Summer Words

Every summer we do some form of what we call Home School.  What we do is an insult to what people who actually Home School do (because that takes more preparation, dedication, and organization than anything we're attempting), but in our case it's just some manner of trying to make sure the kids' brains don't turn to complete mush while on vacation.  We've done this several different ways.

One summer we had a rule that none of the kids could have screen time until all of them had had an individual lesson at the white board in the morning.  We did math with Aden, spelling with Mona, and whatever Quinn wanted to do.

(We have a white board in front of the fireplace in the living room.  Right now it has some of Mona's dragons on it.) 

One of the things we sometimes do is have a word a day since all my kids could use help with spelling.  Every morning I write a word (or two) on the white board and everyone has to commit it to memory so by the end of the day when I quiz them they all spell it correctly.  I focus on words that are most likely to be included in a "What I did this summer" essay when they get back to school.  The summer word list a few years ago was rather distressing.  It included the words "hospital" and "cancer." 

But while sorting through a pile of things on my dresser this week I came across last year's summer word list.  It brought back some good memories.  I should give the kids a spelling test tomorrow and see how many of these words stuck:


summer vacation
cottage
bicycle helmet
grandparents
visitor
cousin
French
funny bone
garden
carrots
turnips
road trip
Michigan
holiday
sidewalk chalk
computer
mandola
breakfast
lunch
dinner
elephant
sea lion
crocodile bird
giraffe
kangaroo
mountain lion
gorilla
polar bear
monkey
moose
tiger
Mold-A-Rama
origami
fossil
dragon
heat wave
couch
picture
pitcher

This summer has kind of been too packed with guests to really find time at the white board (hence the dragons).  My dad was with us for a total of three weeks spread out over the month of June and part of July, and currently we have my niece with us for another week or so.  We've been reading a lot of Harry Potter, so I don't know how educational that is except Aden carved herself a wand, which meant I got to talk to her about using a knife and explain the different grits of sandpaper.

But we are well on our way to creating a lot of memories this summer, whether my kids know how to spell any of them out correctly in an essay come fall or not.