For as long as I could remember, my mom signed me up for summer school every summer from 4th or 5th grade until I graduated high school. As a parent now, I. GET. IT. You gotta find something to keep the kids from getting bored and lazy during the summer. It was great for me, as an only child, because I had same aged kids to hang out with!
Having spent the last three months stuck at home with my two young kids and a new career as a pseudo-educator, I was inspired to create some sort of summer school. My kids thrive on some sort of routine. They fall apart and massive meltdowns occur if given no structure. Since my kids loved the “field trip” to Paris and most summer camps are cancelled, we are continuing our travels abroad!
For this summer school at home series, I will share our worldwide journey that includes fun activities and a little learning too. I mean, we have to preserve some of the teaching we did for the past couple months, right?! 😆 I hope to post once a week but heads up, it could be biweekly. #life
Before we begin, here are some FYIs and things you can do to prepare your kids’ trip around the world!
FYI #1 – I am hoping to include a free arts/crafts printable with each destination. So, be sure to keep checking back and download them all!
FYI #2 – Most of the activities are not my ideas. Ain’t no time to recreate the wheel when there are so many amazing resources online! At the beginning of June, I spent several days searching Pinterest as well as reading teacher websites and homeschooling blogs and created a “curriculum” that includes social science, math, reading, writing, art, music, and even home economics (haha, my kids love to help in the kitchen).
FYI #3 – My kids are 4.5yo and 7.5yo so many of the activities are geared towards that age range.
Passport – Print out this adorable DIY Mini Passport Book (a free printable by Make and Takes). I recommend printing the cover on colored cardstock. Have your kids fill out the inside cover – my kids LOVE when they can personalize their own things.
Boarding Passes – Go the extra mile and print this boarding pass printable. It is great writing practice for my incoming second grader. This printable also has an airline ticket template. I opted out of that as it seem redundant and mostly to save paper (it seems like we’ve gone through a lot of paper since homeschooling).
Epic – We LOVE this reading app! There are tens of thousands of books, read-to-me books, and videos. You can search by keywords, grade level, etc. We are so fortunate my son’s teacher signed up the class to get free access when distance learning started back in March. We continue to have free access but there is now a limit of two hours per week. I found many books that were great to support what we are learning on our “trips”!
Schedule – We are doing “summer school” about 2-3 times a week and for about 3 hours on those days. The content I share will reflect that schedule/frequency. It’s totally up to you how much or little you want to do!
I hope you find this helpful and somehow makes up for all those cancelled trips! Here’s a little hint of the first stop: grab your suits, keikis! 🌺🌺🌺