Summer Education

Ve is in the enrichment program at summer school. They are learning about plants.
I am supplementing her education at home this summer with basic math skills and a reading/writing activity which I will explain later.

Mim is in the math summer program. I hate math, I hate teaching math because if students don't understand it, I have a difficult time figuring out a way to explain for understanding. So naturally Mim and I heave heated moments when I try to help. That is all I will say here about that. I am also supplementing her education at home with reading activities.

Tuki is still too young for summer school so I decided to have her do 4 weeks/4 days a week of swimming and then once a week gymnastics. I then supplement her learning with the reading activity and learning a few words.

My reading activity for each of the girls is essentially the same with different expectations for their outcomes.

Mim needs to read a few chapters in a book, and then summarize what she learned verbally to me and then write it (summarize) into a notebook as well. I also hope to add spelling in as well a few times this summer.

Ve reads sight word book, tells me what it was about. If she can't I have her read it again and stress that she needs to think about what she is reading. She then draws a few pictures in summary and writes a few words about the book. She continues to learn more sight words, thus increasing her vocabulary, with flash cards as well.

I read a book of Tuks choosing to her, she tells me what it was about and then she draws a picture to summarize her understanding. I started teaching her a few simple sight words simply because she wanted me to.

This reading activity takes maybe 1 1/2 hours, then the rest of the day is free. By the time all this summer education, formal & informal is complete for the day, it is close to 2:00pm. BUT, I think it will be worth it in the long run.

My hope is to teach the girls to think about the reading, which trust me MANY students don't know how to do. In addition they need to summarize the reading in some way at the appropriate age level, in hopes of increasing comprehension. This is what many kids learning a second language struggle with.

I know, I know, my poor kids having a teacher for a Mama...........