Summer routines, school at home, and other adventures
Photo of one of our biking adventures
Photo of cookie decorating results LOL
It’s the last Tuesday of July and I’m writing this while planning out the remaining weeks of our summer. Though schedules have shifted, with July camps ending and fall sports already starting back up, the scorching sunshine and time spent swimming and camping feels peak summer. Still, we are staying the course on daily homework and routines and here’s how:
Instead of spending 2hrs every evening on reading and math, I’ve started to break that into 30min work sessions throughout the day with the kids. This allows for 30min of simple family reading and quiet time at the end of the day, which works well to wind down.
For summer school programming, our district is using IXL Bootcamp. It’s a mix of daily skills practice and weekly assessment to help parents gauge progress. Though our district isn’t formally grading Math, only Literacy, Math is the challenge area for our daughter. So I’m nudging her to complete any available Math skills and incorporating simple Math into daily activities for extra practice.
For our almost-middle-schooler, I “assign” him challenges like coding exercises or advanced LEGO sets, Rubix cubes, or Math problems to keep him sharp. He has really taken to the Rubix cube in a big way this season, competing in his first ever cubing competition. When he’s not working on these types of challenges, he’s getting in as much reading as possible, minimum of 30min per day.
Tracking the daily reading has been part of our library program’s summer reading challenge too, which incentivizes the kids to keep up with it. If they can read a certain amount by mid August they’re eligible for prizes. It also makes library visits more fun, because those prizes are showcased everywhere in the library—extra motivation!
We’ve also taken advantage of some local programs like 3-4 day sports camps, dance camp, even a cookie decorating event.
In addition to standard schoolwork and homework, the kids have their daily chores and activities they love most for hanging out at home. For Peter that’s video games, for Georgia it’s slime. Ha! So I’ve been on a mission to take them on adventures whenever we can. Lunch break bike rides, hikes at the nature center, checking out a new shop in town. We actually rode bikes to the library with a picnic lunch a couple of days ago, which was awesome, except for the 90 degree heat and humidity that day!
When they’re not doing homework or chores or adventuring with me, I am trying to teach these kids something new every day. Something as simple as how to properly Windex a mirror, or draw a human face with the proper proportions, or use sandpaper to prep wood before priming and painting…we’re attempting something new together every day. Attempting is the key word there—do you know how many times we’ve started a new thing and been derailed? “A” for effort ;)
So that’s our keep-summer-fresh strategy and semi-schedule.
Can’t believe it’s coming to an end.
Too many sunshine-y, swim days left to fret about that just yet.
Photo of completed Ducati LEGO set
Photo of welcome sign at our first-ever Cubing competition, “Plymouth Puzzle Off 2025”