I know with school nearing a close for many of you, you’re wondering what you’re going to do so your kiddos don’t forget all those precious tidbits you so carefully lodged in their brains over the course of the year. While I don’t plan anything super hard core for summer (we all need a break, me included!) I do keep the kids reading over the summer, mostly fun books. They get to pick what they want to read and as long as it’s appropriate for them, that’s fine.
Just to keep all of the other subjects fresh in their minds, we also do some activities out of the Carson Dellosa Summer Bridge activity books! They’re literally ZERO planning on my part, and great for keeping kids skills fresh over the summer.
Keeping up with your students reading, math, and other basic skills over the long summer break is important. I’m not sure if this happens to your kids, but it seems like a few weeks after school is out my kids seem to forget everything they’ve learned the previous year.
Depending on the day, I usually have the kids are do 1 lesson per day out of their workbook. I don’t usually force the issue too much, there tends to be a time each day where they start getting bored, and the Summer Bridge activities are the perfect solution! The great thing about them, is that they’re colorful and fun, so it’s not hard to get them to do a page or two.
Just to make it a little more fun, we use our Educational Insights Smens pens to make it a little bit more fun. They LOVE IT!
And I kid you not, one of them said “Wow, this is so much more fun than regular school!” and the other came up later in the day and actually asked me if she could do some school in her new workbook! Are you serious? YEAH!
Interested in some summer bridge activities?
Visit Carson-Dellosa for more info:
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I just started homeschooling this past year and love it! This summer we will do a shortened day of homeschool then afternoons are free for summer fun and exploring. We will be keeping part of our homeschool schedule because our autistic son and adhd son need the continued structure. Thank you for your amazing blog and resources!!!!
We’ll focus on the basics and keep on trucking through the summer.
Next year will be our first homeschool year, with our eldest in 3rd grade. I 1st found out about these books because our school uses them for the kids who are ready for harder work. We’re moving in a couple of weeks so having something on hand would be perfect.
after june 15 and our adoption is finalized, i will be a stay at home mom to 2 beautiful boys,,, a 7 yr and 2 yr old…. so i am designing a summer program with them in mind,,, to keep the oldest one reading and keep the brain cells from getting too lazy and to start working with the youngest with letters, colors, alphabet and such……
Lots of reading programs, the library, Barnes and Noble and I generally create one of my own. We also do the workbook thing. Currently some Kumon learning books. I also try hard to incorporate fun cooking, science and book themed activities (such as Pirate week we read pirate books all week and had a pirate party on Friday!) for us to do throughout the summer.
I subscribe to Confessions of a Homeschooler through email!
I have been looking for something for my kids to do this summer without pressuring them to do too much! This looks like the perfect solution! I would love to look more into what these lessons have to offer! Thanks for all you to for your followers!
We are excited about taking a lot of “field trips” this summer and my kids love workbooks too! It’s amazing how eager they are to do a page or two when it’s outside our usual schedule! Also…we’re starting to homeschool our 1st grader and Pre-Ker next year and have been SO thankful for your blog to help get us started! Thank you for all you do to help us homeschooling moms out! I’ve been a public school teacher for a while, but this is a whole new ballgame 🙂 Thanks for making the transition so much easier!
This summer camp the kids have a lot of reading.They really love these books.And they are willing to win The Summer Bridge Activity Books.