Homemade Summer Camps

After our first year of homeschooling during the traditional school year I decided I could continue homeschooling during the summer if I choose.  Especially since we had skipped science.  However, my children who were use to their summer break and having a "finish" to their year were not too excited about the idea of sumer homeschooling, despite the fact that we have always done some type of work during the summer, they needed to feel "finished".

I stepped back and thought how I was going to get in some schooling during the summer months without forcing the kids.  You want them to work with you, not against you right?  So than it came to me, we'll do summer camps instead!  ;)  After the school year was "finished" I announced we would be having summer camps.  It wasn't received with too much excitement, but it was welcomed.

I let each child have their own camp.  My middle daughter had her camp first since she usually is second or third for choices.  We called it 'Summer Camp Little Miss Independent'.  Camps are scheduled one week and than we have another week off so we don't burn out!  Its amazing how much you can learn in one week.

With my guidance she got to choose the type of science we would learn, the activities we would do, and the meals we would eat.  She choice Earth Science, than since it was the fourth of July week, I included some history in there (this helped finish off her social studies part of the year).  We had a blast!  The only regret I have is that I did not take ANY pictures or our activities.  But I have a few links I'll post that were very helpful.

Here is what the schedule looks like:

We went from Sunday to Saturday to include daddy in a few of the camps.

Group Activities included tons of science projects to teach about the atmosphere, the water cycle, and wind.  We also had story time that included stories about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Lewis and Clark and Sawagarea, and Susan B. Anthony.  To introduce the concept of history to my preschooler we did a timeline activity of each of the girls birthdays.  During exercise time we ran around the house two times and did some stretches.  We talked about being healthy and why we stretch.

By the middle of this camp week my other two daughters kept asking when they could plan theirs.  The lukewarm welcoming turned into a joyful desire for more!

If you have any questions or would like links to some of the science experiments let me know.  I would love to know what are some of the activites you all are doing with your children for the summer.  Homeschooling or not!