Being a former teacher makes me worry about “the summer slide”. That’s when kids lose their academic edge over summer, and reenter school needing serious review. So last summer, I created a free program called “A STEM Summer” for my blog, Teaching My Baby to Read.
My A STEM Summer plans are designed to take between 30 minutes to an hour each day, not counting field trips on Wednesdays. They are easy to accomplish in a multiage setting, so a three-year-old and an eight-year-old working together isn’t an issue.
Plus, I mentioned all of these ideas are free, right? I’m cheaper than summer camp!
Here’s how the three weeks of A STEM Summer works:
Mondays: ART
Tuesdays: SCIENCE
Wednesdays: TECHNOLOGY
Thursdays: ENGINEERING
Fridays: MATH
Each week has a different theme to make things more fun. Click on the links for the official plans:
The weekly themes are based upon a great art book I found at the library called 123 I Can Paint! by Irene Luxbacher. This book also supplies the plans for the art lessons on Mondays.
There are lots of ways you could use A STEM summer to help improve your child’s literacy skills too. For starters, check out books from the library that corresponded with each week’s theme. You could also try creating homemade science books, writing about math, or writing a daily Morning Message.
Kids don’t have to complete all three weeks for A STEM Summer to be meaningful. Feel free to pick and choose ideas to meet the needs of your own family.
But if you’re just going to try one activity, I’d suggest making s’mores!
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