It’s finally summer break and we are so ready!! We had an abrupt & quick end to our school year with the unfortunate passing of my father-in-law and I was already feeling really burnt out this May. We are all ready for a break and slow summer days.
This will also be the first summer in 4 years I don’t have a deadline for new curriculum I am creating. I know many are hoping I’ll keep creating more, and I will in time, but am SO excited for an actual summer off! 👏🏻
We don’t school year round and take off all of June and July, starting back to school mid August, but I do like some fun activities for when it is too hot to be outside and ways to keep their minds sharp with reading and math.
Keeping it VERY simple this year, this is everything I have planned:
Language Arts
We are keeping up with language arts (writing, spelling, grammar, reading, vocabulary and typing skills) with Night Zookeeper. This is an interactive online learning program that my kids love and is a perfect supplement for over the summer! (Geared for ages 6-12)
There are tons of different “quests” the kids can follow that guide them through different grammar/vocabulary/spelling games and writing prompts. Throughout the summer my kids typically complete one full quest every other day (takes about 20 min. total.) They have a lot of fun with it and a great use of any screen time.
Try the FREE 7-day trial to see if your kids enjoy it too, or get 50% off when you sign up for a yearly subscription! Use THIS LINK!
Reading
We have a required reading time for 30 minutes every day sometime after lunch. We all grab our books, a good drink, and cuddle up somewhere throughout the house to read. My kids also enjoy reading more before bedtime too. Here are some of the books my kids will start the summer with and I’ll be sure to share more along the way!
My goal this summer is to read as many books as we can that we already own! We have so many great ones on the shelves, I’m going to pull a few out at a time for my kids to choose from. If they fall in love with a particular author or series of course will grab more from the library.
Boys (ages 7-10)
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Hotel Flamingo: Holiday Heatwave by Alex Milway
Hardy Boys: The Missing Mitt by Franklin W. Dixon
Charlie Picasso Practice Makes Perfect by Diane Alber
Additional favorites of my boys HERE!
Girls (ages 9-12)
Lost Evangeline by Kate DiCamillo
The Mandie Collection by Lois Glady Leppard
The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
Additional favorites of my daughter HERE!
**I often get asked and we do not use any reading reward charts. Over the years they have become too much of a competition/battle between my kids when some read more or faster than others. We just have a required reading time every day and will often have reading dates together at the park or coffee shop to read and chat about what we are reading.
THIS free chart by Dash into Learning is a great option to make sure your kids read daily.
Math
I’m not a huge stickler about practicing math every day during the summer but I do like them to complete something 1-2 times per week. Our favorite are these books by Kate Snow! We use the simple games from these books every summer to continue to practice quick math facts. They are great for getting some review in while also connecting through a game and great for on the go!
I also got each of my kids the Evan Moore Skill Sharpeners Math workbooks in their previous grade level. These cover a lot of the concepts they have learned in fun puzzles and activities. We don’t use them page by page but I go through and pull out pages I know they need to review or are good for additional practice. I’ll have them complete 2 or so pages per week.
Watercolor
We all love to paint and draw but never put time aside to do it, so I’m hoping to be more intentional about doing it more this summer. I grabbed this beautiful book, Watercolor in Nature by Rosalie Haizlett, and am excited to use it! It breaks down exactly how to draw and watercolor different things in nature; frogs, butterflies, birds, fungi, botanicals, etc. 20 beginner friendly watercolor projects. Of course we will also research and learn about what we decide to paint too!
Our favorite watercolor paint set
Small watercolor sets for on the go
History
We don’t usually do history during the summer months but we didn’t get to finish our last unit of the school year Ancient Rome. We still have about 3 weeks left of the unit study to complete so will stretch it out and take it slow to finish. The Unfolding Ancient History series has been so much fun this past school year we couldn’t not finish it!
If you like to get a head start on your school year, these are great unit studies to use over summer. Full of fun hands-on projects, notebooking, crafts, recipes, games, and great literature!
That’s it!
Starting summer, I plan to take two full weeks off before starting our summer routine. We don’t follow a strict schedule but having a daily routine to follow is helpful!
We typically start our day with either a slow morning or an early morning out exploring/playing before it gets too hot. Some slow mornings we might do a history lesson, enjoy water coloring, or a quick math review page. After lunch we complete any chores before swimming for a while and then will do our reading time after that. The rest of the evening is free or we will play board games/math games.
I enjoy giving my kids a full summer break, with lots of time to play with friends, create, and explore. I also have a few goals to get some house projects done this summer that I’ve been putting off and to do lots of reading!W
Wishing you a great summer!
Here are some old posts of resources we used in previous summers:
