Summer Learning Program 2011

Summer is nearly upon us!  As I've done for the past two years, I created a summer learning program for our daughters.  This gives a sense of structure to our days and allows our children to study topics they're interested in.

A couple of weeks ago, we decided what subjects they wanted to include and I assigned each one to a particular week.  Once we begin, we typically visit the library every Monday and check out books related to our theme.  I try to incorporate an activity and an outing each week as well.

We chose Washington, D.C., as one of our themes as we are planning to travel there in the fall.  (I realize that a baseball game is not necessarily associated with Washington, D.C,  but since that theme will fall during the week of July 4th, we always attend a minor league ball game around the holiday.)

There are more than six weeks in our summer, but with a vacation in the mountains, Vacation Bible School, one of the girls attending basketball camp, and a trip to visit family in Virginia, that's about the number of weeks we'll have for our program.

Week 1 Theme - Authors
Books:  Biographies of famous authors
Activity: Have each child make her own book, including a brief story and illustrations.
Outing: Visit bookstore.
Bible Memory Verse: Joshua 1:8

Week 2 Theme - Washington, D.C.
Books:  Read about history of the city as well as popular sights and monuments.
Activity:  Have each child write a list of five must-see attractions.
Outing: Baseball game
Bible Memory Verse:  I Timothy 2:1-2

Week 3 Theme - Planets
Books:  Outer space, planets
Activity:  Make model of solar system.
Outing:  Nighttime stargazing
Bible Memory Verse: Psalm 8:3-4

Week 4 Theme - Europe

Books: Countries in Europe
Activity:  Color and label a map of Europe.

Outing:  Visit European-style snack bar downtown.

Bible Memory Verse: Proverbs 14:34

Week 5 Theme - Vietnam War
Books:  History of Vietnam War, battles and generals

Activity:  Mark map of Vietnam with major conflicts.

Outing:  Visit Vietnam War Memorial on trip to Washington, D.C.

Bible Memory Verse:  II Timothy 2:3-4

Week 6 Theme - Horses
Books:  Horse breeds, training and riding horses
Activity:  Choose a famous horse from the past to study.
Outing:  Horse-drawn carriage ride downtown
Bible Memory Verse:  James 3:3-5

The following will also be included in our daily learning time:

• piano practice
• complete a page from a critical thinking skills workbook
• English and/or Math review worksheet (Both girls have some leftover workbook pages from the school year.  Once those are gone, I will print appropriate grade-level worksheets from online resources.)
• typing practice  (I plan to use freetypinggame.net.  It seemed to work pretty well last summer.)
• foreign language practice (I still need to see if our library has anything we could use in this area.)

Click on the links to see my summer learning program for 2010 and summer learning program for 2009.

In case you wondered....yes, we still have plenty of time for fun during the summer!  We typically spend an hour to an hour and a half on this, leaving plenty of time for swimming, bike rides, board games and playing outside. 

Do you have any outings or other activities planned for summer?