Next week I will be posting all our summer learning plans. To say I am excited would be an understatement. I think we have hit upon a fantastic summer idea, one that won’t cost too much and will build multiple skills in the children and their parents.
The Idea
I was looking for something that wouldn’t include me, but anyone who knows me would know that would be a near impossibility. And it was. I also needed an idea that wouldn’t cost a lot of money and it was while looking through my school resources bought over the years I came across all of these:
It was this which sparked an excitement which has reached rather large proportions. And yes I know this probably is not normal or even healthy but darn it’s fun!! From this we put together a summer adventure box. The idea of these boxes is that they contain everything required for the children to go on the journey of a life time without necessarily leaving their home. Last year we visited the Incas and Mayans, this year we’ll be visiting Laura Ingalls and her family…in fact the children will become them for 10 weeks!
We are going to spend A Summer of Little House Living!
The Concept
I will expand on this next week, but basically, we are going to spend the whole summer going through the Little House on the Prairie books, and extracting as much learning from each book as possible. This will not essentially be academic work, more building skills, but I do have an idea for writing which has got all three (yes, even T11) excited. I have also devised a big project incorporating the building of the skills we wish to learn. It might be that we are simply a very easily pleased family…..or it could be that the summer plans truly are a treasure.
We have five children, usefully one is a boy the rest are girls. The little house books are based on a father, mother and their three girls. Numerically this is perfect. T11 is just a tad too old to be taking part in any serious pretend play, although I’m sure he will good-naturedly join in from time to time, but the four girls are at an ideal age. The younger two love getting dressed up and playing at different characters and the older ones have always enjoyed it and haven’t yet grown out of it.
The children will dress up, act out, cook recipes, make homemade bits and bobs and generally replicate anything they can from the series of books and their accompanying side kicks. Although we own the Prairie Primer I can’t see us making too much use of it as a curriculum, but I’ll certainly be pulling ideas from it which may fit in with our summer goals. The children’s big project will be recreating ‘the little house’, inside and out, learning many skills as they go.
This week the children have been beavering away creating their own individual goals for the summer as well as some vague weekly plans. These will not be set in stone but rather will guide the children when they are stuck for something to do. If they veer off track, so be it. I intend for this to be a laid back summer with a very hands on, working alongside each other approach. I am looking forward to not being tied to school planning and the computer but instead spending some much-needed time with my children. We all enjoy each other’s company immensely and I think it will be a lot of fun. Gary will also be joining us each day after he returns from work (he starts work at 530 am each morning and returns at 330pm, so we always have lots of lovely time with him!). This will be very important for T11 who will need his Daddy’s help with most of his projects.
Next week I am going to elaborate on all our plans, of which there are many!
I love it! What a stunning idea! I used to love The Little House on the Prairie books and TV series as a young girl! I think you are going to have an amazing Summer Claire! Looking forward to more! x
Thanks Leizel! We are really looking forward to it, plus I have a few tricks up my sleeve which the children are really excited about….
How funny – we’ve been reading the Little House series and I’d been thinking what a good match it was for your project! I am so excited to follow your progress and I’m looking forward to pinching some of your sure-to-be-wonderful ideas!
Thanks Lucinda! It does all fit in really well, doesn’t it?!
I can foresee what a great time you will all have with the Little House series. It is such a wholesome set of books with great family values. I’m looking forward to reading about your summer activities, which will no doubt be wonderful as usual. 🙂
I do hope so. And you’re right, the books are so good even if I only read them aloud it would still be great learning material!
So much fun! Can’t wait to see how it works out!
I’m being begged from all quarters to ‘pleeeeese start now mummy, perleeese?’ I just hope they enjoy it as much as they anticipate they will!
🙂 My bet is on this summer project far exceeding their expectations!
I do hope so. Thanks for your vote of confidence!
That’ll be a great summer!
I do hope so!
I loved little house on the prairie when Tanya was young. The wee girls around where we lived all watched it. I think Tanya has a boxed set of it. I’m sure you’ll enjoy being England’s answer to Mrs Ingles.
Ha, ha! L10 is going to be Mrs Ingalls on account of her wanting full charge of the kitchen!
You do have a collection of Little House books. That sounds like such a fun summer. I can’t wait to hear how it all plays out.
If all goes well, it should be brilliant. I hope so anyway!
My boys would love to do this. It is Quentin’s favorite book series.
Although the girls have both read the series T11 chose instead to read Lord of the Rings, so me reading it aloud will be the first time he’s heard it. I’m hoping he’ll enjoy it as much as the girls!
My J(8) was a bit dubious when I first mentioned it, then within the first few paragraphs Pa was sharpening an axe, hefting stones and doing all sorts of other manly things, and he was hooked. (He loves LOTR too, though I think it’ll be a while before he’ll be reading it alone!)
I’m looking forward to hearing what you find T11 cooking up this summer!
We must get to this series soon too. We did part of the story in a lit study and dd7 liked it. Great project idea!
Thank you. They really are for all ages, I’m sure your daughter would enjoy them
I love this and plan to do it when the children are older. You should definitely share this over on other homeschool blog hops if you haven’t shared it already!