Summer 2023

Place to collect our plans for the summer of 2023. See also the summer ’23 calendar.

Camps

We have three camps scheduled for the summer:

• June 19 through 23: Coding / Mincraft camp for Jeferson.
• June 26 through 30: Special Effects Makeup camp for Mélani.
• August 7 through 11: Basketball camp for Anderson.

Summer “School” Activities

We originally figured to reserve the month of July for “summer school” from the Howard County public schools, but that doesn’t seem to work out. So if we are re-thinking the summer school, we should take the opportunity to maybe spread the educational activities throughout the whole summer break. Something like the following:

• Three days a week, e.g. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, have academic time in the morning. The other two days have an activity (going somewhere, including possibly museum, music, etc.). Some weeks this gets switched up.
• Those who are in camp do not also have to do the academic time or activity on camp days (we can schedule the activity so that they can participate, if they want to).
• Academic time earns points, basically one point per minute spent on it. This results in about 150 points per day (three times 50 minutes). Activities generally earn 50 points, unless otherwise announced (based on educational value). That makes 550 points per week, about 5000 points in total (nine weeks, assuming no points are accumulated in the week of camp).
• The academic activity morning could e.g. look like:
  • 9:00-9:05: get ready and setup.
  • 9:05-9:55: block 1.
  • 9:55-10:05: snack break 1.
  • 10:05-10:55: block 2.
  • 10:55-11:05: snack break 2.
  • 11:05-11:55: block 3.
  • 11:55-12:00: wrap up, clean up.
  However, this is just a guideline; it’s always possible to deviate.

Activities

Academic activity can be looked at in three groups, which could match to each of the three hours:

• Language practice. You keep track of the time (use your school timer)
  • Anderson and Jeferson:
    1. Write neatly in your journal for at least 25 minutes. Writing can be about what you did yesterday, or what you learned about, or anything else you want to write about. Pay attention to: neat letters, proper capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure. Use your timer to keep track on how many minutes you write. Ms. Nicoline will review, and if it’s not neat and proper, you will get fewer points.
    2. Read for at least 25 minutes. The book must be of the appropriate level, reading Dog Man over and over again doesn’t count. Graphic novels and comics are fine. Use your timer to keep track on how many minutes you read. Ms. Nicoline will ask you what it is you read in order to give you the points.
  • Mélani: 50 minutes of English practice. This can be:
    • Reading an English children’s book (and explaining what the book was about). You can use a dictionary, but not your phone or computer, to look up the meaning of words.
    • Duolingo
    • Having a conversation in English with Mr. Eric or Ms. Nicoline
    Use your timer to keep track on how many minutes you practice English (for Duolingo, we can use Family Link to check the time spent).
• Math practice.
  • Anderson: Khan Academy, the “getting ready for fifth grade” math curriculum for 50 minutes. Repeat the exercises until you can do them flawlessly. When you get to the end of the curriculum, start with the 5th grade curriculum itself.
  • Jeferson: Khan Academy, the “getting ready for fourth grade” math curriculum for 50 minutes. Repeat the exercises until you can do them flawlessly. When you get to the end of the curriculum, start with the 4th grade curriculum itself.
  • Mélani: Start with the Khan Academy first grade curriculum in Spanish. Work through the curriculum. You can race through and just do the exercises, as long as the exercises are simple. Once done with the first grade, continue to the second, third, and so on. Ask for help if you don’t understand something.
• General education. This can be through Khan Academy, it can be through the Generation Genius science experiments, it can be by watching a documentary on Netflix, etc.
  • History (focus on U.S. history this year)
    • Watch a video in the Khan Academy history section (seems to be 5-10 minutes), then discuss what you have learned with Ms. Nicoline. Then, maybe watch the same video again, which can help to learn the things better.
    • Watch a video in the Documentary / United States History section on Emby. These videos are about 25-30 minutes. Then use your writing time (25 minutes) to write about what you learned. You can go back and check the video, but don’t copy literally from the video. Let Ms. Nicoline review. If you do well, you can count the writing points for both history and language (double points). Note: Mélani can watch these videos in Spanish, but she won’t be able to earn double points.
    • Watch a documentary on TV (Netflix or Emby). Talk about what you learned with Ms. Nicoline to earn the points.
    • Read a book or article about history. If the book or article is “approved” by Ms. Nicoline, you can actually earn points for both reading and history at the same time (double points).
  • Cooking: prepare a dish, bake cookies, bake a cake. Includes all of the clean-up. Get points for the total time you work on this (stop the timer when you’re having to wait).
  • American states: drilling American states. Take a set of seventeen states (Alabama through Kentucky, Louisiana through North Dakota, and Ohio through Wyoming, plus DC) and spend 50 minutes iterating through the set, pointing them out on the map (first level). Second level: someone points to the state on the map, and you say the name. Third level: flash cards with the outline of the state, then name the state. Fourth level: learn “fun facts” (like state capital, state motto, and so on) about the states.
  • Generation Genius. This would be a group activity, going through a box and doing the experiments together, under the supervision of Ms. Nicoline or Mr. Eric.
  • Computer programming (Khan Academy curriculum). For those interested. Mr. Eric can help with that.
  • All About DNA from the Smithsonian? Although that maybe doesn’t go into genetics much.
• On the non-academic days (e.g. Tuesday and Thursday) we want to do some activity (not sit and play on your phone the whole day). Some activities, if they have educational or health value, can earn bonus points.
  • Going to a museum, the zoo, maybe the Science Center. These visits would typically earn bonus points.
  • Going for a walk or hike. A longer hike, which is good exercise, could earn bonus points.
  • Going to a music performance, Columbia Lakefront activity, etc.
  • We can also play games, possibly (if anyone cares to play games). You could play card games together. We can play “I Spy With My Little Eye”...

Rewards

Many of the summer activities provide options to earn points. Points earned can be used to claim various rewards. There are very basic rewards for every hundred points, and there are more advanced rewards. The rewards page explains the details.

Progress Charts

Each of the kids will keep track of the points they have earned in their own progress charts. The following links can be used to print out the various charts:

Anderson Points Earned Chart for week: 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Jeferson Points Earned Chart for week: 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Mélani Points Earned Chart for week: 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10