Summer is almost here! We have 2 weeks left of our school year and I think this has been the fastest year yet! I literally feel like we made our California map projects yesterday! 🤯 Even though the year feels like it went by in a blink, I’m excited for summer and ready for a break!
This post is going to be a little different than past years because I honestly don’t have much planned for this summer. We only take off June and July (starting back mid-August) so I really want to use that time to relax, have play dates, and take trips as a family. This summer will be a heavy work load for me as well since I’m currently writing a whole new ancient history curriculum! I need these summer days to work as much as possible, so I don’t need a lot of extra things on my plate.
First I’ll share with you some posts and fun things we have done from previous summers:
This year we won’t be doing any additional unit studies (unless my kids do it on their own,) but do like to fit in a little for math and always read every day.
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Math
Kate Snow- Addition Facts That Stick, Subtraction Facts That Stick, Multiplication Facts That Stick
We LOVE these books and they are so great to use during the summer. You can use them lesson by lesson (they are 6 weeks long,) but we really use them for all the great (simple!) games. We try to play one game each day that really improve their math facts. I typically choose a different book each week to play the games from. The “board games” are included and many use any manipulatives you have or a deck of cards. Once my kids know many of these games, they can also play them together without me if needed. Practice worksheets are also found in the back that I can print copies of for independent practice.
Check out some of our favorite math board games HERE!
Spanish
We started using this Spanish curriculum this year from Homeschool Languages and absolutely love it! It is colorful, fun, and has so many great games and activities to use to help learn a foreign language. It is great for ages 4-10, family-style, and all of my kids have been learning well with it!
Halfway through the school year we became overwhelmed doing too many things, so I put this aside for a bit while we got our essentials done. So this summer we are all excited to pull it back out again and work through it. The lessons are fairly short (15-20 min.) and there is an additional workbook you can add on for more practice between lessons.
We will probably do 2 lessons per week and complete the workbook pages in between. We will not get through the whole thing so will continue into next school year.
You can try the first 10 lessons for free to see if it is a good fit for your family! They also offer other languages: French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish
Science Unit
My boys have been begging me to learn about dinosaurs, so I grabbed the Paleontology unit from The Good and the Beautiful during their recent sale. If they want to do a lesson from this I’m all for it, but I’m not pushing it and am ok if it doesn’t get done at this time.
I even thought about having my daughter be the “teacher” and helping them through the lessons. She would probably enjoy that! The lessons are fairly short and include a section they read, sometimes a video, and a journal page activity. The student journals I grabbed are for grades 3-6, but many of it is cut and paste or matching activities so I think my almost 7 year old can do it just fine too.
No schedule for this one, will just have it on our homeschool shelf and they can complete it whenever they want. Probably on those super hot days when we want to be inside. There are only 11 lessons total.
We have TONS of additional dinosaur books we can use alongside it, but I’ll link some really cool ones we love!!
The coolest dinosaur book we own!!
Reading
Everyday we have an independent reading time for 30 minutes and the summer is no exception. We usually do this after lunch to relax, get away from each other for a minute 🤣, and enjoy some great stories.
During the school year my kids have certain books they are required to read, but during the summer I let them have free rein. We own a lot of great books, and our closest library is closed until September, so I’m hoping to shop our own shelves this summer. I recently swapped out chapter books they’ve already read this year on our shelves and replaced them with some books we already own that I think my kids would love.
My kids have already scoped them out and I’ll share below their most anticipated reads.
Many of his most anticipated reads are sequel’s from books he loved during the school year with Brave Writer.
Big Foot Little Foot: The Monster Detector (Book 2) by Ellen Potter
RA The Mighty: The Great Tomb Robbery (Book 2) by A.B. Greenfield
Jack vs. the Tornado: Tree Street Kids by Amanda Eastep
Mouse and the Motorcycle series by Beverly Cleary
My daughter reads a ton, but these are the ones she is most looking forward to:
The Mandie Collection Vol. 1 by Lois Gladys Leppard
The Railway Children (Usborne Illustrated Originals) by E. Nesbit
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Here is a past blog post of some of her favorite chapter books: Favorite Chapter Book Series for Girls (8-12)
Some anticipated reads for my 1st/2nd grader:
Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot series by Dav Pilkey
Dragon Masters series by Tracey West
Good Dog series by Cam Higgins
Additional book lists for ideas:
Beginner Chapter Books for Boys
Beginner Chapter Books for Boys (Part 2)
Beginner Chapter Books for Girls
Here are some fun reading programs over summer to help with motivation! Check your area and participating stores for more details.
Read Aloud
We like to pick one book as our read aloud for summer and love to read outside on the patio in the cool mornings. This year we are reading Mooses With Bazookas: and Other Stories Children Should Never Read by S.D. Smith (author of The Green Ember series) and we are so excited! I’ve heard great things about how hilarious and fun this book is. We might get through it quickly!
That’s it for our summer! My goal is to work as much as possible and the kids goal is to swim as much as possible. (We got THIS pool last year and it has been the best purchase ever!!)
On those hot days and cool mornings we will do some math games, read, a little Spanish, and maybe some paleontology.
I hope this was helpful! Don’t feel like you have to do a bunch of things. If you take a break in the summer, that is what it is meant to be…a break!
Sending you all the good vibes! Excited for Ancient History & Zoology 🙌🏻 💚
We are working through the history program from you and love it. Is the ancient history going to be similar with book list, projects/crafts? My boys absolutely love all the hands on learning so far!
Yes! Very similar with lots of great books, hands on projects/activities, and notebooking! 🙂
Hello, I have been following you from a far and plan to purchase a couple of your unit studies for our summer plans. Will you be having a sale on your unit studies soon? Also, how exciting for ancient history! We will be doing Ancient history next year, do you have an anticipated launch date for that? I am looking forward to that!
End of the school year sale will be early June! The first part of Ancient History (it’s 3 parts) Ancient Egypt will be out this summer. We are using it next year too 🙂
Any other planned sales currently? I’m getting so excited about planning for next year with some of your unit studies!
I usually have a spring sale around March and an end of the school year sale in May/June!