Summer Activity Book

We don't homeschool our children (and boy do I wish we did somedays... but that is a post for another day!), so maybe this is mean or maybe it isn't I don't know, but I want my kids to keep learning all summer long. So every year at the end of school I put together some pages for the kids to work on throughout the summer. This is different than the activity book we use for road trips. This is a collection of worksheets of things they learned already in school and a touch of things they will be learning next year.

I put things in this notebook like mazes, color by number math sheets, crossword puzzles, word finds, etc. I like to use these sites for printables.

TLSBooks.com

Education.com

SuperTeacherWorksheets.com

edhelper.com

The kids have all summer break to work on the sheets and most years I have found they complete them and ask for more sheets. We also journal our summer vacation and we do Reading Bingo for summer too.

My kids really enjoy the notebooks and always show it to their teacher when school starts back up. We often times will all sit down together and I help them journal their events. This book often goes with us places when we might need to fill some "down-time". It works great. The boys will sometimes pull a few pages out to work on while in a restaurant.

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Lately we have had some issues with fighting over the computer with conversations like:

Kid 1: "But mom, he got to be on it for an hour this morning and I haven't had a turn all day."
Kid 2: "I didn't get it a whole hour, only a little bit because we had to go to the store."

OR

Kid 1: "Can I use the computer now and then again after we eat?"
Kid 2: "If HE uses it now AND after dinner then when do I get to use it?"

With 3 kids those conversations usually end with one of them saying "Then when do I get to use the computer? You never let me have a turn."

So, we decided for the summer (and maybe even beyond) that the kids have to earn tickets in order to be able to use the computer. We actually had a roll of tickets from some event we participated in and somehow managed to bring home the whole roll of tickets. We came up with a list of things they can do to earn 1 ticket, 2 tickets and 5 tickets. Each ticket earns them 10 minutes of computer time.

When Mr. Man and I were coming up with the list, we made two lists, one for the boys and one for Lady Bug since she is younger.

Items on the list for 1 ticket:
BOYS
* Dust and vacuum bedroom
* Complete 2 worksheets out of the summer workbook
* Read to Lady Bug for 10 minutes
* Write in your journal for 10 minutes
* Practice guitar/piano for 20 extra minutes
LADY BUG
* Dust and vacuum bedroom
* Work on reading for 10 minutes
* Write or draw in your journal for 10 minutes
* Help sort & fold socks

Items on the list for 2 tickets:
BOYS
* Dust and vacuum one room the house (other than your bedroom)
* Memorize 2 Bible verses
* Memorize 5 state capitals
* Help with yard work
LADY BUG
* Feed & water dog
* Memorize 2 Bible verses
* Clean the trash out of mom or dad's car
* Help clean the bathrooms

Items on the list for 5 tickets:
BOYS
* Read a chapter book then write a 1-page summary of the book
* Complete your Reading Bingo
* Write out 1 entire chapter from 1 John
* Complete and pass the state capital test
* Memorize the books of the Bible
LADY BUG
* Complete Reading Bingo
* Memorize the books of the Bible
* Write out one story from your kids Bible

There are also ways they can lose tickets, such as back-talking or arguing when asked to do something (2 issues in our house right now).

We talked to them about how they can save up their tickets and "cash" them in in one hunk or use them as they get them. It is totally up to them.

Summer has just started so who knows where this will go.