Summer Bridge

[greenemami]

Hi all-
Dsd, 9, is going into 4th grade next year, and has a tendency to struggle to catch up in the beginning of the year. We have heard that 4th grade doesn't do much review and really dives in, so we are looking for some activities to do over the summer. Has anyone used a great book/site/set of activities to help keep material fresh over the summer? She goes back and forth between our house and her mom's, so a workbook type thing will probably work out best, although we like to do activities as well. I was particularly looking at this one:

http://www.carsondellosa.com/cd2/Pro...ID-904122.aspx

It is for homeschoolers (I plan on homeschooling dd and ds) but it looks like it would work well anyway.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

[jclarke22]

It is a good review book. I looked at other books in the store and they have some books that were more comprehensive. My ODD is very strong in math skills the 3rd going to 4th was good to keep her skills up but not challenging since she is at a higher math level in her class. So I got the book but added another math book.

I like the book since you can take it with you and we can do activities in the morning and go have fun during the day.

[amcal]

My kids are currently doing the Brain Quest workbooks for the grade that they will be in next year. Some of the skills they haven't learned yet but, it's been fantastic for them - challenging, intersting etc.... They prefer the Brian Quest books to the Summer Bridge books.

[DaughterOfKali]

I got the Summer Skills Flash Cards and really like them. I like how they are portable.

[inkslinger]

We use these books as summer bridge books. I don't think they are particularly geared towards homeschoolers, though. We also use a few more comprehensive books, as well, since the carson-dellosa ones only do a page or so per day. The kids do enjoy them, though!

[philomom]

I used the summer bridge books every year until sixth grade. I found having the kids do just a couple of pages a day helped them retain their knowledge and did not interfere with summer fun.

[Suzannah]

I would suggest reading every single day and going out into the world to build background knowledge. There is a lot of recent research that indicates that level of background knowledge is one of the biggest predictors of educational success (more = better!).

Everyday lessons instead of workbooks (recipes for math, science with bugs/weather, festivals for culture, etc) are a good thing for the summer, especially if you are going to be homeschooling and incorporating these things into your lives!