What do you do for summer enrichment? Elementary school.
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Anonymous
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Looking for some fresh ideas to avoid the summer slide. My son's school is requiring reading and math work over the summer, but what he does is up to him. The reading part is easy. But do you have any fun math games or apps your kids enjoy? Or science projects that are a hit? Day trips that have some fun learning built in? He will be a rising 3rd grader.
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Anonymous
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Board games that required adding.
Baking - lots of fractions |
Anonymous
| Run a lemonade stand - have to count change and figure up earnings - expenses |
Anonymous
| My kids play monopoly which helps a tiny bit with Math. I think we are going to use some Math workbooks maybe once or twice a week (if the complaints aren't too much for me to bear). |
Anonymous
| My DD is finishing out sixth grade and has never experienced any sort of backwards slide. I don't do anything specific over the summer that's related to academics. Just like during the school year I invite her to come with me when I'm going to the library. Just like during the school year, we bake together and I get her doubling and halving recipes. That type of stuff is always plenty. |
Anonymous
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My DS will also be in the third grade. If your son already has reading an math assignments from school, I would try to build in cultural education - museums, visits to historic sites, etc.
We typically choose a long series or topics of interest and watch documentaries or learning shows on hot summer afternoons. I let DS choose what he wants to learn about and try to find something related on Netflix. He watched Cosmos last summer and has had a passion for space ever since. We also watch shows on animals, Egyptian mummies/pyramids, etc. good stuff, not boring. Often we'll follow up with a trip to the library if something has captured DS's attention. We watch cartoons and play video games too, but I tend to reserve that for the weekend. |
Anonymous
| Books on CD for the long drives of summer. Newberry Honors and winners is a great list from which to pluck. We go to tons of museums. Hikes, swimming, cooking, themed camps.... |
Anonymous
Oops sorry- you asked about math. Try tenmarks or ixl for keeping sharp of the school hasn't assigned anything specific. I like some online work durong the summer because it breaks the monotony of workbooks. You could go all out and find some math concepts your DS won't learn much about in school- Fibonacci sequence, perfect numbers, etc. reading tables and graphs will start to be important and may need to be taught specifically. I would use the opportunity to teach the multiplication table. |
Anonymous
| I would reinforce math concepts with a mix of board games/real life situations (counting change at the store, estimating what purchases will cost, etc.). Some good board games to play are blokus, mastermind, checkers and chess, and many card games. We actually have a harder time keeping up reading/writing skills over the summer. My kids are avid readers but neither wants to write/analyze at all - I try to encourage journaling, short story writing, etc and it is like pulling teeth! |
Anonymous
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If you have any travels coming up, get library books about the place and discuss the history/nature/architecture/whatever is relevant before you go. For math, recipes, piggy bank math, board games.
Museums, hikes, forts-- talk about what you see. I plan to have my kid keep a journal, too. |
Anonymous
| I'm a high school math teacher and I always encourage my students to do something different and fun during the summer. The pressure to get ahead in our area has become insane along with the STEM focus. All math classes review in September. I've taught remedial though honors classes and rarely have students needed extra practice in the summer. (Assuming they didn't fail the class and need summer school.) What I do with my own children and what I suggest doing with yours is to find something they love. Go to nature centers, on hikes, play sports, cook, build things, see animals, garden, whatever they like. Find the real world connections that are more than a website or worksheet. Those experiences will be far more valuable and memorable. You can create opportunities to read, write and explore math, science or history in almost anything with a little creativity. |
Anonymous
| Sorry for all of the typos. It's the end of the week and I'm really tired. |
Anonymous
| Does he know his addition and subtraction math facts down cold? If you say 14-8?, can he say 6 in less than a second? Or if you ask him 7+6?, can he immediately say 13? If not work on that. Once he has that down go on to multiplication. 3rd grade math is a lot easier if you have your times tables down cold. Once he has that there are lot of fun math activities to do online. |
Anonymous
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My sister loved this program last year
Amazon once again offering free access to TenMarks summer math program http://www.educationdive.com/news/amazon-once-again-offering-free-access-to-tenmarks-summer-math-program/395051/ If he is a rising third grader I would get several dozen of those Who Was/ Who Is / What is books. 4th grade is when they actually start teaching history and some context goes a long way. Visit some of the sites if you can... Philly is really a day trip. We have done some citizen science projects such as the fire fly watch https://legacy.mos.org/fireflywatch/ Another thing is find some old boy scout merit badge books, a lot of those badges can be fun projects for summer, especially if you only have to do the fun stuff. |
Anonymous
These series entranced my 3rd grade daughter and her parents From the Earth to the Moon is a twelve-part HBO television miniseries (1998) co-produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tom Hanks, and Michael Bostick, telling the story of the landmark Apollo expeditions to the Moon during the 1960s and early 1970s in docudrama format. Largely based on Andrew Chaikin's book, A Man on the Moon, the series is known for its accurate telling of the story of Apollo and the outstanding special effects under visual director Ernest D. Farino. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Earth_to_the_Moon_%28miniseries%29 John Adams is a 2008 American television miniseries chronicling most of U.S. President John Adams' political life and his role in the founding of the United States. Paul Giamatti portrays John Adams. The miniseries was directed by Tom Hooper. Kirk Ellis wrote the screenplay based on the book John Adams by David McCullough. The biopic of John Adams and the story of the first fifty years of the United States was broadcast in seven parts by HBO between March 16 and April 20, 2008. John Adams received widespread critical acclaim, and many prestigious awards. The show won four Golden Globe awards and thirteen Emmy awards, more than any other miniseries in history. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams_%28miniseries%29 |