Throwback Tuesday: Sprinkling in Subjects All Summer Long

 *Originally posted July 29, 2014 when my boys were 6, 8, & 10

The boys were asking to do school today so I put them in charge of what they wanted to learn about.  I don't typically have a lot of schoolwork all planned out for the summer.  We try to work on a bit of math and reading each day while sprinkling in other subjects as the boys request them. 

I had asked Evan if he wanted me to find him some word and math games or if he wanted to work in his Star Wars workbooks and he chose his books.  He just LOVES them!  He sat right down yesterday morning and completed two pages in his phonics book and two pages in his math book!

We looked through the book Flotsam together using the pictures for telling the story aloud as we went. 

He then read Goodnight, Gorilla to me and only needed help with the word "dear." He declared himself done for the day and I was fine with that. 

I'm finding that getting actual books from the library that he can read with little to no help is helping him see himself as a reader much more effectively than any of the Bob's books or mini readers we've been using.  He now knows he can read some "real" books and that seems to have helped his confidence so I'm no longer arguing with him that he is in fact reading when he thinks he's just guessing. 
   
While Evan was working on his schoolwork, Ian was working on his schoolwork too. 

He picked a page in his math workbook that dealt with adding 3 and 4 rows of numbers that had a mixture of 2, 3, 4, or even 5 digits. 

Ian was going to read a book too but at the last minute decided to fill out a few pages in his Army Heritage Trail activity book that he picked up on vacation in Virginia; he did a maze and learned about the motor pool and then looked for words in a word search learning all about the command post and the supplies soldiers carried with them during the World Wars. 

He then went to watch some Ice Road Truckers and played with his Lego's making a covered trailer with a hinged tailgate. 

Alec decided to read Treasury of Greek Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes & Monsters.  He didn't end up doing any other schoolwork for the day since he read the whole entire book-- all 192 pages!  

Sometimes I worry that just few pages in math and some reading are not enough but then I remember that we often sprinkle in other subjects here and there. All that sprinkling really adds up over time!

• They spent a good portion of their day on Friday watching many episodes of Wild Kratts and Mythbusters so they certainly had learned lots of science.  
• Ian had a friend come play over the weekend and after Ian taught him how, they played the Scrambled States of America game together.  
• The older two boys have also been playing Stack the States on the Kindle 
• With all our traveling last week we've pretty much lived geography, history and science through life anyway.   
• We had excellent discussions about the states, the symbolism on their license plates, the views we passed and even a mini lesson on times zones since Nashville was part of a different time zone.  
• We managed to fill in almost all of the 50 states and all thought it was odd that the three we were missing were in the continental United states and right near each other too!



Sorry it's such an awful picture but the map was pretty wrinkled by the time we made it home!We marked off each state as we saw a license plate with the state name on it.

 

Alec has completely immersed himself in learning all about the Greek Gods.

While on vacation in Tennessee he bought a deck of Greek Mythology trivia cards at the Athena Parthenon and has been quizzing himself reading the questions on the front and the answers on the back.  He has excitedly shared what he's learning with all of us and has proceeded to read through 3 more Greek Mythology books since coming home. 

He finished Jason and the Argonauts, read Pandora, & Greek Myths; Stories of Sun, Stone, and Sea. 

He brought a book with him to the grocery store on Friday and was sharing his stories with us and even sharing his knowledge with the bagger and cashier.
   
We're starting to re-listen to the whole Heroes of Olympus books now that we have finished up the Percy Jackson series.  My boys are so excited and just love these series!  We started listening to book one on CD in the car.

We brought home another huge pile of books and have read before bed each night since coming home from Tennessee.  We've also been reading a few more chapters in the Goblet of Fire and the boys can't get over how different the books and the movies are becoming.