August Study Guide: Summer Learning Update 2020

myinspiredhomeschool

4 years ago

I decided to take a a couple weeks off in July. It’s been great. But we’re getting back into more serious learning in August. I’m excited to crack into new language arts curriculum and check in with the kids on what they want to learn about.

For perspective, we’re about five months into our stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I’ve been flexing my creative muscle in terms of keeping things fun and interesting around here. More on that with my August Family Fun Inspiration post.

The stress of the pandemic has been hard. This is what I’ve been hearing from other homeschoolers as well. But we are experts at free play and finding learning opportunities, so to keep us on track (and our minds active with fun things to do and learn) learning at home this summer makes sense.

For reference, both my kids are roughly at a first and third grade level. Many of the resources I’ve linked to reflect that.

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Fun things about August

Fun fact! This month’s full moon (August 15) is called the Sturgeon Moon. More moon facts.

Check out my August Family Fun Inspiration post.

Language arts

I purchased the Dart program from Bravewriter for the year. Every month, we will read a different novel targeted for the 8-10 range. We will discuss the book and do select copy work passages.

Ohter tools that occupy our language arts toolbox:

I pull from Oak Meadow for structure.
Podcasts. “Circle Round” from WBUR is a favorite.
Poetry Tea Time

We like read-alouds (short stories, poems and chapter books) for Poetry Tea Time. If you’re new to the idea of “Poetry Tea Time” – it is AMAZING. Want an excuse to light candles, bake brownies and snuggle up with a cup of tea? Look no further.

Music

Music appreciation is a huge part of our every day. We have been mostly learning music through just listening to different styles, free play on the piano and exercises in identifying rhythm.

Movement

While all of our out of home activities have ceased for the time being, we’re still wracking up hours for our 1,000 hours outside challenge. Other activities:

Go Noodle – a fun app we found that helps to get the kids moving – perfect for rainy days!
Wii Sports
Playing outside
Family hiking

Arts and crafts

Arts and crafts are interwoven throughout our studies. But the kids like to disappear to our “art studio” to create things out of cardboard, paper and glue. I’d like the kids to have a continuous craft project to work on, so I have carved out Monday afternoons for this deeper dive.

Other experiences this month:

sunflower paintings
friendship bracelets
perler beads
Art Escape Camp
Comics Crash Course
Movie Making Magic

Social emotional

Blank notebooks make great gratitude journals. At least twice a week, the kids draw a picture of their current mood and a few of the things they are grateful for.

We learned a lot about mindfulness in Forest School last year. This month, I thought it would be fun to take a deeper dive. Resources from Education.com.

Week 1: Mindfulness: A Home Inside

Week 2: Mindfulness: The Present Moment

Week 3: Mindfulness: Mindful Listening

Week 4: Mindfulness: The Outside and Inside Present

Also, looking at getting something like this to help with our mindful exercises: Tibetan Singing Bowl.

Social studies

For our August Family Fun Inspiration list, I thought it would be fun to talk about the cultures we’re planning on getting takeout from.

Health

I am taking the structure of Oak Meadow’s resources with my own spin and we’re covering: a review of last month, social skills, communication skills, respect and good sportsmanship. We’re aiming to cover this twice a week.

Science

The garden is in full swing and the kids have plenty to learn with us out in the yard. To keep things lively on the weekends, we’ll most likely do a Kiwi Crate box and or science experiments from the Magic School Bus Chemistry Lab.

Other fun science-themed experience this month:

Math

Update: not much has changed here.

The kids love math and get a lot of practice in their workbooks. For a focused study, we’re aiming for twice a week. Multiplication is getting easier which means more fun quizzing each other at random times of the day.

We still love:

Prodigy is an adventure-based math learning platform.
Bedtime Math has been a fun way to teach practical applications and story problems. Each story ends with several math questions geared toward different age groups. They have an app, as well.
LEGO challenge cards
Math dice game – practice number combinations
Moose Math – basic operations practice