Jun 14, 2013

"Summer School" at Home


My kids did well academically this past school year, but the curriculum is only getting harder and I want to make the coming school year as easy as possible for them since they'll be busy with multiple sports on top of school work.

My oldest child's teacher sent home a math workbook that was virtually untouched, so I've got him doing the worksheets starting in the middle of the book, right where the material started to get difficult. It turns out my younger son is perfectly capable of doing the worksheets at the front of the book, so the earlier pages are definitely not going to waste.

Reading comprehension and storytelling have been an area of difficulty for us, so while my husband works with our son on summarizing chapters, I've been using reading comprehension exercises I find online. What did people do before the internet?! It's just the most amazing thing to be able to do a quick Swagbucks search for "third grade reading comprehension worksheets" and find thousands of free printables (you can be eco-friendly by having your child read the passage on the screen, printing on re-used paper, etc.). Some sites limit the number of free pdfs (they're basically free samples), but since there are so many sites, I'm not in danger of running out of options.

Although using worksheets from multiple sites requires a little more work on my part to find them, I like that my children are being challenged in different ways. They have to focus and pay attention because the instructions are written differently, the passages are written in different styles, and the questions vary greatly.

Our routine this first week has been to go outside for a while after breakfast, then come back and work at the table. As I write this post, my oldest is working on his reading comprehension exercise, while my youngest draws since he finished his math and reading already. The added benefit for me, of course, is that when I'm not correcting their work or answering questions, I can get some of my own work done. And hopefully, by the time they head back to school, my kids will find the classwork pleasantly doable.

Do your kids study during the summer?

Image via FreeDigitalPhotos.net by Felixco, Inc..

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