Educational websites for the summer before 1st grade

[Pepe]

Greetings!  For numerous reasons, I want to make sure DS stays on track this summer.  Can anyone recommend any websites for K/1st grade math, reading, etc.?  He can read at a Green-Eggs-and-Ham sort of level (though he isn't yet on fire about reading) and was starting some simple addition at the end of the school year. 

He's in dual immersion, so recommendations for anything in English or Spanish would be glorious. 

Also, if you have any suggestions for real-life, non-computer fun activities (playing store to learn about money, treasure maps for reading, and so on), they would be most welcome!

Thanks in advance.

[umsami]

For reading, I love www.wegivebooks.org  It's free--and every book you read, they donate a book.  It's great.  Starfall might work as well.

For math, I love to do real life stuff.  So, your idea of playing store is a great one.  So is having a lemonade stand or something.  Just having your child count out money and practice it will help.

Here are some websites from my son's teacher:

http://guest.portaportal.com/j031980

[umsami]

Don't forget writing....writing shopping lists, letters to grandparents, etc.

Also, here are some more.

Game Goo http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html

Freerice.com  Good for vocabulary.

Math Cats http://www.mathcats.com/

Tumblebooks.com

[meetoo]

I have a rising 1st grader. :) We do a summer reading program. I have him write down the title of his books (enough writing practice IMO) and every ten he gets a prize(i.e. candy lol).Some other ideas for you: 

-starfall.com and http://www.stretchybrain.com/

-legos (seriously these are so educational) 

-card games (golf, make tens memory, war (you can also do addition/subtraction war)

-any board game really teaches kids something 

-try teaching him a strategy game like chess, checkers, or mancala 

-math story books my kids love Sir Cumfrence

-buy a field guide for your area and look up and learn the names of everything you find this summer.

-how to draw books (will keep up the motor skills in a fun way)

-dot to dot/maze books. Amazon has some really neat hard ones if you can't find any locally. 

-give him an allowance

-Pick a topic to learn about. Then learn about it in a really fun way. We are learning about the middle ages, doing cool crafts/activies, reading books, day trips ect. The kids are really enjoying it. 

-If he isn't into reading try the We read together books or Elephant and Piggie books. Also let him read easier books. I think as parents we tend to push our kids at times. Even if the book is to easy for him it's still practice and he won't be loosing any skills. Green eggs and Ham isn't that hard to read but it is a really long book for a Ker. try alternating pages with him if he is getting tired. 

-Books on tape (love these!)

[MomtoDandJ]

I use this website for kindergarten worksheets.  They have math and number worksheets, letter and word awareness worksheets, phonemic awareness worksheets, letter tracing (handwriting) worksheets, visual discrimination worksheets, auditory processing worksheets and a bunch of others.  Since your kiddo just finished kindy, they might be a nice way for him to keep up his skills and not get too rusty over the summer.

[Emmeline II]

If you are able to do LeapFrog Leapster, they have games that involve reading and math in English; I don't think they have games in Spanish. I can also tell you that it can be dropped in the bathtub once and be ok if you open it and let it dry out for a week . 

Hooked on Phonics has a cute counting computer game but he may get bored counting alien eyes and arms after awhile.

Both my children loved Starfall (reading) which is available free, and also on a disk if your child is using a computer without internet.

It can be difficult finding good math games for this age. We have this game and it got a fair amount of use (and nearly half the price of most educational games) before their hard drive died and we had to wait a bit for dh to get it running (old computer). Ours also came with a money game, which I think is the card game mentioned below.

 Math Missions with Card Game Kindergarten-2nd Grade

We also have a couple Suzy Dorn DVDs; it may be things your ds already knows but might be helpful for reinforcement.

Cantemos En Espaol: Susy Dorn: Music

Edited by Emmeline II - 7/4/11 at 6:25am

[rhianna813]

We just finished 1^st grade and specifically for math they used a system called Rocket Math for addition. It’s just simple equations on a piece a paper and student does as many as they can in one minute.  When you complete your goal (DS’s goal was 22 correct in 1 min) you move the next level. Levels are A – Z.

They used this to test the kids I think.

Anyway, I found some faux Rocket Math worksheets online made by a dad. He calls his Spaceship math and has worksheets for addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. And a tracking sheet to keep track of progress. My kid loves these, but he is really into math.

http://www.dadsworksheets.com/v1/Worksheets/Addition.html

[Owen'nZoe]

This isn't a website, but my son loved the Jump Start grade-level computer games. I was able to find them at Half Price books for under $10. They are great for practicing basic math and reading skills. My kids also love Tumblebooks and poissonrouge.com. Of those, Poisson Rouge isdefinitely their favorite.

Another vote for signing up for your local library's summer reading program. I think this was hugely important in helping my son improve several levels in reading over the past 2 summers.

For Math, you might want to check out Gregory Tang's excellent math books: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Gregory%20Tang Both of my children (ages 4 and 7) love the books. Most of the problems are much too difficult for the 4 year old, and many are a stretch for the 7 year old, but they have fun with them and it gets them thinking about numbers in new ways.

For science, I think you really can't sending kids outside with some nature guides. We have H.A. Rey's Find the Constellations for stargazing. Golden Books offers some really great nature guides for children. There are Golden Junior Guides for small kids http://www.amazon.com/Cardinals-Robins-Other-Golden-Junior/dp/030761431X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310579483&sr=1-1 and then the Golden Guides which are a bit more advanced: http://www.amazon.com/Spiders-Their-Kin-Golden-Guide/dp/0307240215/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310579371&sr=1-9. Fun related projects might be building a bird house together (and this is really very easy - my building skills are very limited, but we were able to build a great house together), planting a butterfly garden, setting up a little toad habitat, or growing a few veggies in the garden. The first grade science curriculum at most of the schools around here at least is very focused on life sciences, so any of these are great preparation for what they'll cover during the year.

Best of luck, and have fun!