Summer Learning - Reading

Our number one goal for learning this summer was to spend a lot of time reading.  I want to raise my kids to be avid readers who are excited to read new books.  I want books to be a part of their everyday routine.

Last year when Pinky was learning to read she set a goal to read 100 books by the end of summer.  I created a sticker chart for her and helped her find books that she was able to read (we read the entire Bob book collection and many intro readers).  It was hard work, but she was so determined. 


This summer she wanted to read even more.  We set her goal at 110 books.  It's getting trickier as her books are getting longer, and it's not quite as easy for her to ready a dozen books a day like it was before.  I mostly give her free choice of what she reads though I do make books available that I think she may enjoy and will allow her to improve her reading.  We have some basic ground rules: the book must have a story (not just one or two words per page) and no repeats.  If she reads a chapter book on her own we count it as 2 books.  I've also allowed her to choose to read a magazine in place of a book.  I don't want to be to strict on WHAT she reads, I just want her to read and enjoy it.  I think next summer we will set a goal for how long she reads each day instead of a certain number of books.  This is more in line with what her school requires (30 minutes a day, twice a day).

For Chaos, he is showing many signs of being ready to read.  He knows all of his letters and their sounds and can even recognize a few sight words.  We've begun VERY slowly introducing the Bob books to him.  I downloaded the Bob Books Reading Magic app for my iPhone, and he really enjoys it.  It's helped him become familiar with the books and words, which has helped him read and sound out a few words in the books.


To help him learn his sight words, I printed out our public school's Kindergarten sight word list on small cards.  I chose 5 words to start (the first sight words to appear in the Bob books) and taped them to his bedroom door.  I told him this was a "lock" for his door.  In order to unlock his door he had to touch each card and say the word.  To lock it when he left he had to do it again (in reverse order).  He thought it was hilarious and loves to "lock" his sisters out of his room.


We are continuing to reinforce letters and their sounds.  We love the LeapFrog movies (Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory, Amazing Alphabet Adventure, Phonics Farm, Let's Go to School, and Word Caper).  Many of these are available on Netflix for instant streaming if you subscribe.

Looking for more ideas?  Check out my pinterest boards:

Love of Learning - Reading

Letter of the Week

Love of Learning - Spelling

Next up in our summer learning series - Math! Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to some of these great parties!

Summer Learning

Another summer is flying by!  We've been busy here at the CampSlop house.  We've been checking items off our Summer Bucket List, the kids have been having a great time at camp (nature camp, Bible camp, art camp and Pinky's first overnight at Girl Scout camp!).  We visited family, went to the beach and made a lot of time for just doing nothing at all!

While we've been having fun I've also managed to sneak in some summer learning to keep the kids' brains from turning completely to jelly before school starts again in September.  Pinky, Chaos and I have been spending the little girls' nap time "playing school." 

We've been focusing on a few key areas this summer - reading, math,  and speech (for Chaos).  We mix in a little science and handwriting where we can too.  Over the next week or two I will publish posts outlining what we've been doing at home while we're "playing school."  I'll even throw in some of the fun we've had from our Summer Bucket List too.

Before I go, here is one of the simplest things I've done for summer learning. I picked up summer bridge books for both Pinky and Chaos.


While the books are great practice, they are a bit pricey (our local teacher store had them for $15 each). In order to be able to reuse these books, I am laminating the pages as we go and putting them in a 3 ring binder. When we're finished I can wipe the books clean and use them again.  Easy peasey!


Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch the Summer Olympics!!  I hope you're all enjoying your summer!

Toy Rotation - Update

We've been really enjoying our toy rotation this summer.  It's been so HOT that we've spent a lot of time escaping to our basement playroom.  Keeping up with the toy rotation has helped keep the room enjoyable.  (If you missed our first toy rotation post, you can check it out here.)

I've been working on fine tuning some aspects of the rotations. One area that we are tweaking is the number of toys for each rotation, particularly when it comes to sets and accessories.  I've found that the number really depends on which toys are in rotation.  For example, during the month of July my kids played with ONE toy - their Little Tykes Bounce House.  I also discovered that my kids do not want dress up clothes out of rotation (they threatened mutiny).  Now I choose 5 or 6 outfits each rotation so that they always have dress up clothes, but they change from time to time.

I also tried working in invitations to play.  On my second toy rotation, I turned the playroom into a store.  I added a shopping cart, turned the shelves to resemble aisles in the store and set up a table with a cash register.  I even included some posterboard and markers for the kids to create signs for their store.  The great part about this set up was that I stocked the shelves with the chosen 9-10 toys for that rotation.  They could choose to use those things as their store inventory or just play with them if they didn't feel like playing store.

Here's a picture of our current rotation:

Our most recent toy rotation


Five dress up outfits seems to be the right fit for the 3 oldest.


On this shelf: dollhouse vehicles, marble maze set, and 2 totes of dollhouse accessories (one for people and one for furniture)


On this shelf: K'nex, magnadoodle, hopscotch and doctor kit

The breakdown of toys is as follows:

Moving:

• Stick horses 
• Hopscotch set (bottom shelf - not put together) 
• Dollhouse vehicles

Pretending:

• Doctor kit 
• Dress up clothes 
• Dollhouse village

Thinking: 

• Magna Doodle 
• K'nex 
• Marble Run Maze

Now, I know you might be thinking - "What's with all the dollhouses?"  I acquired all of these dollhouses without really meaning to. Two of them were gifted to us as hand-me-downs, and one I picked up at a garage sale for $1. I intended to keep one and donate the other two, but the kids and I could never agree which to keep and which to donate. The kids LOVE to set up all 3 houses and play "neighborhood" with them. They were thrilled to see that I allowed all 3 dollhouses to stay and put them into rotation at the same time. We'll see how it goes.

The totes on the shelves contain the pieces to the houses - blue for people, red for furniture. I am still unsure on the "perfect" number of accessories for toys like the dollhouse.  Pinky certainly prefers to have more so that each room can be decorated, while Wild One would be happy with a mama, a baby and a crib.  I guess only time will tell how this rotation will work for us.  I will keep you updated!

Our 2012 Summer Bucket List

Is it really summer vacation already?  It always amazes me how quickly the last month of school flies by!  I still have quite a few activities and crafts to post, but I wanted to post our Summer Bucket list first!  The kids and I had fun putting this together again this year!

2012 Summer Bucket List:

• Make glow in the dark bubbles
• Mud paint again
• Go camping
• Create flags for our garden
• Make a backyard obstacle course 
• Create 4th of July luminaries 
•  Make sunprints 
• Take a glow bath/make glow water 
• Have a picnic
• Make and fly paper kites
• Visit the Children's Museum, zoo, nature center and, of course, the LIBRARY!
• Add nature/leaf rubbings to our nature journals
• Make popsicles
• Go to the farmer's market
• Go on a "playground safari" and visit as many playgrounds in one day as we can
• Visit 3 new state parks
• Watch fireworks
• Visit our cousins
• Have a water balloon fight
• Make chalk paint
• Learn to ride a bike
• Eat cheese curds (a summer festival favorite)
• Read, read, read - Pinky has set a goal of reading 110 books (10 more than last summer).  Chaos wants to read 10 - all by himself!

I'm linking up to Little Wonders' Days' Summer Bucket List Party!

What My Child is Reading

Here are a few of the books we've been enjoying this week.

Edwardo the Horriblest Boy in the Whole World by John Burningham was one of my favorites.  It's a good reminder to parents to build our children up, not tear them down.  I think this is a must read for every family.

In honor of Earth Day, we read Big Bear Hug by Nicholas Oldland.  The story is about a bear who likes to hug!  He hugs trees, would-be-dinners, and more until he sees a man cutting down a tree in the forest.  Suddenly the bear doesn't feel much like hugging.  This a cute and funny story about conservation and being true to yourself.

Stuck, by Oliver Jeffers, is an over the top story about the lengths to which a little boy will go to retrieve his kite from a tree.  The story is absurdly funny and had my kids laughing out loud.

Our favorite read this week was Scaredy Squirrel.  Scared of the unknown, Scaredy Squirrel spends every day in his tree.  One day, his safe world is disrupted and Scaredy Squirrel must make some changes (after he panics of course!).

Linking up to:

K5 Learning Review

We recently had the opportunity to review K5 Learning, an online reading and math program for kids from kindergarten through grade 5.  K5 is designed for home use and can be used for after-school, weekend and summertime supplemental study or in conjunction with a homeschooling program.

We received a 6 week free trial to evaluate the program.  I had tried out some of the sample lessons on their website and was fairly impressed at how fun and informative the program was.

Pinky, my techy lover, was very excited to try out the program. We began with an online assessment of her reading and math skills.  This was not her favorite part as the tests were long (it is suggested you break the test up into several sessions), but it was nice to have a fairly accurate picture of what she already knew and what she needed to work on.

Once the assessment was completed, it was time to play...or rather, learn.  When Pinky logged in, she was able to choose which area she'd like to work on: Reading, Spelling, Math, or Math Facts.  Pinky really enjoyed the animation and the games.  As a parent, I loved the feedback that was provided in the parent area (progress reports, quiz results, spelling words learned and the progress made on each math fact).  I also liked that parents could assign any math or reading assignment to their child at any time and add specific spelling words to be studied.

After using the program for 6 weeks, I can say that both Pinky and I enjoyed it.

Pros:

• The segments or assignments were broken down into smaller, 5 minute increments.  It was nice to have the option to take breaks or limit screen time for a day.
• The assignments were fun.  Pinky enjoyed them and would ask to play.
• The feedback I received on Pinky's progress was helpful and informative.
• Customer service was very helpful and friendly.
• The site is ad free.
• They offer a free two week trial (and they don't ask for payment information - it is really, truly a FREE trial).

Cons:

• The cost.  K5 is available on a subscription basis for $25/month or $199/year with discounts for siblings.  As a supplemental study program, I feel that it may be cost-prohibitive for some families.  

Overall, I was impressed with the K5 program.  It is something that I will keep in mind for bridging the gap during summertime.  I encourage you to try the 2 week free trial if you feel this program could work for you.

Disclosure: I received a free 6 week trial of K5 Learning in order to write this review.  All opinions presented are mine and not influenced by the company or the free product I received.

Playroom Toy Organization

For a long time, I have been struggling with the issue of too many toys. With 4 kids, 2 sets of grandparents who love to send gifts, and my personal love for garage sales, there has been a constant flow of new toys in our house. It felt as though we were drowning in toys. No where was this felt more than in our playroom.


While the kids loved to play down here, it became a source of stress when every tote, bucket or bin would be emptied on the floor (you can see that the totes were so full of toys that some of them wouldn't even fit on the shelves).


When it was time to clean up (and at times it felt as though the toys were ankle deep), the kids would become overwhelmed. Then, we would argue. We would yell. We would threaten. We would help clean up. We vowed to not buy more toys. We promised we would get rid of some toys. But nothing worked.



Then one day I read a great article about rotating toys. The article "How to Rotate Toys" on the Little Stories blog is really great reading. I highly recommend checking it out.

Almost as soon as I finished reading I grabbed some (okay, a LOT) of Rubbermaid bins and dumped every. single. toy. into the center of the room and started sorting.



The mess wasn't pretty, and a few times I questioned my sanity for taking on a project of such magnitude., but I persevered.

I immediately weeded out any toys my youngest had outgrown, toys that were broken, or toys that had come from McDonalds or other cheap/trinkety type toys. To be honest, I didn't really get rid of anything else. I was very fearful that the kids wouldn't like the new playroom and wanted to be sure I could "go back" if I needed to.

To sort the toys, I put sets together inside plastic freezer bags and labeled them along with the number of pieces included (to make it easier when they were rotated out).


I added signs to the outside of the totes that outlined exactly what was inside. I tried to avoid generic labels, for example, labeling "Little People Farm" and "Little People Garage" instead of just "Little People." (I plan to show you my storage area in a future post.)

Once every toy was packed away and organized (including large items like the play kitchen and washer/dryer set), I made a list of which toys I wanted to include in our first rotation. I listed each child's name and, under it, each category that Kim included in her article. I tried to make the toys overlap between kids as much as possible.


Finally (the part I had been looking forward to), I got to work setting up the chosen toys. I was VERY nervous about how the kids would react. I had told them I was working on making the playroom even better, but I was certain there would be tears or protests about the finished product.

I unveiled the "new" playroom to the kids about a week ago. I am happy to say they LOVED it. I know they loved it because they wouldn't stop telling me how much they loved it. I made sure to bring out a few toys that they hadn't played with in awhile (and the ball pit was my insurance policy that something in the room would be awesome for them, just in case there were tears).


Here's a close up look of what's on the shelves:

Little People Farm and an additional animal/farm set, Peek a Blocks gumball machine, My First Purse, Mr. Potato Head and a Playmobil safari animal set


Puzzles, Dora school set, wedgits and 2 large Tonka trucks


Fisher Price Loving family dollhouse (Wild One decorated this one for me).

Also "on rotation" but not in the close up pictures - a ball pit and a tunnel.

After nearly a week, the kids are still just as happy with the room. They have been playing longer, with less complaints about cleaning up. And to my amazement - they've been playing with fewer fights too! For my husband and I, the room feels calmer and more inviting - a place we don't mind spending time anymore. I even feel like we can finally add some artwork to the walls without completely overwhelming the space.!

I have a lot of fun ideas for upcoming toy rotations. My plan is to rotate every 2 weeks. I hope to share the rotations with you so you can see how rotating toys works (or doesn't work) for our family in the long term. Be sure to check back!

Linking up to some of these great parties!