The idea for this post was originally going to be a Mid-week Morsel. However, once I started gathering resources and putting it all together, I quickly realized that this was not a morsel. It's a whole meal!
If you are concerned that your children will forget last school year's lessons over the summer, you're not alone. It is estimated that students start the next school year 2-3 months behind where they ended the year before. As a result, teachers spend much of the first month or so trying to get back that lost knowledge.
Preventing summer learning loss doesn't have to be time consuming, boring, or even expensive. I've compiled a short list of websites that offer summer programs specifically designed to help prevent summer learning loss. There is something for everyone in the list. Some are free, some are paid. Some focus on a specific subject, others combine subjects. Some are straight forward practice pages, some are game and adventure based. Check out each one to see what will work best for you.
Did I leave out a website you think should have made the list? Share it in the comments below!
Karissa
Free Resources:
The Quantile Framework - Math, Reading
The Summer Math Challenge - The Quantile Summer Math Challenge is a free math skills maintenance
program targeted to students who have just completed grade 1 through 7
and is designed to help children retain math skills learned during the
previous school year.
Find a Book - The Lexile “Find a Book” tool is a fun and easy way to select books
based on a child’s Lexile measure and interests. You can use this free
search tool to build custom lists for readers of all ability levels and
then locate your selections at the local public library.
Khan Academy - Math, Science, Computer Programming, History, Art History, Economics, and more
Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a
personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their
own pace in and outside of the classroom. Our
math missions guide learners from kindergarten to calculus using
state-of-the-art, adaptive technology that identifies strengths and
learning gaps. We've also partnered with institutions like NASA, The
Museum of Modern Art, The California Academy of Sciences, and MIT to
offer specialized content.
Ten Marks - Math
Assignments contain a wide variety of question types across all depths
of knowledge to ensure your students understand the core concepts in a
variety of ways. Immediate feedback promotes learning and retention.
Hints and video lessons are embedded in every question. Scaffolded hints
help students remember core concepts. Video lessons refresh
foundational skills.
Book Adventure - Reading
Book Adventure is a fun, free way to motivate your child to read! Kids in grades K-8 can search for books, read them offline, come back to quiz on what they’ve read, and earn prizes for their reading success.
Brain Flex - Math, Science
Get active and happy this summer. Build your math and science skills with daily practice. Pick the subjects you want to practice. Practice something every day. Anytime and anywhere. We will help you stay on track and monitor your progress. Invite students to get a head start or review concepts they missed. Track your student's progress over the 8-week challenge.
Paid Resources:
Brain Chase - multi-subject - $79/6 week adventure
The Summer 2016 adventure starts at 9 a.m. EST on Monday, June 20, 2016.
Students in grades 2 through 8 will log in to the Student Dashboard
watch the first animated webisode and meet Mae Merriweather as she and
her team of adventurers search for the Mask of Tomoe Gozen. Also, check
the mail for a mysterious object that you’ll need during the 6-week
adventure. Each week you have four tasks: earn 10,000 energy points on Khan
Academy, write a journal entry, do one bonus challenge, and complete
either reading or language assignments. We provide seamless access to
all of our online curriculum partners for you, and all tasks are
adaptable to the student's level. This isn’t just fiction—there’s a real treasure buried somewhere on
Earth. The first adventurer to decipher the clues and discover the
treasure's location will receive a trip to dig it up and a $10,000
scholarship.
LeapAhead! - Math - $24.95/8 week session
LeapAhead! offers 4 assignments a week for a total of 8
weeks. Its daily assignments motivate
children to log in everyday to find what challenges await them. Children
love the interactive nature of online worksheets, and they can find out
their mistakes and scores right away! All worksheets are fully aligned with the
Common Core State Standards. Assignments will be automatically graded upon submission. An online
report keeps track of each child's scores and progress. Every child will
receive an online printable certificate upon completion of the program.
Summer Splash - Math - $29.99/8 week program
Halt the summer slide (students lose 2-3 months of math skills during the summer break if they do not practice regularly). Review Skills from the current grade and practice key skills from the grade student is entering this fall. Program is available for students from Kindergarten through Grade 5. Diagnostics and practice assignments aligned to Common Core Standards. Individualized report which summarizes the child’s progress and aptitude on both previous and next year’s math skills. A Certificate of completion at the end of the program.
K5 Learning - Math, Reading - $14.95/month
K5 Learning is an online after-school study program for kids in kindergarten to grade 5. We build reading, math and study skills. K5 kids learn to focus and work independently. K5 allows kids to progress, unrestrained and un-pressured. K5 organizes, instructs, and quizzes your child and provides reports to you. We use simple interfaces, spoken instructions and bite sized lessons. No ads, no chat, & no external links. 100% online. No downloads and nothing to install.
IXL - Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies - $9.95/month
Embark on a virtual treasure hunt as you tackle math challenges and
reveal colorful prizes. The more you practice, the more you win! With IXL, it's easy to meet your learning objectives! All of IXL's skills are fully aligned to Florida standards. Get unprecedented insight into student performance with IXL Analytics. View real-time data on usage, trouble spots, and more!
Summer is a great time to help children discover their inner scientist. There are so many things just waiting to be explored. Things that grow, things that crawl or fly, and things that react. Science is all around us. Science is cooking, gardening, weather, and so much more. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to teach science to your children. All you really need to do to make everyday activities a science lesson is encourage your children to really observe what is happening, then explain the why and the how of it. Of course, if you're a supermom you can do a little research on the topic and find an actual lesson plan or some worksheets, but that isn't required in order for children to learn. All that is needed is some information they didn't know before, and some fun. For example, our first science project we are doing this summer is making rock candy. We browsed a couple of websites that taught us how crystals form. Then we found a recipe and instructions for making rock candy. We've been observing them for several days, enjoying seeing how much they have grown from day to day. Learning never tasted so good! I've been searching the internet for other ideas for science projects we can do over the summer, and decided to share some of my findings with you.
Have a kid or two who absolutely love dinosaurs? Just think how much fun they will have making their own fossils! Rock Hound Blog has a great idea for making your own amber fossil. Dr. Cavanaugh's website lists instructions for making mold fossils, cast fossils, trace fossils, and whole animal fossils.
Perhaps your children are backyard explorers. When my boys were little, they could always be found digging in the backyard. They loved bugs and worms. Home Science Tools sells everything a backyard explorer could need or want. They also give instructions for making an insect collection, building a wormery, and making your own compass.
My daughter on the other hand, loves to be in the kitchen. She really wants to learn about the science of cooking this summer. Education.com shares ideas for baking a chemistry cake, making glue out of milk (which I didn't even know was possible), and a tasty idea for using cookies and frosting to explore how to mix colors.
No matter where you live, you have weather. It is everywhere. Children are either fascinated by it or scared of it. Weather Wiz Kids has explanations and experiments that are sure to appeal to both. I particularly want to try to make a cloud, make a rainbow, and make lightning. They even have an experiment that explains why the sky is blue!
The world around us is an amazing place, and we can learn so much by simply slowing down and exploring it. What science explorations are you doing this summer? Let me know in the comments below.
Karissa
If your kids are anything like mine, they have a toybox full of perfectly good toys, but would rather play with the empty toilet paper roll, an empty cereal box, and some tape. This week's mid-week morsel offers two great books full of ideas to keep boys and girls busy for the whole year. I originally discovered these books two years ago when Homeschool Freebie of the Day posted them on their website. I was reminded of them this past week when the books were re-posted. They were written around the turn of the 20th century, but still offer ideas and games for children today.
In the preface of The American Girls Handybook the authors state, "One of our objects is to impress upon the minds of the girls the fact that they all possess talent and ability to achieve more than they suppose possible..." The books cover topics ranging from pressing flowers to homemade Christmas gifts. The Girls' book 1 contains spring and summer activities, while the girls' book 2 contains autumn and winter activities.
In the preface of The American Boys Handybook the author states, "The sports, amusements, and games embraced in this book are intended to reach the average American boy of any age, not too young to fly a kite or too old to enjoy a good day's fishing." The books contain every interest from choosing and caring for dogs to snowball warfare. The boys' book 1 contains spring and summer activities, and the boys' book 2 contains autumn and winter activities.
Karissa
Winter is upon us. Whether you live in the North or South, the snowflake is a recognizable symbol of winter. They are so beautiful and interesting; I thought it fitting to write a post about snow to commemorate the Winter Solstice.
I love watching fluffy white flakes fall from the sky, but what makes snow white? Well, it's not really. It's actually clear, like glass. Snow crystals, again like glass, partially reflect light. Have you ever seen a pile of crushed glass? The light reflecting from the clear glass appears white. The same phenomenon happens with snow crystals.
Snow is frozen water, right? So what makes snow different than sleet and ice? The difference is in when the water turns to ice. Sleet and freezing rain are actual drops of water that freeze as they fall from the sky. Snow is created in the clouds when water vapor condenses directly into ice, and not water drops.
Kenneth G. Libbrecht, Professor of Physics at Caltech created a wonderful website all about snowflakes. There he has a photo gallery full of pictures of actual snowflakes, tons of information about the science behind snow, information about creating your own snow, and some science-based activities for kids. I highly recommend his website.
If you're looking for more than science, I found that as well. Snowflakes make great decorations that you can leave up all winter long. Country Living and Better Homes and Gardens both have nice collections of snowflake decorations. I also found informative how-to's on making snowflake window clings, borax crystal snowflakes, and even a quilled snowflake ornament.
Of course, there are always paper snowflakes. Here are instructions for your basic 6-pointed paper snowflake. For more stylized snowflakes, check out these Star Wars, ballerina, and 3-D snowflakes. Jessica Jones, a blogger at How About Orange, has a fan-tastic paper snowflake tutorial. eHow even has instructions for making a paper snowflake chain!
If you're the kind of person who prefers to stand outside and catch snow in your mouth, perhaps you'd be interested in making some snow ice cream. This first recipe is very similar to how my dad made it when I was a kid. The next one uses sweetened condensed milk, and the last one has egg in it.
Finally, if you're like me and live someplace where it doesn't snow, occasionally you miss it. Even if you don't miss the cold, snow is beautiful. Steve Spangler Science sells instant snow powder. Just add water for an "eruption of fluffy snow".
All this talk of snow is giving me cold chills. I think I'll have a hot drink and snuggle under a blanket. How do snowflakes inspire you in the winter?
Karissa
