day 191: other academic help—“summer” workbooks

What if your child is a terrific reader but has trouble with math? What about history and social studies? How can you help your child in the content areas this summer?


I will start today with the idea of keeping the skills your child has already developed during the academic year and then moving in to helping to build his skills in specific subjects.


If your child is at grade level and you do not feel a need to INCREASE his skills this summer but rather just help him keep the skills he has, you will probably do well with any of those “summer” workbooks. I personally like the “Comprehensive Curriculum” books.


With the “summer” type of workbooks, you would get the one for the grade level your child just finished (not the one he is about to go into).


I personally like the general ones that have a little bit of each subject. The one that Jakie is doing this summer has five areas of study (reading, writing, math, social studies, science), and he has to complete one page from each area on our “summer school” days. This makes it simple for him and for me.


These types (especially the Comprehensive Curriculum ones) are super inexpensive (and in color—actually amazingly affordable for such high quality).


I get mine at the wholesale club, but here is a link for some you may order online: http://www.homeschoolingsupply.com/cgi-bin/search/search.cgi?Terms=Comprehensive+Curriculum or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1561893706/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1561893749&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0K5ZBEAQMA84RND0WKW0



Another option is to just print off various types of worksheets online for your child to do. I prefer having all of the pages in one book in a systematic order—and the color of the workbooks makes it more appealing than isolated workbook pages. However, if you just want to have him practice just writing or just math, you might want to do a search for free worksheets online. The internet is a plethora of materials for you to use with your student.


I can’t end a “keep your child’s academic skills alive” post without reminding you of the two things that can do more to build reading, content area (history, science, etc.), and thinking skills than any workbook could: (1) reading together; and (2) discussion. Don’t overlook these two avenues for keeping your child’s school skills sharp.