Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Summer Brain Drain

It's easy to veg out during the summer and take a relaxing break from hitting the books. However, I find that for our family, it really does lead to summer brain drain. Calvert's curriculum is so packed, that it's easy to use for over the summer retention.

First, there's math. Just five minutes to do one of the fact sheets. Hannah used to hate them because she couldn't finish 100 multiplication problems in five minutes. So as soon as she finished one, she wanted to do another one while the facts were still fresh in her mind. She always improved her second time. Now we are no longer working to finish in five minutes, we are comparing times on the sheets. For example, between the first one and the second one, maybe she finished four seconds faster. We just use an online stopwatch, set at full screen so she can see from the table. This also helps her learn time management skills.

Spelling is another easy subject to tickle your brain. Calvert's curriculum uses Scott-Foresman Everyday Spelling. Some days for an enrichment, the assignment includes one of the cross-curricular lessons in the back. I just let her pick one of them.

There's rarely an argument when school time includes the computer. Calvert includes a subscription to Brain Pop, so I just let her surf the site for something that interests her. She also has an online computer skills lesson, so I let her do the pre-requisites that are included for that. She enjoys the keyboarding lessons and the one that teaches how to use the Paint program.

With all there is to do with Calvert, sometimes we skip art lessons. When that happens, I just make a list on the inside front cover of the ones we missed, and we can refer to the list to look up one we finally have time for. We also have the Discoveries in Art enrichment program. Our favorite lesson from that so far was using foam plates, a brayer, and ink to make prints.

Our favorite non-Calvert summer school activity is free reading. Hannah has finished The Thirteen Treasures, and is anxiously waiting for the sequel, The Thirteen Curses. Her favorite sixth grade reading book was The Phantom Tollbooth. Now why doesn't that one have a sequel?

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