The following post is from Jennifer, a lifelong educator:

source: John-Morgan

Most students are in countdown mode:  they know exactly how many days are left until summer.  Children and teens everywhere envision sleeping in, lazing by the pool, and playing with friends. All of those things are appropriate – when balanced with the realities of responsibility.

What is this teacher’s plea? Please don’t coddle your children this summer! Too many children are not required to exert themselves, either physically or mentally, for weeks or months. They return to school in the fall with a bad attitude. They resent the demands that a rigid schedule and tough curriculum require. Days of precious instructional time are wasted as teachers try – sometimes unsuccessfully – to get students back up to speed and into the mode of learning.

I agree that summer’s a great time to make memories and explore new areas. Kicking back and simply enjoying each other’s company can enhance family relationships. In addition to that, though, I encourage you to also give great thought to the amount of freedom you give your children during their break from the school routine. We convey a lot about our values by how we allow our kids to spend their time.

Please remember that hard work molds minds as well as character. Requiring your children to complete their chores before playing teaches responsibility. Limiting screen time teaches self-control. Expecting a daily period of meaningful reading communicates that learning is a priority.  Insisting on exercise teaches good health habits as well as self-discipline.

When you raise the bar and expect more from your children than maybe you have in the past, you can expect resistance. Remind yourself that your goal is not to be your child’s best friend at this point in their lives – you are their trainer and coach. Kids aren’t truly ready for the freedoms of adulthood (making their own decisions about how they spend their time) until they’ve mastered the ability to handle the accompanying responsibilities.

Your kids probably won’t thank you for putting tighter parameters around them this summer. But your child’s teachers will see that your kids are head and shoulders above those who aren’t held to a higher standard.  When your kids are grown, they’ll realize it, too!

How do you feel about expecting more from your kids this summer?   How do your memories of summers as a child impact the expectations you have for your children?

	Jennifer is passionate about children and education. She homeschooled her two sons for five years, established and directed a Christian school in Maryland for 20 years, and currently teaches in a public school in a Chicago suburb. She loves investing in relationships and delights in every moment that she spends with her family.

Dear Parents: A Plea from Your Child’s Teacher is a post from Life Your Way

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The following post is from Kristina of Toddler Approved:

source: Kristina Buskirk

Bookmaking is a simple and fun way to get kids excited about reading and writing. When I was an elementary school teacher, bookmaking was always a favorite activity. I’ve recently started making books with my five year old, and he is now obsessed!

Simple accordion envelope books are an easy project for kids of all ages. They can also be turned into little gifts or cards for special people. Younger kids can just decorate or add stickers to the inserted pages and older kids can assemble the books and make mini books to go inside each pocket! Bookmaking can go on for hours or even days.

source: Kristina Buskirk

Supplies:

• envelopes (I used 6 multicolored envelopes that were all the same size)
• glue stick
• hole punch
• twine or ribbon
• scissors
• cardstock
• markers/crayons

Directions:

Grab a bunch of envelopes and have the kids select which ones they want to use for their book. Make sure all of your envelopes are the same size. This is a fun way to practice patterning.

Using a glue stick, have the kids glue the envelope fold of one envelope to the backside of another envelope. Make sure all envelopes are lined up. Make the book as long as you want. When you are done, you should have one end that still has a triangle fold exposed, the rest should look like little pockets.

Once the envelopes are dry, fold them in accordion style so that every other one goes a different direction. The first envelope should be able to close and will end up being the cover of your book.

Hole punch the edge of the triangle fold on the first envelope. Loop a piece of ribbon or twine through the hole to create two ties. Close the book, wrap the ties around, knot them and you have a completed book!

We like to cut cardstock to go inside each envelope or make little books that fit perfectly. The littler the book, the more fun it is for older kids.

source: Kristina Buskirk

In addition to creating their own stories to go inside the pockets, kids could make an accordion envelope book for someone special. For a teacher gift, they could write special notes inside each pocket to share why they love their teacher. For a Father’s Day gift, they could write down activities that they want to do with their dad.

If your kids enjoy this activity, here are a few other fun bookmaking activities for kids that we’ve tried:

• Paper clip Journals via Imagination Soup
• Paper bag Books via Toddler Approved
• Simple Book from One Sheet of Paper via Lauren Stringer

Have you ever made books with your kids? 

	Kristina is a mom of 2 and a former Special Ed teacher for children with communication disabilities. She blogs at Toddler Approved as she looks for ways to make life a little more fun and creative with her kids while embedding learning into everything that she does. Kristina tweets as @ToddlerApproved and can be found on FB and Pinterest.

Bookmaking for Kids: Accordion Envelope Books is a post from Life Your Way

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The following post is from Jason & Jennifer Bruce of New Season Design:

Father’s Day is just around the corner, and I’m sure the kids are going to want to make something fun just for Dad!

Have them break out the crayons, markers, and colored pencils and create a tie card just for him. You can choose stripes or polka dots, or create your own design using the blank tie template. (It might even be fun to draw Dad on his tie card!)

Color your design, cut on the lines, and fold right above the knot.

Then add your own message inside the tie, and surprise Dad with a unique card. He can tell all his friends that you got him a tie for Father’s Day!

Click here to download or print your tie cards.

How do you celebrate Father’s Day?

	Jason & Jennifer Bruce are the husband-and-wife design team behind New Season Design, where they work together to help clients put their best foot forward online. Jason is a pastor-turned-graphic designer, and Jennifer is a teacher-turned-blog designer who also blogs at The Simple Pen about life, learning and the things she loves.

Printable Father’s Day Tie Cards is a post from Life Your Way

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Success! I actually read a book (or most  of a book, LOL!) this week. I have a lot of work projects to do before the baby arrives, and while 5 months seems like a long time, I know it will go faster than we think, so I’m trying to make time for reading without sacrificing all of my project time. It’s a hard balance, especially because I’m have an all-or-nothing personality, but Good Reads informs me that I’m still ahead of schedule with 40 books read so far this year, so maybe there’s still hope of meeting my goal!

Head here to see Katie’s post for this week. We also want to know what you’re reading! Add your blog post to the linky below or leave a comment with your favorite reads from this week.

This Week’s Reads

When Love Calls (The Gregory Sisters Book #1) by Lorna Seilstad

Revell sent me a copy of When Love Calls to review, and although I carried it to Florida and back without so much as cracking it open, I’ve really enjoyed the sweetness of this love story this week.

When Hannah Gregory and her sisters are orphaned in the early 1900s, Hannah — an unconventional and sometimes irreverent young woman — is forced to quit law school to support her two younger sisters. She takes a job as a Hello Girl for the local telephone company in the midst of a union battle and is forced to follow strict rules of conduct in order to maintain her position — a task that she finds harder than the work itself. As she’s thrown together time and time again with a young and upcoming lawyer, Lincoln Cole, she finds herself resisting the budding romance despite Lincoln’s attempts at a more serious relationship.

What I really love about this book is the level of historical detail. From their speech and mannerisms to their clothing and automobiles, everything is described in exquisite detail that makes me feel as if I’m actually in the early twentieth century with the characters!

When Love Calls is available now from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

A Question for You

I have always loved historical fiction, but lately dystopian has been a close second as my favorite genre. Unfortunately, I think there is a lot more quality historical fiction on the market (and definitely a lot more historical fiction in general!) than there is dystopian, which means historical remains at the top purely because there’s more of it to read and enjoy. And because they offer different benefits  — learning about different eras and events through the lens of a historical fiction book versus forcing me to really stop and think through a dystopian book — they really each have their own appeal.

What about you? What’s your favorite genre of book? Has it changed over time? What do you love about it?

Share Your Reading List

	Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

When Love Calls

Weekly Reads + Your Favorite Genre {5/20/13} is a post from Life Your Way

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The following post is from Angie of Many Little Blessings:

source: Lyn Lomasi

Although some homeschoolers do year round school, most homeschoolers are gearing up for a full or partial summer vacation in the next month. This offers homeschool parents a great opportunity to regroup and get ready for next school year. With just a few steps, you can help your family get ready for the next school year.

Here are the steps to get you in gear for next year:

Begin sorting through materials you’ve completed.

As you wrap up your school year, you need to decide what to do with all of your completed materials. If you have books or resources that you plan to use again in the future, but not for the next school year, you should find a plan to store them where you can easily find them again. In our small home, we have opted for a few under bed storage containers to store things we want to use again in the future.

If you have finished non-consumable materials that you don’t plan to use again, you need to decide whether you would like to just gift these to another family who might have need for them or if you would like to try to sell your old homeschool materials in order to use money for next year’s materials.

Attend a homeschool convention.

If you haven’t already found a homeschool convention to attend this year, it’s not too late to find one. These can help you learn about new ideas and tips from speakers, as well as a chance to view many homeschool materials in person at a vendor area. The vendor area is always a draw for me at any homeschool convention because you are able to learn so much more about the resource than just by reading about it and seeing a few samples online.

Organize your homeschool area.

Whether you are able to devote a whole room in your house to your homeschooling or you just have a closet or some boxes with materials, it is still important to make sure that your area is neat and organized. This becomes especially paramount at a time when you might be buying new materials for next year. Imagine the frustration you might feel if you order a new spelling book for little Janie, only to find that you had an extra one that you purchased for her last year when you found a good sale.

Organizing is a perfect time to take stock of what you had, make note of the materials that you were sure your family would love but that still sit untouched, and just make the whole area more user friendly.

Talk to your kids about what they would like to study.

As children get older, it becomes more important to get some feedback from them about what they would like to be studying in school. While I’m not suggesting that they get the final choice on everything, it can be nice to add in some of the things they are especially interested in. Doing this now can help you to have some time to make those additions to your school year for next year.

Read homeschool related books.

When you have some summer downtime, it can be the perfect time to finally find a moment to read a book that might help you get some new ideas to implement for next school year. Whether it’s a book to help you in the future (such as homeschooling in high school, if you have younger children) or a book that might help right now (like a new homeschooling method that you would like to try), it can be the perfect time to sit out on the porch and enjoy some restful reading time.

What are some things that you do in the summer to help you get ready for next school year?

	Angie, a domestically-challenged writer and artist, is a homeschooling mom to three children. She writes about everything that happens in their lives between all the loads of laundry at Many Little Blessings. She is also the founder of The Homeschool Classroom, Catholic Mothers Online, and Just a Tiny Owl.

Five Ways to Get Ready for Next School Year is a post from Life Your Way

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