Although we have finished our curriculum for the year, I wanted to do some work over the summer with Christopher.  I wanted to work on reading (for pleasure) to increase his skill and spelling.  I wanted to strengthen his math skills and work towards mastery of subtraction and to work on penmanship.  I also hoped to find something to fill some of the couch time that seems to occur either with TV watching or video game play.

While reading through some of my favorite blogs today I came across a neat idea.  A summer challenge.  I loved the idea and immeadiately set to work copying writing up our own summer challenge.  It seems like such a fun way to work on those summer school goals without it looking too much like school. 

The details of the summer challenge are pretty simple.  There are different areas that Christopher can work on in order to earn points.  When he completes a task he comes to me and I record the points earned on the yellow tally sheet.  As points accumulate he can keep track of them on a goal themometer (that isn't up on the board yet) and he can cash in those points to earn some prizes.

As a child, I remember looking forward to the summer reading program at the local library.  Each year I would diligently read and record books on the summer reading program form and push myself to read more than the year before.  At the end of the year we were able to pick out prizes based on the number of books read.  Christopher's excitement over the summer challenge is very similar to how I felt with that summer reading program. 

I'm not trying to bribe Christopher into doing this work, but I do believe that a little incentive will keep him motivated.  He can pick and choose what things he wants to work on and when he wants to do them.  Nothing is required.  It is up to him as to how he wants to approach the summer challenge.  My goals will stay the same though.  We can either work on them in the same manner as we approach school but on a less scheduled approach for the summer or Christopher can work on them through the summer challenge and at the same time learn responsibility, time management and ownership of what he learns.  I thought the latter would be more creative and appealing and I was right.

We used most of the same areas in our summer challenge that Carisa used in her challenge but we tailored them a bit to fit Christopher's needs and skill levels. 

For example, Christopher has a summer Bible reading program at church.  They are reading through the New Testament.  He is already excited about this and now he can earn points here at home each time he does his daily readingas well as working towards the goal and prizes offered at church. 

I wanted to have Christopher spend some time with Andrew doing things that Andrew enjoys and so I included a time of sibling activities that they can do together.  Andrew has become a bit of a mimic (as most children do).  He watches what his siblings to oand because he is the youngest and he tends to want to do things on a much older level than where he should be.  So, to help fill Andrew's need for age appropriate playtime I made a point category for this.

I plan to add weekly or bi-weekly mini challenges in which Christopher can earn either extra points or an extra prize.  There are things like weeding, washing the car, cleaning garage etc. that need to be done and this seems like a great way to earn some BIG points or EXTRA prizes.

I upped the point system a bit and made it into a tiered system with prizes and points ranging from 25, 50, 75 and 100.  He can choose to cash them in at any point or save them until he reaches 100.  We kept the new Webkinz prize (like Carisa) as this is a current craze at our house.  The kids have each had a Webkinz for a couple of months and they are all talking about wanting another one.  So I made that the highest scoring prize.  He's already talking about how long it will take him to save up 100 points.