day 156: summer!

               "One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters."

                                           unknown




Summer is here at Positive Parenting 3*6*5—and in our homeschool, Training for Triumph. Whether our children attend preschool, private school, public school, or homeschool, there are things that we can all do during the summer to make it an enjoyable, growing time in our children’s lives. Summer truly proves the quote above--that one good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters. We have our children home all summer--either with us if we work at home or stay home with younger children or at home while we are working. Either way, we have all summer to be their "schoolmasters."


I have a variety of topics to share with you concerning summer. Here is a sneak preview of some of them:




1. Scheduling your summer days (A schedule? If you have kids sleeping ‘til noon, you would be surprised how much more time you can have with your kids and how much you can get done, if you just had a semi-scheduled summer!)




2. Helping your struggling reader—this will be multi-posted. From helping your young, struggling “word caller” (with phonics, reading together, and more) to helping your child go from word calling to fluency to helping your children build their comprehension skills this summer so that when they attack various types of materials this fall at school, they will understand and retain better than ever. My master’s work is in reading specialist—and teaching reading, comprehension, writing, and language arts are my true loves!


3. “Losing” academic skills in the summer? Which children really need academics in the summer?


4. Summer “skills” books vs instruction? How do you know what your child really needs this summer?


5. Reading aloud and summer library time—of course!


6. Penmanship helps—improve your child’s penmanship this summer in just a few minutes a day.


7. Math drill—get a simple, no nonsense math drill that will keep your kids’ skills sharp all year long.


8. Relationship building in the summer—especially with those older kids who are home from college for the summer!


9. Implementing those things that you always say you’re going to do and always want to do but that do not happen during the school year!


10. Much more!


I will try to move quickly so that we will be through them all by the end of the month, so you will still have a good six weeks to work on things that are suggested, if you decide you need to. Thanks for joining us!