We homeschool year round, mainly so that we can have the freedom to take time off when ever we want and so that the rhythm of Homeschooling is never really lost , mind you we just finished Kindergarten, Pre K and Preschool so our lessons have been very laid back “FUN” and “child led” for the most part. No point in burning out a 6 year old and his mama when our feet are barely wet!  I want my boys to love learning, to love their lessons and to see learning as an everyday way of life; we are always learning, evolving and growing in the Lord (that never ends  )!
This summer we are going to use “Learning Posters” I hope to get a magnetic dry erase board soon and just change out the board but for now we are using posters.. Im doing this with the same concept used by “Letter Of The Week”. This is a wonderful, FREE Homeschool lesson plan that I use for my little ones before Kindergarten. We use My Fathers World for Kindergarten and now we will be using it for Micah’s 1 st Grade year. For the summer I will make a learning poster for each week or two depending on what we are learning, how interested they are in the lesson and or misc. things that may pop up. (Play dates, field trips etc…)
A couple weeks back it seemed as though every afternoon we had a thunderstorm and one day we also had dime and nickel sized hail. Micah with his inquisitive little self started asking lots of questions about the weather and so we decided to make the weather our first summer lesson.
Our poster is broken down into 6 boxes~ Letter/Sound, Color/Number, Science, Geography, Poem/Song or Rhyme, Bible/Character Trait,
I use the same poster for all 3 boys… Here is our current poster.
Below you can see how I break down the poster for each child; I will also add some links to places we learned from on the net (I get the majority of our info from the internet, we also check out books from the library.) …
Letter/Sound~ A- Ant Proverbs 6:6~ Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
They will all have the same letter each lesson but will use the letter at different levels.
Ashton 2.5~ Site recognition
Dominick 4~ Sound and words starting with the letter and tracing letter
Micah 6~ Writing letter lower and upper, reading and spelling
Color~ Aquamarine / Number~ 5 and 50
We will have 2 numbers each week one for the two youngest and one for Micah. Same color for all boys.
Ashton 2.5~ Sight recognition and counting with blocks, noodles, etc…
Dominick 4~ Sight recognition, counting with number, addition and tracing the number
Micah 6~ Sight recognition, counting with number, addition & subtraction, writing out the number, learning some fact about the number.
Science~ Weather
All 3 boys will learn about the lesson together, even if it is over the little ones heads they still seem to enjoy me teaching, reading or showing them something on the computer. This is mainly for Micah and Dominick. All 3 boys also will do the same craft pertaining to the lesson just at different levels of difficulty.
Here are some pics of our most recent craft of a hydrologic cycle (water cycle)… We used round paper plates to signify the “Round Water Cycle” Supplies used: Glue, glitter, Cotton balls, Crayons, Felt, Foam paper and Q-tips. Like I said before everyone participates, has fun and enjoys craft time!
Ashton
Dominick
Micah.
Geography~ Africa ~Learning about the region, we have also learned about different African musical instruments (good to know when playing percussion, Papa took this one over)
All 3 boys will learn about the lesson together, even if it is over the little ones heads they still seem to enjoy me teaching, reading or showing them something on the computer. This is mainly for Micah and Dominick. All 3 boys also will do the same craft pertaining to the lesson just at different levels of difficulty.
We were so lucky to find an African instrument we had studied at the museum!! A Kalimba also called a Thumb Piano! Here is Micah playing one…
Poem, Song or Rhyme~ Learned by all 3 boys
"Do What We Should Do"
Written by Marie
(Sung to "Yankee Doodle")
There was an ant, lived in the dirt
That did his jobs each day.
No one had to tell him how
He did them the right way.
We can be just like this ant
God gave us this gift too;
We should not have to be asked,
To do what we should do.
Bible/ Character Training (For us these go hand in hand, we only teach character training through Gods word, we use a scripture to coincide with each character trait we are teaching the children.)
~Proverbs 6:6-8, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest."
Prayer~ Father, Help us to be more like the ants to get our work done without having to have someone tell us what to do all the time. Help us to be more responsible to do what we are supposed to do without having to be asked to do it. And to be aware of things that need to be done and do them even though we haven't been asked to do them. Help us to be diligent in our work, not to give up to easily when things get hard. Amen.
Character trait and Bible verse learned by all 3 boys.
Below you will find many of the places I use to get my character training ideas. We use and focus on one character trait that coincides with the week’s lesson. This week it would be to “Work with diligence as unto the Lord!”
A short but good article about character training can be found HERE.
Sites I used for this learning poster are below:
Bible and Character Training resources HERE
A wonderful resource if you have boys is
Another great site ...
That about does it, this is our Homeschooling for the summer; if I have not answered any questions asked on the character training be sure to leave a comment!
I would love to hear what you all are doing for the summer, do you continue with school? Do you take the summer off and if so what do you do? If your children are in school, what do you do during the summer months? Inquiring minds want to know!
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Jun. 28, 2007 - Good job!
May you and your boys continue to enjoy the journey!
Robin