Summer Learning

This week's TOS Crew Blog Cruise question is: "Do you school during the summer? What do you do? why or why not?

My oldest child will be wrapping up his 2nd grade curriculum very soon. We will continue our learning through the summer by participating in our local library's summer reading program, and participating in what we are calling our summer projects.

This year the children have chosen one thing they would like to learn more about. We will make notebooks about the subjects to document everything we learn. We will take field trips, go to the library to research, draw, write, explore, and experiment.

My 7-year-old daughter has chosen butterflies for the topic of her summer project, and my 8-year-old son has chosen reptiles and amphibians.

Ideas for my son's project:

• visit pet stores and/or zoos to observe and enjoy reptiles and amphibians
• make another toad habitat for our yard
• books
• nature walks and sketches
• write reports, poems, and/or stories

Here are some ideas we have so far for my daughter's project:

• butterfly kit
• books (we will also seek out some great living books about butterflies)
• nature sketches and photography
• art projects (an assortment of projects to choose from)
• plant things to attract butterflies to our yard

My goal is to allow the children to have more independence in their learning during the summer months. I am trying to teach them to be more independent and responsible learners. My hope is that at the end of the summer they will look back and realize how much they have done and learned along the way! We will continue our family read aloud times as well as our silent reading times, and a couple days a week we will spend a very small amounts of time reviewing and possibly moving forward in math as well.

I have found that our family functions much better if we have some sort of lose structure and routine to follow during the Summer. I don't mean to give the impression that every minute of our day is scheduled, because that is untrue even during the "normal" school year. I have simply found that structure helps keep boredom and sibling rivalry under control.

What are your plans for the summer? Do you have any great books or ideas to recommend for my children's summer projects? I would love for you to share your ideas with us!

To read previous Blog Cruise Posts and to read what other Crew members have to say about Summer learning, head over to the Blog Cruise Hub to read more.