How to prepare to teach your kids in the summer

Summer Lesson Plans: School is out for summer … now what?   I like to prepare lessons for our kids in the summer- they are fun, science based lessons!

For my summer lesson plans with our kids (ages 7, 6, 4 & 1), I let the kids pick a theme every night and then when they go to bed, I organize my lesson (did I mention that I was a teacher before I had kids?)

Last summer, I shared my lesson plans with my friends, as well (a week at a time), so this year,  I am excited to share them with you, hoping that it gives you a jump-start into your summer lessons.

As I used to tell my student’s parents’….  If you work with your child over the summer, they will be very prepared for the following school year.  While many children will be LOSING what they have learned during the year, your child will not only retain it, but will advance.  What parent does not want that success for their child?

As I am writing this, I am listening to Surviving Summer, yet again.  I just heard Susan say:  “Boredom inspires resourcefulness.  Many days don’t have the opportunity to be bored.”   She says “Remember when your Mom just kicked you outside to go play?”   Many of our kids won’t have that experience.  (PS- this is just chapter one!  I still have 9 steps to share with you, but I don’t want to spoil the activities portion with any more sneak peeks!)

I agree with this. Yesterday, our 6 year old was ‘bored’, so I sent him out to play in the back yard while my husband was working outside.  TWO HOURS later, he came in with a little wooden bed for his stuffed animals!  He built it out of wood, nails & a hammer!   It was wonderful and it came from a little scrap wood, some un-scheduled time and a lot of imagination (& supervision)!
So- lets start your lesson today on Undersea Animals (our kids picked this one)

1- Get books from home or the library.  You will need FIVE books about the ocean or undersea animals.  This week’s theme will be all about whales, sharks, etc… (interesting for the kids, I promise!)  I went to the library and checked out a few non-fiction books on the ocean and their favorite ocean creature… SHARKS.  I also checked out a few fiction books (like the Magic School Bus books).   Now, you don’t have to, but I extended this into a movie night with our kids, so I also rented the movie Dolphin Tale.  (free free, at the library)    While you are out, you may want to pick up some laminate paper, if you plan on keeping some of these games/lessons for future children to use.  You DO NOT have to do this, but I have 4 kids, so I will be using it for all of them and I needed this to be durable.

2- Find a list of sight words or letters for your child.  (here is how I keep our sight words displayed, all of the time, for the kids to see) .    If you are not sure which sight words your child should be learning you can EASILY find them by searching “Sight words for ____ grade” into your search bar.  I personally look at the school that they will be going to next year and pick a teacher from the next school year.  I look on his/her webpage and take his/her sight word list off of the website and copy/paste it into my word document.  I type it up (make it bigger- around 30 font) and print it out.
I would prepare for NEXT school year by using the NEXT grade’s sight words during the summer.

ps- if you aren’t ready for sight words, you can do letters.  Here is how I taught him all of his letters in a week.

You can play games like Sight Word Bingo or ABC Bingo with these words, too.

If you are ready, move onto day 2.