Beyond the Worksheet

Hugmonkey loves worksheets. His teacher has started sending some home for homework (no comment) and he has the best time doing them. There was a time when Lovebug and Ironflower felt the same way, but that was before they completed a couple hundred of them. Now, if I want them to learn at home - which I definitely do, at least during the summer - I can't exactly hand them a grade level workbook. 

Well, I could, but I want them to actually enjoy learning.

• The whiteboard. You can use it like you would a worksheet - have them copy words or practice math facts, but for some reason they find it way more fun. 
• Let them create their own worksheet and answer key for any subject. Then you or a sibling can complete it. 
• Make an alphabet book. For little ones, this can just mean writing a letter at the top of a page and drawing a picture of something that starts with that letter. When that's too easy, they can think of several words for each letter and draw those words. For older kids, they can research a favorite topic like sea animals or monster trucks and complete an alphabet book about that subject, with facts and a drawing for each letter. 
• If you've got kids close in ability levels you can have them create and trade math story problems. 
• If you still get catalogs (and if you've got an American Girl-aged girl I know you do, I'm pretty sure they have a contract with the NSA to be alerted of all 7 year old girls), give your kids a budget and let them pretend to shop from the catalog. 
• Have them figure out how to double and/or halve their favorite recipes. 
• Make them create a book, play, poem song and/or dance to help practice math facts, state capitals or whatever else they need to practice. 
• Encourage kids to take surveys and compile the data in different ways. If your family has a holiday gathering every year, let your kids ask all the family members for their favorite desserts, then create a graph depicting that. 
• Create a website. Have kids make a book review blog and encourage them to post at least once a week. 
• Encourage them to create a math picture dictionary. They can devote each page to one math term and include its meaning and an example. 
• Develop a family journal and let each kid be responsible for recording family activities one day a week. 
• Use a "number of the day" concept. Choose a number and encourage kids to come up with number sentences that total that number. 

Teaching Tuesday: More Summer Notebook Ideas

About a month ago, I posted about helping kids learn over the summer through summer notebooks. I actually remembered that I promised to include more ideas later in the summer, which, if you know me at all, is kind of a miracle. Half the time I can't even remember to set up reminders on my phone the right way.

Anyway, not only did I remember that I was supposed to do it, I am actually doing it. I just hope you find it helpful.

1. Have them make acrostic poems with their names or other special words (let them use a dictionary):
For example:
     Joky
   Energetic
   Noisy

2. Have them make a graph of a bag of M&Ms or Skittles, showing how many colors there are of each candy.

3. Have them calculate the money needed to start a lemonade stand (how much to buy lemonade, how much to "rent" a table from you, how much to make posters) as well as how much they'll make if they sell 10 cups for $.25 and $.50.

4. Have younger kids copy a picture you make from simple shapes, like a snowman and a train.

5. Hand over some old coupons or the Sunday supplement, give kids an imaginary budget and let them figure out a grocery list. This would also work with toy or clothing catalogs, as long as your kiddo was fine with the "imaginary" part.

6. Have older kids turn a short scene from a book into a short play, with appropriate stage directions and dialogue.

7. Have them use index cards to make their own math flash cards, with answers on the back.

8. Have them create a board game about a specific topic, such as Harry Potter, addition facts or dinosaurs. They can write the directions in their summer notebook, then use poster board and index cards to make the actual game.

9. Have them write a persuasive letter to get you to change your mind about a family rule or habit; Ironflower's is about why she should be able to get her ears pierced.

10. Have them write haiku (17 syllables - 1 line of 5, 1 of 7 and 1 of 5) about their favorite summer activities.