Ever wondered how to keep your kids' minds buzzing and learning over the summer break? Say goodbye to summer learning loss and hello to fun-filled educational adventures with our latest episode! As your guide, I share my philosophy that while a bit of relaxation is great, keeping a learning rhythm is key. Whether you're a homeschool veteran or seeking to supplement your child's traditional education during the break, this episode is packed with practical tips and creative solutions for students across various grade levels.
We start by tackling the early educational stages from kindergarten to third grade, offering a treasure trove of hands-on activities to make reading and math come alive. Imagine transforming your home into an interactive classroom with simple tools like laminators, cardstock, and savvy resources from Teachers Pay Teachers. But the learning doesn't stop there. I'll walk you through crafting an educational oasis for science and social studies too, ensuring your little ones' curiosity continues to grow like a well-tended summer garden. No more aimless days—get ready to fill your child's summer with knowledge, creativity, and a love for learning that lasts all year round.
Ever wondered how to keep your kids' minds buzzing and learning over the summer break? Say goodbye to summer learning loss and hello to fun-filled educational adventures with our latest episode! As your guide, I share my philosophy that while a bit of relaxation is great, keeping a learning rhythm is key. Whether you're a homeschool veteran or seeking to supplement your child's traditional education during the break, this episode is packed with practical tips and creative solutions for students across various grade levels.
We start by tackling the early educational stages from kindergarten to third grade, offering a treasure trove of hands-on activities to make reading and math come alive. Imagine transforming your home into an interactive classroom with simple tools like laminators, cardstock, and savvy resources from Teachers Pay Teachers. But the learning doesn't stop there. I'll walk you through crafting an educational oasis for science and social studies too, ensuring your little ones' curiosity continues to grow like a well-tended summer garden. No more aimless days—get ready to fill your child's summer with knowledge, creativity, and a love for learning that lasts all year round.
Hi everyone. I hope you are all going to have a great weekend this weekend, with Memorial Day coming upon us and then summer right around the corner and school is about to be out. Now, if you are homeschooling, that doesn't mean that they still can't be learning this summer, or if your child is in school, that they still can't be learning some stuff this summer is in school, that they still can't be learning some stuff this summer. I always tell parents, you know, one or two weeks of flopping around the house is okay, but after that they need to be doing stuff, at least reading or something, if they're regular in school. But if you're homeschooling, learning can still continue. Now, when they do go back to school, I've been seeing a lot of parents that are really struggling to get them at the table to do their work. So I'm going to talk again a little bit about some ideas and maybe some solutions that will help you, and I'm going to look at all different areas of grade levels.
Speaker 1:
So if your child is at kindergarten to second, maybe even third grade, what you want to do is get yourself a laminator. You can get them at Walmart, they're not that expensive. Some car stock and some laminated sheets is what you want to get. Then go on to Teachers, pay Teachers, and you're going to find a lot of information on there on how to make task boxes T-A-S-K-Y no Y on there, sorry about that. But anyway, task boxes and they are a godsend in the classroom too, but you can use them at home. So what you're going to do is you're going to get your ideas. What you want to do. Let's say you're working on the short A, so you're going to make two task boxes with short A. And then you're working on maybe single digits or even double digits of adding. So you're going to make a box with adding a sheet, maybe put a sheet in there or something just like four or five problems, and make some manipulips in there where they can count and do their math.
Speaker 1:
And then maybe for let's see, for reading, they can read short sentences or something. A short little passage is what you want and then answer maybe three questions. And then for writing, they just write out a sentence. Now, if they're just beginning, you're going to want them to be able to copy, trace a sentence or something like that. Like I see the giraffe. Then after a while, after they've done that a little bit of while just have them write out, I see, and then maybe put the word draft up there for them so that way that they're building on their writing and be able to write a simple sentence. So you're going to have about three or four task boxes and they can be the same thing for the whole week. You know you don't have to change them up or anything that they know, and so they know that those things that they need to do now, if they can do some of it, your goal is you want some of that to be independent, that they can go get their task box and do that Now.
Speaker 1:
For, like science and social studies, make something fun. And I know, on Teachers, pay Teachers. You know you can make little folders of what ones are landfall and which one is the water or the wants and needs. You know where they just they got the pictures and they put want on one side and what needs on the other side, and they have. It's a Velcro. You just do the Velcro and so those are on. Also, teachers, pay Teachers.
Speaker 1:
Now, I don't have an account, so these things that I'm going to be talking about, I don't have any accounts. You can go wherever you want to go to get the information, but I'm gonna be talking about I don't have any accounts. You can go wherever you wanna go to get the information, but I'm just giving you some ideas. One of the things you also wanna get is you wanna either go like to Walmart or dollar store and get some bins the little you know with the lid on them. They're like 12 by 8, or you can even get smaller ones, like 3 by 6, to put this stuff in it. The 12 by 8s will probably be a little bit better for, like, some of the math stuff, especially if you've got a strip of paper for some math problems that you want on there and pencils and things like that that you'll need, and then they're just plastic ones. Or you can get them on Amazon to. Our dollar store might have them to. You could check their dollar store.
Speaker 1:
So don't you know you don't have to spend a lot of money to do this, to get it kind of set up and don't worry about so much as an area. You know that you got to make this classroom. Some parents think they got to go in and make a big old classroom. You don't need to do that, just the table and chair, and that's all they need. So those are some of the things that you need on that. And then they have to do that work every day. So you have to be the stronger one and say when you do this, then you get that, just like we do. If we go to work and earn the money, then we can live in the house Not that they can't live in the house, but maybe they want their iPad.
Speaker 1:
Or give them a reward. You know, you don't have to necessarily take something away from them to have them earn it, but it just depends on the child. So you get an extra hour on your iPad. Or, if it's that they're using it too much in the house, say you know what? You, you don't get it at all until the work is done. It just depends on on their behavior and what, what's going on, so, or or some kind of a treat or something like that that they get. You know, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:
I I believe in rewards. I think it helps us, you know, and after a while, things, things become a habit, and then you kind of pull away from some of those rewards. You don't need them as much, they're just a habit that they need to do and so if they get it when they get done, they're done All right. So now let's talk about third through fifth grade. They're a little bit older so you're going to change.
Speaker 1:
Maybe not have those bends with the um with the top on them, but they're called uh, organizers file organizers. They got them on. I saw them on amazon. I think they're like 18 for three of them or something, but you can get them cheaper than that, I I'm sure. And they're the ones that where you could put a file in there you know a little folder type thing and put their work inside there and say, maybe, have a little folder type thing and put their work inside there and say, maybe have three of them for them and say, okay, you're going to do this reading today. And then you know, do some writing, some math in one and these are your things that you need to do today. So once you get them done, then you know you get extra time and they can whip right through them.
Speaker 1:
And if you need to sit down or have a tutor come in to help them with a math problem, as they're getting older sometimes you know we need a little extra help, so maybe get a tutor to come in. It can be anybody, it could be a high school kid, it can be your neighbor or maybe your family member that can come in and help for an hour or so. Give them a few bucks for their time and have them work with them one-on-one and with a subject that they need help with. And then you can also have them sit down with you. If you're at your desk or if you're doing something in the kitchen, have them pull up a stool and Just do it that way.
Speaker 1:
It doesn't have to be this uniform of in the classroom sitting at the table. There's a lot of options. You know you're in the kitchen cooking. Hey, sit up here at the bar here and let's get this done. And you know it really doesn't really take that long. You can do 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there and take a break. You know, work a half hour and give a break. I do that with my kids that I'm tutoring. I can see the stress on them after 30, 40 minutes sometimes and they need a little bit of break. So we do like a two, three minute break, sometimes five minutes, it just depends and then we get back to work and first work, then whatever object that they choose, and, and with your kids that are smaller, that need that reinforcement, that visual don't forget those visuals the timers or first work, and then you get to do whatever you want go to your room or ipad or whatever, have a snack, do those kind of things too, and you will find them anywhere. You can find them on um, amazon, and I think you can. And then, uh, but teachers, paying teachers, and what was that? Oh, uh, pecs, you can find that stuff on there too.
Speaker 1:
So now we're talking about high school kids. Uh, we've got kids that are in high school. What are we? What are we looking at? Well, we definitely want them reading and we definitely want them to try to be writing. Now, if they have difficulties writing, use the computer or, you know, get something that they can type out. You know it doesn't have to be handwritten all the time. You just want to make sure they can sign their name and people can read it and things like that. But not that handwriting isn't important, but sometimes some kids have a very difficult time with that. So don't be worried about them writing out papers and things like that. Just simple stuff that they can write a list just things that they would need to do to function in life. But other than that, they can just use the computer life. But other than that, they can just use the computer. I think today, that is a very good skill to have to be able to do that, to be able to write out a letter on a computer and then for so, with our high schoolers, we need to be thinking about skills for them too.
Speaker 1:
Yes, we want them reading. Yes, we want them to know math, but it's most important that they find a skill. Yes, we want them to know math, but it's most important that they find a skill, something they can do. I don't care if it's, you know, learning to stack cans on the shelf, working at the store or bagging groceries. Or the one student that I'm working with right now and have been for over a year now, but we're getting better is his culinary. A lot of kids like to cook and they can take a culinary test and there is a booklet that you can get or you can even do it online and they practice the test and then they take it to work in the kitchen, maybe doing the dishes or sweeping the floors, but they have to have that skill and that certificate you want them to have. So find things that they're interested in, what they think they would like to do. Maybe it's washing cars or something like that cleaning type thing inside and out of a car. So just find out what that is and work out with that and they can earn some money. Maybe it's doing lawn or mowing the lawns, washing windows. There's things out there that they can do to learn to be able to function and to be able to learn to function in the house but take care of themselves, or cleaning their rooms and things like that. So we want to work on those skills along with our education to be able to graduate.
Speaker 1:
You want to know science and social studies and things like that. But take it in chunks. Get those big folders. Those file folders say okay, these are the three things you're going to do today, or the four things. If you're again on each of those, if you're working on a goal, you know, make sure that goal is in there.
Speaker 1:
Okay, once we've got that, then we move up to the next one. Now, if they don't have it right away, don't worry about it. You can always come back to it, but don't stay stuck on it either. You know you need to move forward because if you stay stuck on it they're going to give up and you're going to have a difficult time. You need to move on.
Speaker 1:
You know I do two weeks and then I go back and forth, you know, and we review it again and stuff, but a lot of that time you're going to see it again anyway. It's like if you're working on 10 words and they get five of them and they didn't get the other five, move on to something else and then later on add those words into the words that they miss, they're going to see them again and again and again. But if you just stay stuck on those 10 words that they miss, they're going to see them again and again, and again. But if you just stay stuck on those 10 words, they're not going to want to do it, they're going to get bored. They're going to say enough. And sometimes with some of our kids that are on the spectrum, they do have it, but they haven't shown it yet and so it will show up again later, later on. So anyway, I hope some of those strategies have helped you a little bit.
Speaker 1:
Please don't be beating yourself up or him or her either. You know, I know it's difficult and stuff like that, but try to make it easy. This is all we have to do today, you know. Make it. Oh, this is all we have to do. Let's get this done and then you can have the rest of the day. Don't feel like you have to be from sunup to sundown to to education, and a lot of times you can do other things too. You know, like art and science, and maybe, you know, join a jogging group or, um, some time of physical activity that they can do. That's all important too. You know build teamwork and communication and good exercise. So look at those things too, okay? So, anyway, I really hope everybody has a wonderful, wonderful weekend and just enjoy your family and take care of each other, and God bless you all. Thank you, bye-bye.