Fresh Melons In The Summertime

It seems to me that I recall doing almost a month of work from the previous year at the start of the new school year (back when I was in school). I knew when I started homeschooling my kids that I wanted to avoid too much review, and keep moving forward. (Please note that I do think that some review is necessary and even helpful!)

There are ways to help a child not spend so much of their time in review so the student and teacher don't get frustrated and bored to tears once summer ends.

One way is to try to point out things out in the world that apply to some of the lessons we have learned during the year. For instance, if we had talked about Ancient Greece during the year, we might note what is currently happening in Greece and how history led up to the current events, or how the current events might affect some of the ancient sites still available to tourists.

We could discuss it and try to "assign" someone to keep tabs on the current event to "report" to the family on occasion.

For another example, if we have discussed an author in literature/reading, we could use the summer to find a connection to that author in our own state. Maybe visit the site and learn more about that author and their life while they had that connection. Minnesota is a talent-rich state and we have had many wonderful authors who have had some sort of association with it (Laura Ingalls Wilder comes to mind).

Math is tricky but basic math could be used in summer sports, (how many feet between bases/between goals?) or in adding up the miles to and from family vacations or camp.

History and science are all around us, (especially natural science) and the documentaries on the cable channels are particularly good for rainy days vs. some silly movie we've already seen a zillion times ("The Princess and the Frog" ... I'm talking about YOU!).

Just the other day, I watched a doc about the Mayan Code. It was a NOVA special that had originally aired on PBS in 2008  (not about that "the world is going to end in 2012/Mayan calendar" nonsense - rather, it's about trying to figure out the ancient language of the Mayans). I really want the kids to watch that one when they get a chance to because of this: one of the men that was pivotal in figuring out what all of the ancient glyphs actually means, started his career by following his dad to the ancient sites and sketching the glyphs. He was VERY young and really learned everything he knew by watching his dad and paying attention to his surroundings. David Stuart was the youngest recipient of the MacArthur genius grant at age 18!

See? You read this blog post and you're smarter than before you started it! It's pretty easy to get kids interested in academics when they're being tricked into thinking it's entertainment.

I'm ALL about tricking the kids into thinking we're playing when we're actually training them for life beyond and outside of this home. It's one of my main jobs.

Can you help us by offering a suggestion about how you help to keep your kids sharp over the summer? The trickier, the better!