It's almost the end of winter and about time to gather the workbooks for summer. According to many experts, the Obamas included, there is such a thing as "summer learning loss".
“We also know that during the summer, when our kids take a break from school, too many of them experience what they call summer learning loss,” Mrs. Obama said. “And a lot of kids sometimes find that they forget some of the things that they learned throughout the school years, and as a result, if they stop learning through the summer, they can fall behind and then they’re struggling throughout the year.”
I don't support extending the school year. It would take away all the fun of having a summer to grow in other areas of life. With schools being so demanding now a days, kids and parents need some down time to recharge. However, 30 minutes per day of efficient learning during the summer is not a bad thing. It enforces the daily homework routine so that there is no shock when school starts again in August. Summer is so fun any ways with plenty of sports and play dates so I don't think kids will mind doing some work if it's fun and short. Of course, some incentive system needs to be in place.
I searched through Amazon for some workbooks that has a daily lesson plan. The one that I prefer is the Daily series because they are being used at most schools.
Being an expert Googler, after a few searches I discovered that the Daily series from Evan-Moor Educational Publishers are available for free (they cost around $15-30 at Amazon if you don't want to print it out yourself). Some schools and dedicated teachers post these worksheets in pdf so that students can print them out for practice. You can download and print them out at home for practice. They are very fast to go through (less than 10 minutes per worksheet).
I wish there is one place where all the resources are available to parents for homeschooling or supplemental practice. I am going to try and put as much information as I can find here.
Grade 4
- Daily Paragraph Editing very entertaining reading!
- Daily Math Practice similar to the quick problems on STAR tests
- Mrs Renz 4th Grade spelling, word problems, math challenges, timing worksheets
- Mrs Renz Daily Questions daily self-start review of geography, math, grammar, etc
- Daily Academic Vocabulary great vocabulary daily worksheets
- Weekly Math+Spelling+Reading change the file name to get access to all the worksheets (hw2001-hw6001; hw8001-15001; hw17001-etc ...)
Grade 3
- Mrs Rhea 3rd Grade homework includes daily math, spelling, reading, writing, and geography
Grade 6
- Math Mysteries math puzzles
Writing
- Paragraph Writing simple start to writing!
