School's Out For Summer . . . or is it?

Katie and I felt it was time for this momma to have a day off from cleaning and spend some good quality time with her special daughter and baby boy. Saying this doesn't mean I have the tidiest home. You can't tell it, but I do clean every day. It's all part of motherhood!

Anyway, I want to make sure Katie's Summer vacation has some structure and not wasted away. I don't want her to lose all the knowledge sitting on her little shoulders by the time school is back in session. My goal is to keep what Katie's learned this past school year (colors, shapes, numbers, letters, letter sounds and number/letter recognition).  Mrs. Katie's tried very hard to get her little spongy students ready for reading.  I hope, with a lot of hard work and effort on Katie's part, to have her reading early beginner books before school starts in August.  I'm probably crazy, but I'm determined.  A lot of people have told me not to push and that she is too young.  She may be, but I know Katie's limits and I know she's ready.  I have to find creative ways to make it exciting because she thinks reading is so BORING.  That is until she gets some words or small sentences correct, then she's wanting to give me a HIGH FIVE. 

I'm so glad that I found 1+1+1=1 blog! Carisa was a Kindergarten teacher for 4 1/2 years before becoming a stay at home mom, so she knows her stuff in my book. She's introduced me to lots of learning tools for Katie, to make learning a little more fun than normal and I'm loving lapbooks. I've printed and put together a few just today for Katie. One Little, Two Little and Homeschool Share has some cute lapbooks, you can print for free.

Katie and I read "Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom" lapbook that I got from 1+1+1=1. Here's the direct link to Chicka Boom Tot Book.  There are other things to print out and the complete themed workbooks look GREAT! I was mostly interested in the books because Katie started reading early beginners Scholastic paperback books approximately 3 or 4 months ago.  Homeschool Share has other neat kid tools than just lapbooks. I could see loving this website in future Summers to come. They not only cover reading, but studies like geography, literature, and science. I try to introduce these other catergories into Katie's life, but I don't want to overwhelm her.

Today, we worked on her pattern (cut and paste) skills, pre-writing skills, letter recognition and finally read the "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" Tot Book aka lapbook, "Hermie and Wormie" lapbook and our first volume from the "Bob" book collection.  She did great (with a little help) when it came to the "Bob" book!  She automatically knew the words "sat" and "on."  I had to help her sound out some of the words.  Once she got them, she breezed through the short sentences.  "Hermie and Wormie" lapbook was a little hard for her because they had words like "catepillar, Buzby, ladybugs, stinkbug," etc.  After we finally made it through the book, I put it back into the folder (I created) for another time.  Overall, I guess we spent a total of 3 hours on her studies, which would be about the same time she would have been in school.  We'll have to switch up a lot during the week, so boredom doesn't set in too early.  I also printed off some sight words from 1+1+1=1 as well for the ending letters "at."  I think it will help.  I tried helping her word building skills awhile back with "at" because you can make so many words with "at."  An added bonus, she learns about rhyming, which she has an interest in already. 

Prayer Request
A new friend just found out that she has breast cancer and will have to undergo a double mastectomy. I don't know when the surgery will be, but she needs your prayers.

My other friend started her cancer treatment for the colon cancer. Of course, she is more tired than normal, but she hasn't started the sickness yet. She will have to have the treatment for 6 weeks at least. Please continue to prayer for her.

Thanks!