Relaxed Summer Schooling

Well, I really want the kids to stay in a routine this summer, so that "school" doesn't surprise them in August. Sticking to a schedule seems to be the best way to do this, at least for my children. We all function much better with a routine. So, this morning we got up at our normal time (7:00 a.m.) and after breakfast we read part of a book (more on that later) and then Anna did math while Grant had computer time.

Now, back to the book we are reading: Right now both of my kids are at an age where they enjoy the Magic Treehouse books. Anna has read many of them independently a couple of years ago (but really likes for me to read them again) , and my son is just beginning to show an interest in listening to longer books. At the Scholastic book fair a couple of weeks ago I picked up "Moonlight on the Magic Flute". Since I am a former elementary music teacher I really like anything having to do with composers, so I figured this was a great place to start. All of the Magic Treehouse books are great in my opinion, and I would like to work through several of them this summer with the kids. I'm thinking of a poster to keep track of the ones we read -- something like "Our Summer Treehouse".... we'll just have to see how that turns out.

I went to the Crayola website and found a coloring page of Mozart so the kids colored while they listened to me read. When we had finished our chapters for the day I then played some of Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" for them. I highly recommend an album for children entitled "Beethoven's Wig", which takes classical music and plays it in the original form, but then also gives another version with silly lyrics. Kids love this! I used it a lot when my daughter was in public school and I would teach music to her class once a week. We made composer/composition notebooks based on these pieces and the kids remembered the music and always asked for more! To see a video of some of this music click here! This music has won a lot of awards. We have both "Beethoven's Wig" and "Beethoven's Wig 2".

If you have any ideas to share about summer schooling activities, I would love to hear them!