We’re sending Sophie to the San Antonio Academy for the following camps/classes:
Chess
Etiquette (something inspired by a recent trip to England, where Sophie wasn’t just the loudest person in restaurants, she was the loudest person on the subway!)
Math Mania (refresher course, plus 3rd-4th grade level concepts)
Archaeology (spelling!?)
Reading
Writing
Lego Factory (engineering concepts using Legos)
And of course there’s the usual piano lessons - now beginning year 2! And the summer reading list - 2 books down, 18 to go. She’s supposed to read “only” 3, but since Laura and I aren’t thrilled with the rigorousness of her school, we supplement.
Our borough has a ‘summer university’ where kids get to do all sorts of free courses. The brochure for this year isn’t out yet, but last year she did food science, skateboarding and biology, and went to a club where she did lots of kayaking, canoeing and cycling. Hopefully this year she’ll be able to do another science course, web design, French and fencing. We also go to lots of museums and do projects at home.
But I also like her to have some time just doing nothing in particular, hang out with her friends, play computer games, whatever. Our holidays are somewhat shorter than yours, too - less than 6 weeks.
Two 7 year old girls - One’s taking ballet, the other’s taking Jazz hip-hop (summer sampler courses) 2 X a week for the month of July and they’re taking swimming lessons on Saturday mornings. Trips to the library and museums and zoo from time to time I suppose. Nothing terribly organized in that regard. Lots of time playing in the park too, I imagine.
The really important thing, of course, will be will learning how to enter the authorization code on the computer so they can watch Netflix streaming on the blu-ray.
Archaeology? Awesome! However, as a (straight-A) kid, I’d have been really upset with my parents if they’d tried to educate me during the summer holidays. I’m sure the summer camp thing is different though. Reading all day was the best thing about any holidays, but is the reading list hers or yours?
Also, Sophie doesn’t know any different (re: summer classes). We’ve done this for her since kindergarten.
She also takes supplemental Sat. and Sun. classes throughout the school year. Not very many, but about once a month. She really enjoys those, especially if there is any dissecting going on.
With my daughter, this is stuff she actually wants to do. They’re very fun-oriented - it’s not like school. But there’s no way I’d book up the whole summer with classes, especially now that she has friends to hang out with (she didn’t really before).
Last year her female best friend had moved away and her male best friend was away all Summer, so classes were the best way of getting her into the company of other kids rather than being with me all the time.
My little girl has therapy during the summer and does Vital Sounds music therapy every day. She’s only five so it’s pretty easy for me to help her retain what she’s learned. We have all sorts of educational toys and games, but she also has a back yard full of physical stuff too.
I just incorporate learning into every day. I’ve decided this summer I’m going to teach her some basic cooking. She’s getting more chores around the house too.
My main problem is she doesn’t have many kids to play with around here. I wish I had the money for classes. For now we just do the park a lot.
Ok, kidding aside. not really
I have some math and spelling to keep them busy as well as reading daily. They have Tae Kwon Do and football and cheerleading will start up in August.
One of my friends is thinking of getting her hands on a dead cat to show a group of kids dissection. She use to do such a thing when she taught college. What an awesome summer memory that will be!
If I can somehow get them into learning how to knit, I will be very happy.
Let’s see, if memory served we did three weeks of a summer day camp that involved a lot of crafts and games. Then maybe a week of Vacation Bible School. Maybe a week of Girl Scout/Boy Scout day camp. Summer school for maybe one class. A few days with each grandma. Then sometimes swim lessons for two weeks. But mostly I just let them play and figure out who they were when someone wasn’t telling them what to do. We were too poor to do much else. anyhow.
Our local public school system has a really great summer school program for the month of June. In the mornings they have class according to grade level - this year mini-Marli’s class is doing Ancient History (yesterday was the first day; she said they kicked things off with Greek mythology). They get a free lunch, and the afternoon is taken up with electives - things like art, computers, photography, fun with science, cooking, swimming, that kind of stuff.
She’s got a huge stack of books in her room that she keeps adding to, and we make regular trips to the library, and talk about stuff we read and see on TV and experience in real life. Beyond that I don’t bug her. She’s got some serious hanging with her friends and visiting extended family and sleeping 'til noon to get through before school starts again in August.
I’m assuming that she also gets to pick her own books, right?
Let’s see, I do have my kids do a couple of schooly things in the morning–we are trying a new system where I want them to do chores and a teeny bit of schoolwork in the morning before we go have fun.
Oldest daughter:
continuing Irish dance and kung fu, though skipping some
quilt camp with one of her best friends–she’s very excited about that one
Younger daughter:
continuing kung fu, her favorite thing
swim lessons with Ashley
Both are going to VBS at an Anglican church, which has become a family tradition
I guess a day at the Monterey Aquarium last week counts
And swimming practically every day if possible
I was just thinking the other afternoon about how I rarely see groups of children playing outside anymore. Mine ran all over town, got to know business people, other groups of neighbors, area organized recreation groups. I gave a little shudder to think they did that considering how much more unsafe it seems today for kids. A pity because a life rich in outdoor experiences helps make a child well-rounded and a respector of nature.
I’m a strong supporter of the idea that you don’t need much money to entertain/educate kids. They did the usual summer stuff - Y camp, baseball, scouting, sponsored recreation. But our best fun and new experiences were less structured.
I dragged them all over the southern part of our state. To historical sites, the lakes and parks, animal shelters. They were often invited to go with other families. We had picnics and went for walks. Picked berries, gardened. We read in the park. Sometimes we did a little volunteer work.
They had access to the TV all day and I remember that they had their favorites that they’d watch in the morning and then they’d be out the door and rarely was it turned on again.
We went swimming so often that sometimes they’d whine, “Oh no, do we have to go to the pond again?” Hah. Good spot for them. Once they’d had swimming lessons and were proficient I could laze in the sun and read and they could explore a natural setting, fish and swim, make new friends without being in the neighbors’ business all afternoon.
I had forgotten about the summer reading. Our school usually had two choices for each grade. In the upper grades there was no choice, you had to read what the school chose.
My 8yo is going to a few weeks of summer camp (baseball, magic, and nature camps). He’ll have a few weeks completely off. By choice, he would spend the entire day watching TV if he could, so I’m going to assign him some activities each week. I have some themes in mind:
I think we’ll spend some time learning about space exploration. We can read some science books, go on a field trip to the Air and Space Museum and/or the Goddard Spaceflight Center, maybe make a solar system model out of papier mache.
We’re going to read a bit about the history of baseball. (He plays baseball.) I have a Jackie Robinson biography for him - an opportunity to learn about the civil rights movement. I think we’ll read “Casey at the Bat” and he can write his own baseball poem. Plus we’ll learn to calculate some statistics and we’ll go to a couple of games.
I think we’ll spend some time on the Lewis & Clark expedition. Maybe we’ll make a trip to Monticello - there are lots of L&E souvenirs there. He’s spending a week with his grandparents in St. Louis at the end of the summer, so they’ll take him to visit the Museum of Westward Expansion and other local sights. We can also read about Sacajawea and learn a bit about American Indians. Hmm. I’ve never been to the National Museum of the American Indian - we could throw that in, too!
However, there will definitely be plenty of time for him to go play with his friends. I hope he’ll be spending a lot of time riding his bike around the neighborhood and going to the pool. And I’m sure there will be more than enough TV and Wii.
OK, but once you read the 5 books or whatever they want you to read, then you can pick out your own, right? Life’s not worth living if you can’t pick your own books, for goodness sake.
[grumble]This is why many librarians hate Accelerated Reader and other similar programs…how can anyone love reading when they don’t get to choose their own books?[/grumble]
