Summer School Formerly Known as Boot Camp

I was so proud of my idea for the camo themed boot camp this summer. All I was implying was that we were going to cram a bunch of drill into a concentrated amount of time. Thus, boot camp.

So at Target's dollar spot I found little rolls of camo duct tape! Perfect!! I mean, I can't justify spending money on decoration for summer school. I was going to duct tape their binders and find some camo pencils, etc.

But when we opened that duct tape oh my word!! It stank like anything. You know what it smelled like? When a place has new commercial carpet. It was SO bad. It smelled up the whole house. I kept thinking it would air out but after we threw it away you could still smell it every time someone opened the trash.

Humph. Oh well. I'll think of something. Something less smelly.

So here are some of the things I have planned for this summer. I'm trying to make it as fun as possible and not so much like the regular school year.

1. All About Spelling
We didn't do well on spelling after Bee got mobile. We didn't have anywhere we could put the board where she couldn't get into it. So we lost a few months in the spring of doing spelling. There isn't any way to make this different, but we're going to finish their books.

2. Writing Strands
We are beginning this and since its a new program, and I really think Sweetheart will love the author's tone (he wrote it like he is speaking straight to them), I think she will enjoy it. Plus, at the end of some lessons he says, "Now, tell your parents you have a week off of writing" so she'll enjoy that!

3. Grammar/Art Journals
I noticed during the IOWA test that we took last month my girls are lacking in some grammar rule knowledge. So, we are going to learn the capitalization and punctuation rules (each according to their level). To do this in a fun way, I have a plan to use their Art Journals to learn these rules.

I'll have to show you pictures once we get going on this!

4. Other stuff
Little Bit is still growing as a reader. She just finished 3rd grade, but was using Sonlight's 2nd grade readers. There is a big jump from 2nd to 3rd grade (nearly everything is chapter books) so she needs a lot of reading practice over the summer. We're doing that through our library summer reading program, but there are other skills we can work on.
So I found some things on Pinterest like a cupcake matching game to learn contractions. No worksheets. Just some games and stuff. Plus some sight word work. Just things to strengthen her skills.

5. Mama and Me Journals
Want a sneaky way to get writing and reading practice in for your kids? I found these Mama and Me Journals on Pinterest as well. I made them this week for the girls and they both just loved the idea and were full of questions. I had surprised them by having them under their pillows one night. The instructions are for them to write in them and then leave them on my bed, where I'll write back the next day. It's nice and I think is really opening another line of communication for my 13 year old, where she sometimes wants to discuss things with me, but doesn't have a lot of private time with me. This is giving us the chance to talk about some things. Good stuff.

Those are my plans. We won't do every thing every day. But I have a lot of things to pull from and hopefully a lot of it doesn't feel like school.

And they also have math. All of this will occur on Tuesday through Thursday. We're off the other days!

I mean, it IS summer!

Even if I don't get to be drill sergeant.

The Plan for Summer Fun

So. I was looking on Pinterest at all the summer fun ideas I pinned weeks ago. There are tons of lists like "100 Free Things to Do This Summer", etc. When I actually started reading the lists, it made me sad. There were SO many things on there that Sweetheart has just flat outgrown. Gone are the fun days we had several years ago with our Summer Theme-A-Weeks.

Pirate Little Bit, age 4. Sniff. 

Sweetheart, age 8, after our Pirate treasure hunt. Sniff. 

The girls with their cousins acting out Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Sniff. Sniff. 

Oh it makes me sad. No more playing dress up, or blowing bubbles, or wading pools or sidewalk chalk being enough to keep them happy and entertained. And I also had a memory. When the girls were little and we had our very first ever costume day, I remember standing there watching the girls doing an impromptu rain dance...

 and I vividly remember saying to Sister, "You know, when the little girls are the age of the big girls (8), the big girls will be 12 and they won't want to do stuff like this anymore."

We're there. 

But instead of sitting around being very sad, I thought and thought about how to redeem the summer. There MUST be something fun that a 12 year old and an 8 year old can do together. I mean, the 8 year old deserves to have fun. It's not her fault she has a fuddy-duddy older sister! (Just kidding. Sweetheart actually still plays a lot. But she isn't "little" anymore and I have to respect that too.) And it's not their fault there is a newborn in the house keeping us from doing a lot of running around town.

My answer?

ART!

I knew they would both enjoy art projects and I even thought of a way to make it a "theme" for Little Bit. Who is, after all, only 8. Let's say I chose "ballerinas" as the theme. Well, we do ballerina art projects (which Sweetheart could also do), check out some books about ballerinas, an Angelina Ballerina video, and make a tutu for her dolls. There. A theme for the 8 year old. And the 12 year old could participate in the art and anything else she felt like participating in.

I know I have a newborn in the house so I'm not sure how much of the theme business will happen, but what I'm saying is...it's doable.

So in my research on Pinterest, I stumbled on a great art site. From there, I began to learn about something called "art journals." Honestly, I had never heard of these. Hmm. A way to do art projects AND keep them contained within a journal instead of littering my fridge, spilling off the kitchen counters, or stacking up on the girls' dressers? Sounds like a winner to me!

The site kept referring to "Strathmore Art Journals." I didn't know what that meant exactly but then at Hobby Lobby, I figured it out.

Oh! It's a brand name for these art books! This is the one I chose. They are pretty big.

So yesterday I had the girls take inventory of the art cabinet. We have enough stuff to get started. The only initial investment was these journals, which were $13 each (with my 40% off coupon!).

First I had them decorate inside the front cover.

Then we started our first project. Directions are here.

Concentrating means the tongue goes out. :)

Cutting out the sunglasses (from images on the computer).

We just used pencil, Sharpie, and crayons. Nothing fancy.

Adding details...

The caption says, "I love summer." I had just finished telling them "you can't mess up on art journals" so I let the lowercase "i" go. 

Love these self-portraits. Can't wait to do more projects!

The site we got this idea from has tons of art journal ideas, but there are others online too. That site is just very kid-friendly. Once you really start looking at all of them, you will come up with ideas of your own. The fun part is using all kinds of media. Apparently your art journal will be very thick at the end and may not close well. Not every project will be flat.

So that's my plan. Lots and lots of art! I know there will be days when we are busy running errands, and swimming, and cleaning house. But there are plenty of other days when there is nothing on Netflix to watch, and it's raining or terribly hot, and our art journals will be just the ticket to fun!