Sunday, August 5, 2012

Recap of Summer Camp at Home

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the end of our little experiment. Wow. Tomorrow is Monday of the last week for "Summer Camp at Home". Next week is Science Camp and then 4th grade starts. One last week to prepare him to be one of the big kids. One more week of Molecular Monday, Tunes and Tomes Tuesday, Worldy Wednesday, Take a Trip (aka Go! Dog Go!) Thursday and Fabricate it Friday. I remember madly trying to prepare for this endeavor and wondering how I'd ever survive. Strange.

Now that we're winding up I'd thought I'd recap what I learned. To begin with I am 100% sure I could home school my children. However, I wouldn't want Isaac to miss the forced social interactions and opportunities for independence at school. Riley has a very strong grasp on independent problem solving and a strong social network, but she doesn't need me the way her brother does. So, I am certainly capable of homeschooling, but I will not be at this point.

The greatest success of the experiment was...gosh...um...the memories. We had a lot of varied quality time and experiences. I know we would have gone on some summer adventures without the camp structure, but not as many. It meant the TV was off most of the summer. Not that my kids were coach potatoes before, but that box sure becomes a habit. It gave me a first hand look at what Isaac's teachers are up against. I think I'll be able to help him more efficiently this year because of it. I also learned a lot about my son sure, but you know sciency stuff, etc. I've brushed up on all my basic math and after Isaac requested a cursive writing lesson refreshed my knowledge of the proper way to write the alphabet. On and on... The kids started to work as a team more because they had an opportunity to pick up messes and play together more. I think they also learned about the world around them and I know I taught them each how to make french toast. Even if nothing else stuck I know french toast did.

I wish I could have been a little more prepared at times and less structured at others. I never planned a whole day start to finish. I usually picked the theme activity for the day ahead of time, but based on interest, time, convenience, etc I'd do a loose schedule the night before or in the morning while the kids ate breakfast. When Isaac was focused and Riley was well rested it was fun. Some days Isaac would take hours to do something that should have taken 15min and we'd never get to the theme activity. Those days were rough for me.

On the good days he'd do a little work, play for a bit, do chores, eat lunch, do a science experiment/craft/activity, write a bit, play an educational game, read and then we'd end the day. On a bad day he'd have breakfast, get dressed and stare out the window for 3hrs, get hungry finish his work sloppily, "do chores" (wander aimlessly) for hours (instead of 15min of actual work), eat lunch, get distracted during the next task, we'd have "a talk", he'd a agree to do better and then it'd be dinner before we got a chance to do the experiment/craft/activity of the day. I wasn't a Nazi, if he was getting things done and it just seemed like he'd had enough I'd send him outside to play with the dog, etc. I always made sure he understood each activity before I left him to them. We did a lot together though.

I started to worry about all the stuff we did together making school harder because his teacher certainly won't sit next to him for hours a day helping him with assignments. It seems Isaac is very reward motivated. If he has to complete a task before he can eat or play it's more likely he'll focus. No amount of attention (positive or negative) gets him on track when he decided he doesn't want to do something and digs his heels in. He stretched an hour long fun project out over 3 days last week. He's very stubborn, but he missed every activity, trip and treat Riley and I had during that time. He even announced that night that he finally finished because there was a cartoon he was really wanting to watch, sigh. He even admitted that it was easy and fun once he focused.

We had a lot of fun times though. It wasn't all discipline and pulling teeth. He read every one of his summer reading list books! He's now started reading the Magic Tree House books he hadn't read yet (he owns the whole set). He's doing much better with handwriting, US geography, place values, multiplication and focusing during writing assignments. Far less random information and giant squids invade his writing. You're welcome, future teachers. Another accomplishment is the improvement on being a good sport and emotional outbursts. I played board games with him to help with being a good sport. I also made up game after game about dealing with frustration and having perspective and some of it appears to have sunk in.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds tiring! But it also sounds as though everybody got a lot out of the experience. Nice work! Bob

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