Sunday, April 28, 2013

Getting the kids (and myself!) Organized for a Summer of Learning

Summer will be here shortly, and I want my kids to continue to learn this summer (and not forgot everything they learned during the school year)...so I hit Pinterest for ideas!
 
 
First, I hit Dollar Tree for a few supplies: Plastic totes, ring binders, foam books (for journaling), flash cards, new pencils, and reward stickers!  I have made one basket for each child.
 
 
Here is what I have included in the baskets:
 
1.  Chore charts.  I would like my kids to do 20 minutes of math, reading, and writing each day.  Plus, a few minutes on chores and exercise.  For fun, I added extra time on their hobbies (singing, art, etc.)  Each day they will get a reward sticker for completing a task.  At the end of the week the child will get an allowance or a price for completing a certain number of tasks (yet to be decided--leaning towards 25-cents for each tasks).
 
 
 
2.  Fun days.  Don't worry there is plenty of time for fun too!  Each day of the week is a theme...you can find tons of examples on Pinterest like these:
 
 
 
I got my inspiration from this website: http://pinterest.com/pin/139963500892255199/, so I am going with the following:
Make it Monday (craft or baking)
Take a Trip Tuesday (museum, beach)
Wet Wednesday (swim, water park)
Thinking Thursday (Pinterest experiments, research)
Friday Friends (playdates or movies)
 
 
 
3.  Above I mentioned and journaling.  Well, I found foam journals at Dollar Tree!  (And we know kids love anything foam!)  Each day the kids will spend time writing about their summer fun.
 
 
For added inspiration I printed (and added to binders) a few graphics from pinterest to help the kids get started:
 
 

4. As for math, I found at Dollar Tree ,flash cards for math (Addition and Subtraction) and some activity workbooks that my kids could use.
 
5.  Last we are taking one summer vacation.  I plan to make "Summer passports" or "vacation passports" for my two kids to use. One the days we are in the car traveling there will be scavenger hunts.  Other days will be checklist of things we did and saw.  There will be places to add pictures once we are done, too.
 
 
 
 I hope this helps to inspire you to get organized and have a fantastic summer with your kids!