May 25, 2024 • 14 mins
Ever wondered how to keep your kids' minds buzzing and learning over the summer break? Say goodbye to summer learning loss and hello to fun-filled educational adventures with our latest episode! As your guide, I share my philosophy that while a bit of relaxation is great, keeping a learning rhythm is key. Whether you're a homeschool veteran or seeking to supplement your child's traditional education during the break, this episode is packed with practical tips and creative solutions for students across various grade levels.
We start by tackling the early educational stages from kindergarten to third grade, offering a treasure trove of hands-on activities to make reading and math come alive. Imagine transforming your home into an interactive classroom with simple tools like laminators, cardstock, and savvy resources from Teachers Pay Teachers. But the learning doesn't stop there. I'll walk you through crafting an educational oasis for science and social studies too, ensuring your little ones' curiosity continues to grow like a well-tended summer garden. No more aimless days—get ready to fill your child's summer with knowledge, creativity, and a love for learning that lasts all year round.
Drop me a line!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone.
I hope you are all going tohave a great weekend this
weekend, with Memorial Daycoming upon us and then summer
right around the corner andschool is about to be out.
Now, if you are homeschooling,that doesn't mean that they
still can't be learning thissummer, or if your child is in
school, that they still can't belearning some stuff this summer
(00:23):
is in school, that they stillcan't be learning some stuff
this summer.
I always tell parents, you know, one or two weeks of flopping
around the house is okay, butafter that they need to be doing
stuff, at least reading orsomething, if they're regular in
school.
But if you're homeschooling,learning can still continue.
Now, when they do go back toschool, I've been seeing a lot
of parents that are reallystruggling to get them at the
(00:46):
table to do their work.
So I'm going to talk again alittle bit about some ideas and
maybe some solutions that willhelp you, and I'm going to look
at all different areas of gradelevels.
So if your child is atkindergarten to second, maybe
(01:06):
even third grade, what you wantto do is get yourself a
laminator.
You can get them at Walmart,they're not that expensive.
Some car stock and somelaminated sheets is what you
want to get.
Then go on to Teachers, payTeachers, and you're going to
find a lot of information onthere on how to make task boxes
(01:29):
T-A-S-K-Y no Y on there, sorryabout that.
But anyway, task boxes and theyare a godsend in the classroom
too, but you can use them athome.
So what you're going to do isyou're going to get your ideas.
What you want to do.
Let's say you're working on theshort A, so you're going to
(01:51):
make two task boxes with short A.
And then you're working onmaybe single digits or even
double digits of adding.
So you're going to make a boxwith adding a sheet, maybe put a
sheet in there or somethingjust like four or five problems,
and make some manipulips inthere where they can count and
do their math.
(02:12):
And then maybe for let's see,for reading, they can read short
sentences or something.
A short little passage is whatyou want and then answer maybe
three questions.
And then for writing, they justwrite out a sentence.
Now, if they're just beginning,you're going to want them to be
able to copy, trace a sentenceor something like that.
(02:33):
Like I see the giraffe.
Then after a while, afterthey've done that a little bit
of while just have them writeout, I see, and then maybe put
the word draft up there for themso that way that they're
building on their writing and beable to write a simple sentence
.
So you're going to have aboutthree or four task boxes and
they can be the same thing forthe whole week.
(02:56):
You know you don't have tochange them up or anything that
they know, and so they know thatthose things that they need to
do now, if they can do some ofit, your goal is you want some
of that to be independent, thatthey can go get their task box
and do that Now.
For, like science and socialstudies, make something fun.
And I know, on Teachers, payTeachers.
(03:16):
You know you can make littlefolders of what ones are
landfall and which one is thewater or the wants and needs.
You know where they just theygot the pictures and they put
want on one side and what needson the other side, and they have
.
It's a Velcro.
You just do the Velcro and sothose are on.
Also, teachers, pay Teachers.
(03:37):
Now, I don't have an account, sothese things that I'm going to
be talking about, I don't haveany accounts.
You can go wherever you want togo to get the information, but
I'm gonna be talking about Idon't have any accounts.
You can go wherever you wannago to get the information, but
I'm just giving you some ideas.
One of the things you alsowanna get is you wanna either go
like to Walmart or dollar storeand get some bins the little
you know with the lid on them.
They're like 12 by 8, or youcan even get smaller ones, like
(04:00):
3 by 6, to put this stuff in it.
The 12 by 8s will probably be alittle bit better for, like,
some of the math stuff,especially if you've got a strip
of paper for some math problemsthat you want on there and
pencils and things like thatthat you'll need, and then
they're just plastic ones.
Or you can get them on Amazonto.
(04:21):
Our dollar store might havethem to.
You could check their dollarstore.
So don't you know you don't haveto spend a lot of money to do
this, to get it kind of set upand don't worry about so much as
an area.
You know that you got to makethis classroom.
Some parents think they got togo in and make a big old
classroom.
You don't need to do that, justthe table and chair, and that's
all they need.
So those are some of the thingsthat you need on that.
(04:44):
And then they have to do thatwork every day.
So you have to be the strongerone and say when you do this,
then you get that, just like wedo.
If we go to work and earn themoney, then we can live in the
house Not that they can't livein the house, but maybe they
want their iPad.
Or give them a reward.
You know, you don't have tonecessarily take something away
(05:07):
from them to have them earn it,but it just depends on the child
.
So you get an extra hour onyour iPad.
Or, if it's that they're usingit too much in the house, say
you know what?
You, you don't get it at alluntil the work is done.
It just depends on on theirbehavior and what, what's going
on, so, or or some kind of atreat or something like that
(05:31):
that they get.
You know, and there's nothingwrong with that.
I I believe in rewards.
I think it helps us, you know,and after a while, things,
things become a habit, and thenyou kind of pull away from some
of those rewards.
You don't need them as much,they're just a habit that they
need to do and so if they get itwhen they get done, they're
done All right.
So now let's talk about thirdthrough fifth grade.
(05:52):
They're a little bit older soyou're going to change.
Maybe not have those bends withthe um with the top on them, but
they're called uh, organizersfile organizers.
They got them on.
I saw them on amazon.
I think they're like 18 forthree of them or something, but
you can get them cheaper thanthat, I I'm sure.
And they're the ones that whereyou could put a file in there
(06:15):
you know a little folder typething and put their work inside
there and say, maybe, have alittle folder type thing and put
their work inside there and say, maybe have three of them for
them and say, okay, you're goingto do this reading today.
And then you know, do somewriting, some math in one and
these are your things that youneed to do today.
So once you get them done, thenyou know you get extra time and
(06:37):
they can whip right throughthem.
And if you need to sit down orhave a tutor come in to help
them with a math problem, asthey're getting older sometimes
you know we need a little extrahelp, so maybe get a tutor to
come in.
It can be anybody, it could bea high school kid, it can be
your neighbor or maybe yourfamily member that can come in
(07:01):
and help for an hour or so.
Give them a few bucks for theirtime and have them work with
them one-on-one and with asubject that they need help with
.
And then you can also have themsit down with you.
If you're at your desk or ifyou're doing something in the
kitchen, have them pull up astool and Just do it that way.
(07:21):
It doesn't have to be thisuniform of in the classroom
sitting at the table.
There's a lot of options.
You know you're in the kitchencooking.
Hey, sit up here at the barhere and let's get this done.
And you know it really doesn'treally take that long.
You can do 20 minutes here, 20minutes there and take a break.
(07:45):
You know, work a half hour andgive a break.
I do that with my kids that I'mtutoring.
I can see the stress on themafter 30, 40 minutes sometimes
and they need a little bit ofbreak.
So we do like a two, threeminute break, sometimes five
minutes, it just depends andthen we get back to work and
first work, then whatever objectthat they choose, and, and with
(08:07):
your kids that are smaller,that need that reinforcement,
that visual don't forget thosevisuals the timers or first work
, and then you get to dowhatever you want go to your
room or ipad or whatever, have asnack, do those kind of things
too, and you will find themanywhere.
You can find them on um, amazon, and I think you can.
(08:29):
And then, uh, but teachers,paying teachers, and what was
that?
Oh, uh, pecs, you can find thatstuff on there too.
So now we're talking about highschool kids.
Uh, we've got kids that are inhigh school.
What are we?
What are we looking at?
Well, we definitely want themreading and we definitely want
them to try to be writing.
Now, if they have difficultieswriting, use the computer or,
(08:52):
you know, get something thatthey can type out.
You know it doesn't have to behandwritten all the time.
You just want to make sure theycan sign their name and people
can read it and things like that.
But not that handwriting isn'timportant, but sometimes some
kids have a very difficult timewith that.
So don't be worried about themwriting out papers and things
(09:14):
like that.
Just simple stuff that they canwrite a list just things that
they would need to do tofunction in life.
But other than that, they canjust use the computer life.
But other than that, they canjust use the computer.
I think today, that is a verygood skill to have to be able to
do that, to be able to writeout a letter on a computer and
then for so, with our highschoolers, we need to be
(09:35):
thinking about skills for themtoo.
Yes, we want them reading.
Yes, we want them to know math,but it's most important that
they find a skill.
Yes, we want them to know math,but it's most important that
they find a skill, somethingthey can do.
I don't care if it's, you know,learning to stack cans on the
shelf, working at the store orbagging groceries.
Or the one student that I'mworking with right now and have
(09:58):
been for over a year now, butwe're getting better is his
culinary.
A lot of kids like to cook andthey can take a culinary test
and there is a booklet that youcan get or you can even do it
online and they practice thetest and then they take it to
work in the kitchen, maybe doingthe dishes or sweeping the
(10:20):
floors, but they have to havethat skill and that certificate
you want them to have.
So find things that they'reinterested in, what they think
they would like to do.
Maybe it's washing cars orsomething like that cleaning
type thing inside and out of acar.
So just find out what that isand work out with that and they
(10:42):
can earn some money.
Maybe it's doing lawn or mowingthe lawns, washing windows.
There's things out there thatthey can do to learn to be able
to function and to be able tolearn to function in the house
but take care of themselves, orcleaning their rooms and things
like that.
So we want to work on thoseskills along with our education
(11:02):
to be able to graduate.
You want to know science andsocial studies and things like
that.
But take it in chunks.
Get those big folders.
Those file folders say okay,these are the three things
you're going to do today, or thefour things.
If you're again on each ofthose, if you're working on a
goal, you know, make sure thatgoal is in there.
(11:23):
Okay, once we've got that, thenwe move up to the next one.
Now, if they don't have itright away, don't worry about it
.
You can always come back to it,but don't stay stuck on it
either.
You know you need to moveforward because if you stay
stuck on it they're going togive up and you're going to have
a difficult time.
You need to move on.
(11:47):
You know I do two weeks and thenI go back and forth, you know,
and we review it again and stuff, but a lot of that time you're
going to see it again anyway.
It's like if you're working on10 words and they get five of
them and they didn't get theother five, move on to something
else and then later on addthose words into the words that
they miss, they're going to seethem again and again and again.
But if you just stay stuck onthose 10 words that they miss,
they're going to see them againand again, and again.
But if you just stay stuck onthose 10 words, they're not
(12:10):
going to want to do it, they'regoing to get bored.
They're going to say enough.
And sometimes with some of ourkids that are on the spectrum,
they do have it, but theyhaven't shown it yet and so it
will show up again later, lateron.
So anyway, I hope some of thosestrategies have helped you a
little bit.
Please don't be beating yourselfup or him or her either.
(12:31):
You know, I know it's difficultand stuff like that, but try to
make it easy.
This is all we have to do today, you know.
Make it.
Oh, this is all we have to do.
Let's get this done and thenyou can have the rest of the day
.
Don't feel like you have to befrom sunup to sundown to to
(12:53):
education, and a lot of timesyou can do other things too.
You know, like art and science,and maybe, you know, join a
jogging group or, um, some timeof physical activity that they
can do.
That's all important too.
You know build teamwork andcommunication and good exercise.
So look at those things too,okay?
So, anyway, I really hopeeverybody has a wonderful,
(13:16):
wonderful weekend and just enjoyyour family and take care of
each other, and God bless youall.
Thank you, bye-bye.
Hi everyone.
I hope you are all going tohave a great weekend this
weekend, with Memorial Daycoming upon us and then summer
right around the corner andschool is about to be out.
Now, if you are homeschooling,that doesn't mean that they
still can't be learning thissummer, or if your child is in
school, that they still can't belearning some stuff this summer
(00:23):
is in school, that they stillcan't be learning some stuff
this summer.
I always tell parents, you know, one or two weeks of flopping
around the house is okay, butafter that they need to be doing
stuff, at least reading orsomething, if they're regular in
school.
But if you're homeschooling,learning can still continue.
Now, when they do go back toschool, I've been seeing a lot
of parents that are reallystruggling to get them at the
(00:46):
table to do their work.
So I'm going to talk again alittle bit about some ideas and
maybe some solutions that willhelp you, and I'm going to look
at all different areas of gradelevels.
So if your child is atkindergarten to second, maybe
(01:06):
even third grade, what you wantto do is get yourself a
laminator.
You can get them at Walmart,they're not that expensive.
Some car stock and somelaminated sheets is what you
want to get.
Then go on to Teachers, payTeachers, and you're going to
find a lot of information onthere on how to make task boxes
(01:29):
T-A-S-K-Y no Y on there, sorryabout that.
But anyway, task boxes and theyare a godsend in the classroom
too, but you can use them athome.
So what you're going to do isyou're going to get your ideas.
What you want to do.
Let's say you're working on theshort A, so you're going to
(01:51):
make two task boxes with short A.
And then you're working onmaybe single digits or even
double digits of adding.
So you're going to make a boxwith adding a sheet, maybe put a
sheet in there or somethingjust like four or five problems,
and make some manipulips inthere where they can count and
do their math.
(02:12):
And then maybe for let's see,for reading, they can read short
sentences or something.
A short little passage is whatyou want and then answer maybe
three questions.
And then for writing, they justwrite out a sentence.
Now, if they're just beginning,you're going to want them to be
able to copy, trace a sentenceor something like that.
(02:33):
Like I see the giraffe.
Then after a while, afterthey've done that a little bit
of while just have them writeout, I see, and then maybe put
the word draft up there for themso that way that they're
building on their writing and beable to write a simple sentence
.
So you're going to have aboutthree or four task boxes and
they can be the same thing forthe whole week.
(02:56):
You know you don't have tochange them up or anything that
they know, and so they know thatthose things that they need to
do now, if they can do some ofit, your goal is you want some
of that to be independent, thatthey can go get their task box
and do that Now.
For, like science and socialstudies, make something fun.
And I know, on Teachers, payTeachers.
(03:16):
You know you can make littlefolders of what ones are
landfall and which one is thewater or the wants and needs.
You know where they just theygot the pictures and they put
want on one side and what needson the other side, and they have
.
It's a Velcro.
You just do the Velcro and sothose are on.
Also, teachers, pay Teachers.
(03:37):
Now, I don't have an account, sothese things that I'm going to
be talking about, I don't haveany accounts.
You can go wherever you want togo to get the information, but
I'm gonna be talking about Idon't have any accounts.
You can go wherever you wannago to get the information, but
I'm just giving you some ideas.
One of the things you alsowanna get is you wanna either go
like to Walmart or dollar storeand get some bins the little
you know with the lid on them.
They're like 12 by 8, or youcan even get smaller ones, like
(04:00):
3 by 6, to put this stuff in it.
The 12 by 8s will probably be alittle bit better for, like,
some of the math stuff,especially if you've got a strip
of paper for some math problemsthat you want on there and
pencils and things like thatthat you'll need, and then
they're just plastic ones.
Or you can get them on Amazonto.
(04:21):
Our dollar store might havethem to.
You could check their dollarstore.
So don't you know you don't haveto spend a lot of money to do
this, to get it kind of set upand don't worry about so much as
an area.
You know that you got to makethis classroom.
Some parents think they got togo in and make a big old
classroom.
You don't need to do that, justthe table and chair, and that's
all they need.
So those are some of the thingsthat you need on that.
(04:44):
And then they have to do thatwork every day.
So you have to be the strongerone and say when you do this,
then you get that, just like wedo.
If we go to work and earn themoney, then we can live in the
house Not that they can't livein the house, but maybe they
want their iPad.
Or give them a reward.
You know, you don't have tonecessarily take something away
(05:07):
from them to have them earn it,but it just depends on the child
.
So you get an extra hour onyour iPad.
Or, if it's that they're usingit too much in the house, say
you know what?
You, you don't get it at alluntil the work is done.
It just depends on on theirbehavior and what, what's going
on, so, or or some kind of atreat or something like that
(05:31):
that they get.
You know, and there's nothingwrong with that.
I I believe in rewards.
I think it helps us, you know,and after a while, things,
things become a habit, and thenyou kind of pull away from some
of those rewards.
You don't need them as much,they're just a habit that they
need to do and so if they get itwhen they get done, they're
done All right.
So now let's talk about thirdthrough fifth grade.
(05:52):
They're a little bit older soyou're going to change.
Maybe not have those bends withthe um with the top on them, but
they're called uh, organizersfile organizers.
They got them on.
I saw them on amazon.
I think they're like 18 forthree of them or something, but
you can get them cheaper thanthat, I I'm sure.
And they're the ones that whereyou could put a file in there
(06:15):
you know a little folder typething and put their work inside
there and say, maybe, have alittle folder type thing and put
their work inside there and say, maybe have three of them for
them and say, okay, you're goingto do this reading today.
And then you know, do somewriting, some math in one and
these are your things that youneed to do today.
So once you get them done, thenyou know you get extra time and
(06:37):
they can whip right throughthem.
And if you need to sit down orhave a tutor come in to help
them with a math problem, asthey're getting older sometimes
you know we need a little extrahelp, so maybe get a tutor to
come in.
It can be anybody, it could bea high school kid, it can be
your neighbor or maybe yourfamily member that can come in
(07:01):
and help for an hour or so.
Give them a few bucks for theirtime and have them work with
them one-on-one and with asubject that they need help with
.
And then you can also have themsit down with you.
If you're at your desk or ifyou're doing something in the
kitchen, have them pull up astool and Just do it that way.
(07:21):
It doesn't have to be thisuniform of in the classroom
sitting at the table.
There's a lot of options.
You know you're in the kitchencooking.
Hey, sit up here at the barhere and let's get this done.
And you know it really doesn'treally take that long.
You can do 20 minutes here, 20minutes there and take a break.
(07:45):
You know, work a half hour andgive a break.
I do that with my kids that I'mtutoring.
I can see the stress on themafter 30, 40 minutes sometimes
and they need a little bit ofbreak.
So we do like a two, threeminute break, sometimes five
minutes, it just depends andthen we get back to work and
first work, then whatever objectthat they choose, and, and with
(08:07):
your kids that are smaller,that need that reinforcement,
that visual don't forget thosevisuals the timers or first work
, and then you get to dowhatever you want go to your
room or ipad or whatever, have asnack, do those kind of things
too, and you will find themanywhere.
You can find them on um, amazon, and I think you can.
(08:29):
And then, uh, but teachers,paying teachers, and what was
that?
Oh, uh, pecs, you can find thatstuff on there too.
So now we're talking about highschool kids.
Uh, we've got kids that are inhigh school.
What are we?
What are we looking at?
Well, we definitely want themreading and we definitely want
them to try to be writing.
Now, if they have difficultieswriting, use the computer or,
(08:52):
you know, get something thatthey can type out.
You know it doesn't have to behandwritten all the time.
You just want to make sure theycan sign their name and people
can read it and things like that.
But not that handwriting isn'timportant, but sometimes some
kids have a very difficult timewith that.
So don't be worried about themwriting out papers and things
(09:14):
like that.
Just simple stuff that they canwrite a list just things that
they would need to do tofunction in life.
But other than that, they canjust use the computer life.
But other than that, they canjust use the computer.
I think today, that is a verygood skill to have to be able to
do that, to be able to writeout a letter on a computer and
then for so, with our highschoolers, we need to be
(09:35):
thinking about skills for themtoo.
Yes, we want them reading.
Yes, we want them to know math,but it's most important that
they find a skill.
Yes, we want them to know math,but it's most important that
they find a skill, somethingthey can do.
I don't care if it's, you know,learning to stack cans on the
shelf, working at the store orbagging groceries.
Or the one student that I'mworking with right now and have
(09:58):
been for over a year now, butwe're getting better is his
culinary.
A lot of kids like to cook andthey can take a culinary test
and there is a booklet that youcan get or you can even do it
online and they practice thetest and then they take it to
work in the kitchen, maybe doingthe dishes or sweeping the
(10:20):
floors, but they have to havethat skill and that certificate
you want them to have.
So find things that they'reinterested in, what they think
they would like to do.
Maybe it's washing cars orsomething like that cleaning
type thing inside and out of acar.
So just find out what that isand work out with that and they
(10:42):
can earn some money.
Maybe it's doing lawn or mowingthe lawns, washing windows.
There's things out there thatthey can do to learn to be able
to function and to be able tolearn to function in the house
but take care of themselves, orcleaning their rooms and things
like that.
So we want to work on thoseskills along with our education
(11:02):
to be able to graduate.
You want to know science andsocial studies and things like
that.
But take it in chunks.
Get those big folders.
Those file folders say okay,these are the three things
you're going to do today, or thefour things.
If you're again on each ofthose, if you're working on a
goal, you know, make sure thatgoal is in there.
(11:23):
Okay, once we've got that, thenwe move up to the next one.
Now, if they don't have itright away, don't worry about it
.
You can always come back to it,but don't stay stuck on it
either.
You know you need to moveforward because if you stay
stuck on it they're going togive up and you're going to have
a difficult time.
You need to move on.
(11:47):
You know I do two weeks and thenI go back and forth, you know,
and we review it again and stuff, but a lot of that time you're
going to see it again anyway.
It's like if you're working on10 words and they get five of
them and they didn't get theother five, move on to something
else and then later on addthose words into the words that
they miss, they're going to seethem again and again and again.
But if you just stay stuck onthose 10 words that they miss,
they're going to see them againand again, and again.
But if you just stay stuck onthose 10 words, they're not
(12:10):
going to want to do it, they'regoing to get bored.
They're going to say enough.
And sometimes with some of ourkids that are on the spectrum,
they do have it, but theyhaven't shown it yet and so it
will show up again later, lateron.
So anyway, I hope some of thosestrategies have helped you a
little bit.
Please don't be beating yourselfup or him or her either.
(12:31):
You know, I know it's difficultand stuff like that, but try to
make it easy.
This is all we have to do today, you know.
Make it.
Oh, this is all we have to do.
Let's get this done and thenyou can have the rest of the day
.
Don't feel like you have to befrom sunup to sundown to to
(12:53):
education, and a lot of timesyou can do other things too.
You know, like art and science,and maybe, you know, join a
jogging group or, um, some timeof physical activity that they
can do.
That's all important too.
You know build teamwork andcommunication and good exercise.
So look at those things too,okay?
So, anyway, I really hopeeverybody has a wonderful,
(13:16):
wonderful weekend and just enjoyyour family and take care of
each other, and God bless youall.
Thank you, bye-bye.
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