summer school

Summer School

Today was the beginning of our yearly summer school. We’re focusing on literature this year, so there’s not a lot in the way of crafts and other hands-on type stuff for us to do. This was a great disappointment to the children, but to add insult to injury, I also made Turkey and Bunny write summaries for each of the three (very short) chapters of Our Island Story that I read out loud today (Ladybug got to draw a picture, instead). When I told them what the assignment was going to be, Turkey and Bunny both looked at me as if I had sprouted another head, and Turkey exclaimed, “But summer school is supposed to be fun!”

Oh well. I think they’ll survive, even if I am the world’s meanest teacher!

What We’re Reading–British Children’s Literature

Our summer school theme this year is British Children’s Literature (OK, British and U.K. lit) and British history. I realize that my definition of literature and the true definition of literature may be different, but I want to make sure we have a good sampling of the well-known British authors. Here’s a list of books we’ll be reading, either as book basket selections, or read-alouds:

We’ll also be using one book for our British history survey: Our Island Story. We’re going to have a lot of reading to do this summer…I can’t wait!

Summer School

Even though we still have a few weeks left of the 2012-13 school year, I’ve been working on plans for this year’s summer school. This is something we’ve done every year, beginning in 2008 when we started homeschooling. That year, it was a test before Turkey and Bunny officially started kindergarten, to see if we thought homeschooling would work, which it obviously did. I’ve come up with a different theme every year since then, and we usually spend 2-3 weeks studying the year’s topic. Here’s what we’ve done so far:

This year, I’m planning on a British Children’s Lit and British history theme. We’ve focused a lot on science, world cultures, and history in previous years, so I thought a literature-heavy unit would be a nice change of pace, with a little history thrown in for fun. Plus, this way we get to continue our British studies that we started last year during the Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics!

Our summer school days are shorter than the regular school year…last summer, I think we spent about 1-2 hours each morning on school. The amount of time we spend also depends partially on the topic (I think in 2011, our summer school days were shorter, because it was such a focused topic), and partly on the age of the students (in 2008, because my oldest students hadn’t even started kindergarten, our days were short, and consisted mostly of craft projects). We do try to involve all of the regular subjects in summer school, where appropriate, including math, reading, and handwriting, but there is definitely a more relaxed feeling to ur summer school lessons.

I’ve also used a wide variety of resources in summer school. Some things I’ve had to buy, like a Magic School Bus science kit the year we studied astronomy. Other times, I’ve printed a lot of our materials off of various websites, especially in Olympic years. We’ve also used videos to anchor our curriculum…the Liberty’s Kids DVDs have been essential in helping the children learn the “who’s who” of the American Revolution. Of course, the library is a great resource no matter the topic, and this was never more true than the year we studied birds…we came up with quite the bibliography for our science project!

This is something I really look forward to every year, along with our Thanksgiving and Christmas studies. It’s one of the few times where I work really hard to find craft projects, or other unique things we can do to help us learn. It’s also a time when I do most of the curriculum planning myself, and don’t depend on another resource to put it together for me. It can be exhausting, but it’s also fun to take an opportunity to be really creative!

Olympics School–Day Thirteen

Like all good things, today the Olympics had to come to an end. We had to sneak in one last day of Olympics school before it was all over!

We started by making a fun snack/craft. Just as we started Olympics school with a torch craft, today we ended with one, to symbolize the passing of the torch to the next Olympic city, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I thought an edible craft would be a fun change, so we dipped pretzel rods in melted white chocolate and sprinkled with yellow sugar. (I considered red and/or orange, as well–orange was my first choice, but I couldn’t find that at Wal-Mart, so yellow it was!). Chocolate covered pretzels are always delicious, and Olympic-themed ones even more so!

Turkey and Bunny had one last written assignment–a short report on what they’ve learned about England. They covered things such as cities, popular foods, common plants and animals, and native dress (basically, fancy hats!). It was fun to see which elements of British culture really stuck with them…and if we had had a landmark section in the report, they may never have finished it, they’ve enjoyed learning about all of the famous places in England so much!

We also did “medal” math one last time. In addition to adding up the medals on our chart, we compared the total medals of each country this year to their medal totals in the Beijing Olympics, and tracked their gains and losses. We also added up all of the medals in the Commonwealth Realms, and decided that the Queen, as head of the Commonwealth, wins the Olympics!

And, since “Bolting” was so much fun, we tried doing the “Mobot,” too!

Prior to the Closing Ceremonies, we had an English meal for dinner…sausage rolls for the main course…

and a traditional English trifle for dessert!

I’m sad to see our “London Summer” come to an end…between the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, we’ve had so much British fun! Maybe we’ll just have to have an English Christmas…

Today’s Passport Stamps: English Cuisine and Citius-Altius-Fortius

Olympics School–Day Twelve

We haven’t done any schoolwork since Monday, because we’ve been too busy watching the Olympics to do anything else. But since the Olympics are starting to wind down (and NBC has reduced their Olympic coverage in the afternoon), we had a day of review, plus one more fun craft.

We started by looking through DK Eyewitness: Olympics. The children have already looked through this book (several times), since we started Olympics School, but since it gives such a good overview of everything related to the Olympics, both ancient and modern, it provided an excellent way to review what we’ve learned. I think we even managed to pick up a new fact or two!

We also revisited the London 2012 pictograms. Now that we’re more familiar with some of the more obscure sports, it was fun to go through the list, and guess what they all were again. After we did that, I had the children each draw six pictograms of their own on index cards I had cut in half. It was easy to tell what their favorite events were based on which sports they chose to portray. They did a really good job–it was easy to tell which sports they were representing in their pictograms, and that was the whole point of the activity, so it was a success!

We also did one last craft. We’ve been watching rhythmic gymnastics the last two days, and it made me remember how much I always wanted one of those ribbons when I was a little girl. I figured it couldn’t be too hard to come up with something similar, and after a quick trip to Hobby Lobby, we were ready to get to work. I got some 18 inch dowel rods, probably a little thicker than necessary, but I wanted them to have a good surface for decorating. After the children used markers to personalize the sticks, I attached some curling ribbon (not as wide as I would have preferred–I wanted to get the standard two-inch ribbon like the gymnasts actually use, but it was the prettiest ribbon I could find that didn’t have wired edges, which wouldn’t have worked), to each, using a thinner piece of ribbon and a clear hair elastic. Super easy, and the children have enjoyed twirling their ribbons and doing tricks…and they were even nice enough to let me have a turn!

I have a few activities left for Sunday and the Closing Ceremonies, and then, like the Olympics, our Olympics School will officially come to an end, and we’ll take a week off before the “official” first day of the new school year!

Today’s Passport Stamps: Field Hockey Pictogram and Ribbon

Olympics School–Day Eleven–Family Olympics

Today we held our quadrennial Markel Family Olympics. We went over to the local junior high school, where we could make use of basketball goals and a soccer field. The children competed in nine different events. Turkey was the all-around champion, but in the end, all of Team Markel was victorious!

Basketball:

Soccer Kicks:

Spoon Race:

“Discus”:

Broad Jump:

“Shot Put”:

Washers:

Crab-Walk Race:

“Marathon”:

The Medal Ceremony:

Turkey and Bunny also had one written assignment today–a report on an Olympic sport. Bunny had no problem deciding which sport she was going to write about…there was no choice but gymnastics. Turkey had a more difficult time, as he’s found out that there are a lot of interesting sports out there about which he previously didn’t know, like fencing and water polo. In the end, however, he chose to write about swimming, in large part due to the popularity of Michael Phelps.

Today’s Passport Stamp: Olympic Venue Four–The Olympic Experience in Your School

Olympics School–Day Ten

Today we finished reading Hour of the Olympics and its companion “Fact Tracker.” After we were done, we then talked about the reinvention of the Olympics in modern times…the who, when, and what of the games. This served as a good review of a lot of the things we’ve learned during the last two weeks, and even introduced a few new facts.

Since we learned all about London yesterday, and spent a lot of time looking at a map of London, today we went back to the geography of the United Kingdom. I had the children color the different parts of the Kingdom on a map I had printed. It was fun to look at how the different parts of Great Britain relate to each other, especially since we’ve some events in the outlying areas, such as football in Cardiff.

We also made medals for our family Olympics, which we’ll be holding on Monday. Four years ago, we made glitter medals, so this time, I decided to do something different (and more permanent). We made salt dough medals, which we were able to decorate and paint, and after the Olympics, we will also be able to keep them as ornaments for the Christmas tree. I love a dual-purpose craft! The dough was easy to make: 1 cup salt, 1 cup flour, and 3/4 cup water mixed together and kneaded until a dough forms…you could even throw some glitter in the dough if you desire. Roll it out, cut with biscuit cutters, make a hole with a straw for the cord, and decorate. We used toothpicks to etch designs, but you could also press designs into them, or leave them plain. Then, bake at 210 degrees for a few hours, until dry. Finish up with paint…we did all of ours in gold; of course you could also do silver and bronze. If you chose not to decorate before baking, you could decorate with paints at this point.

Today’s Passport Stamp: Olympic Medal

Olympics School–Day Nine

Today we planned a trip to London. A few days ago, I gave Turkey and Bunny an Eyewitness Travel Guide to London, and told them to look through it, and choose places that they’d like to visit. Today, we got out a map of London (included in the travel guide), and marked the different places they had chosen, plus a few I threw in for myself.

It was interesting to see what places they wanted to visit. Turkey was particularly interested in the London Eye, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Chinatown, while Bunny was very focused on seeing many of the different gardens and parks in London, as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum. Of course, we all wanted to see Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard, the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels, the Tower Bridge, the Museum of London, and the National Gallery. I threw in Harrods, too, because if I’m going to London, I’m going to see their big, fancy department store! We also thought a day trip to see Windsor Castle would be a must, and maybe a visit to Hampton Court Palace, too.

After planning our trip, I gave Turkey and Bunny the task of writing a story about their imagined trip. Bunny decided to do one better, and write a letter home from London. I’m both embarrassed that I didn’t think of that myself, because it’s a fantastic idea, and proud of Bunny for coming up with it, because it was very creative of her. I was also very impressed with her letter, so I’ll share it:

Dear Family,
I have seen much in London. Mother, I love the Tower of London. The Crown Jewels are sooo beautiful! The crowns there were lovely! Sigh. I wish you could see them too, those jewels and crowns. Even though I remain in London, I still love you. Father, brothers, and sisters, you are all very dear to me.
Your Faithful and Loving Daughter,
Bunny

In keeping with our London theme, we colored some London pictures (including a double-decker bus), and we also read Katie in London. I highly recommend this book for introducing children to some of London’s famous landmarks. I bought this book sight unseen, as our library didn’t have it, and there wasn’t even a preview available on Amazon. I’m really glad I did, though…in addition to being educational, it’s a very cute story, and one I know we’ll be reading again and again!

Today’s Passport Stamp: “London Air”

Olympics School–Day Eight

Today we turned our attention to Ancient Greece and the Olympics, especially as we continued to read Hour of the Olympics and the companion “Fact Tracker.” After learning some more about the ancient games, what contests were held, and who participated, Turkey and Bunny created Venn diagrams to show the similarities and differences between the Ancient and Modern Olympic games. We were pretty surprised at how many similarities there are, right down to both having parades at an Opening Ceremonies (even if the parades were a little different).

To celebrate the spirit of the Ancient Olympics, the children made their own “olive leaf” crowns. This was a super easy craft…I had leaf patterns in a book, but they’re really not necessary. The children got creative with using several different shades of green to decorate their wreaths.

We also did a little Olympic math today. Now that there are a decent number of medals on our medal chart, I had Turkey and Bunny add up the gold, silver, and bronze medals, and then add those totals as well. We also noted the difference between total gold, silver, and bronze, (interestingly, the countries we chose have more gold medals in total than anything else). As it’s still early in the games, this was a fairly easy task for Turkey and Bunny, but it was good practice in addition and subtraction, and allowed me to make sure their basic math skills haven’t gotten rusty over the summer. We’ll continue to repeat this exercise as the medal count grows…I’m curious to see how the ratios of gold, silver, and bronze pan out in the end!

Today’s Passport Stamp: The Parthenon