefore not boring. Last week I tore apart the kids' used math books from the school year and pulled all the pages that hadn't been finished. Nicholas is doing Rebecca's incomplete pages, and Jonathon is doing Nicholas's. Working on these through the summer will keep topics like measuring, time and adding money in daily use aside from normal activities.
Reading: I expect each kid to read every day, it's not so much to ask. Jonathon has several _Now I'm Reading_ sets he hasn't finished, and Nicholas has chapter books to work through. In the evening we'll have regular storytimes again.
Piano: Each boy did 10 minutes of piano practice. Again, it's to keep things fun, short with a little learning. A measure here and there of practice means over time playing will get smoother. I'm not looking for little Mozarts, just kids who enjoy figuring out a piece of music.
French: Two lessons of Rosetta Stone each. We started at the beginning again. Easy stuff, fun and quick. It'll get harder over time, but no need to get frustrated yet, right?
Letters: I'm going to have the boys regularly writing to keep up their handwriting, spelling and getting thoughts on paper. Today they wrote letters to their sisters, but other days it will be different.
Spelling: From the "100 Words" books, we started with 1st grade. Of the 17 words Jonathon had in Group 1, he got 12 correct. Sure, it starts with words like "as" and "it" but that's a good way to have him start with success. Nicholas did Group 6 in the 1st grade book and missed one. He'll do the rest of the groups as review over this week then he'll move to the 2nd grade lists.
I'm not looking to confuse or frustrate the kids this summer. It will be a lot of review, some new stuff, and useful things too. This afternoon we'll bake cookies, tomorrow we'll go bowling, and we'll do a lot of swimming and Dance Dance Revolution too. There will be plenty of laundry folding and room cleaning as well.
I know not all days will be as productive as today, but my goal is to keep us moving. We have a list up so the boys know what to expect each day and I'm always up for alternatives.

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