Reading. For many people, this isn’t the first thought that pops into our minds when we think of summertime. Not unless you re envisioning yourself by the beach with a good book as the children occupy themselves, anyway.

While it might not be the first summer activity we think of , it is an essential component to giving your children the right start for the new school year. (It also helps tame TV time and rainy-day blues)

We’ve compiled a short list to get your child’s summer reading kicked off. We’ve even matched them up to the free Pathways found on LessonPathways.com, so you and your child can fully enjoy the story and all of the enrichment activities.

Remember, you don’t have to complete the entire Pathway.  You can pick and choose the activities that fill your needs!

Today, we’re including books and resources for grades PreK – 2. We’ll cover grades 3 – 6 on Monday, with higher grades to follow.

We’ve compiled this list from various public school lists found on the Internet. Since these vary from state to state (and even county to county), we’ve selected books that were most common to each of the lists. We chose books that are considered children’s classics and easily found in most libraries. However, if you would like to purchase the books on this list, simply click the picture to be taken to Amazon.com, where a portion of your purchase price will go towards keeping LessonPathways free.

Summer Reading List Grades PreK – 2

Read the story “The Gingerbread Man“ with your child. By working on story comprehension, predicting what will happen next in the story, and creating a fun gingerbread man chain, your child will gain an understanding of the story and the language arts concept for the week. Your child will also learn the sight words: but, did, and came. This unit also includes online games, videos, and coloring pages. Click here to access this free unit on “The Gingerbread Man”.

Read the story “The Rainbow Fish” with your child. By working on story comprehension and learning to differentiate between fact and opinion, your child will understand the story and the language arts concept for the week. Your child will also be introduced to the sight words “clean, cut and done.” This unit also includes worksheets, videos, games, activities, puzzles and coloring pages. Click here to access this free unit on “The Rainbow Fish”.

This unit covers the story,”The City Mouse and the Country Mouse,” which you will read with your child. In addition, your child will be learning about basic nouns, as well as practicing with the sight words “this, too, and under.” Your child will also explore his or her own world by doing a scavenger hunt in the kitchen and creating a “My Favorite Foods” book. This unit includes interactive games, craft projects, videos and interactive reading activities. Click here to access this free unit on “The City Mouse and the Country Mouse”.

In this unit, you will be reading “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein with your child. You will discuss some of the emotions present in the story and your child will create a “Happiness is” book of his/her own. Your child will also learn more about what we get from trees by reading an online page and then applying what he/she has learned in some fun activities: tree drawing, leaf rubbings, a “Working Trees” coloring book. This unit will also introduce the concept of contractions by reading a page online with your child and then practicing with online games and an online quiz. Click here to access this free unit on “The Giving Tree”.

Read the story “Stellaluna” with your child. By working on story comprehension, learning about the main character in the story, and discovering interesting facts about bats, your child will understand the story and the language arts concept for the week. Your child will also review the sight words from the previous weeks. This unit also includes worksheets, videos and coloring pages. Click here to access this free unit on “Stelluna”.

Read the story “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” with your child. By working on story comprehension, learning about the main character in the story, and discovering interesting facts about Australia, your child will understand the story and the language arts concept for the week–syllables. This unit also includes worksheets, videos, games, and coloring pages. Click here to access this free unit on “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”.

Read “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” with your child. By asking comprehension questions, putting on a puppet show, and playing an interactive game, your child will understand the story and have fun. Your child will also learn about descriptive words by playing a detective game. Click here to access this free unit on “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”.

Those my recommendations for PreK – 2 summer reading. What’s yours? Let us know in the comments section below.

This post was written by Christina S.. She is a full-time work-at-home-mom, living with her family in Detroit, Michigan. They started homeschooling 11 years ago and haven’t looked back since!

After a brief period of regrouping and planning, we’re happy to announce that our blog is back!  We’ve got some exciting new series, themes and topics coming your way.  Here is a “sneak peek” at what’s coming, in addition or our Friday Featured Pathways:

• Summer Reading Lists & Activities
• Steals & Deals Round Ups
• Making Math Meaningful
• Behind the Scenes at LessonPathways
• Planning Your School Year

We hope you like the changes that are coming.  We welcome your thoughts and ideas on new topics and series too! Leave us a note in the comments section below, or drop us a line at Blog@LessonPathways.com.

LessonPathways has made the transition from subscription-based service to one that is completely free for everyone.  However there are still financial costs for keeping the site maintained and develop additional features.  Currently, our only source of revenue for maintaining the site is from donations and from our user’s support of our advertisers and the number of times our users click on the ads on our site.

Please support our advertisers to help keep LessonPathways.com free for everyone.  If you need to make a purchase, please consider using our online shopping mall, where a portion of your purchase will help make LessonPathways.com even better.

There has been much excitement since we announced our new Travel and Field Trip Pathways a few weeks ago.   Not only have we received new visitors to our site, but our users have been submitting Pathways for their hometown too!

This week, we’re pleased to featured a new user-created Travel and Field Trip Pathway introducing you to St. Louis.  There’s much more to see and do than just its famous arch!  If you’re planning a summer trip, or live close to St. Louis, check out this Pathway for inspiring and educational field trip ideas and inspiration.

St. Louis is a big city with a small town feel.  Founded in 1764, it became known as the Gateway to the West, as many pioneers left St. Louis to head west towards California.  From Downtown with the Gateway Arch, City Museum, St. Louis Zoo (free!), Missouri History Museum and Busch Stadium, to the municipalities of St. Louis County with The Magic House, Butterfly House, St. Louis is definitely a family friendly city.  Within the City of St. Louis itself, there are many neighborhoods of specific ethnicity, full of restaurants.  Each St. Louis County muicipality has its own distinct flavors too.

If you are interested in creating a Travel and Field Trip Pathway for your hometown, just use this super-simple form to submit the information and links, and we’ll take care of the rest!

You may have noticed things are a bit quiet here on the LessonPathways blog lately. Not to worry, we haven’t jumped ship! We’re just taking a little bit of time to take care of some “bloggy business.” All we’ll be back in action soon!

We’re queueing up some blog topics for the next few month and would love to hear from you! It is our goal to make this blog, helpful, meaningful and relevant. What topics would you like to read about here on our blog? Please let us know in the comments section below.

We’re also looking for a few more volunteer blog contributors. Actually, the more the merrier! We’d love to have posts from as many different homeschoolers, parents and classroom educators. Each author will receive full credit, including by-line and link to their own blog or website (if applicable) with each blog post. We’ll also feature you in the “Our People” section of our blog too! Whether you have previous blogging experience or not, don’t be shy. We’d love to hear from you! Drop us a line at Blog@LessonPathways.com.

Stay tuned for new blog posts soon!  In the meantime, stop by and enjoy the blogs of other LessonPathways.com users.

Take advantage of the outdoors and become a Nature Detective with the help of this week’s Featured Pathway.  Your child will have fun creating a nature journal and learning about insects, birds and animal tracks.  This is a great unit to complete at the park or your own back yard.

This unit is a fun way to get your children to explore nature and learn about their environment. It is designed to last one week. Be sure to schedule this unit during a time of the year when the weather allows you to be outside for extended periods of time. While learning to identify parts of nature is important, the most important aspect of the unit is to spend time outside and become curious about nature. You may want to repeat parts of this unit at different times throughout the year to experience nature during different seasons. Your child will notice that you see different birds and flowers in the spring and the fall.

This unit, as well as over 900 other Pathways, is free for everyone. Please help keep LessonPathways.com free by supporting our advertisers. If you need to make a purchase, please consider using our online shopping mall, where a portion of your purchase will help make LessonPathways.com even better.

As I write this post, I am sitting in a hotel room with my daughter in New York City.  This trip was planned as a very special Sweet 16 present for her; a time for mother-daughter bonding and enjoying the sites and sounds of the big city.  It has been all that we hoped, plus some.

What was not planned was the learning and education that has wedged itself into this trip. After 11 years of homeschooling, my daughter is quickly growing tired of “field trips and travel with a purpose,” but it happened anyway.  Some of what has been learned could be filed under the “life skills” or “life lessons” of learning, but very worthwhile.

Getting lost and putting map skills to practical use was the best lesson ever.  In our own home town and on field trips, there is rarely such an urgent need to quickly find out where you are and how to get some place.

Cultural Awareness: We live in the 11th largest city in the United States, Detroit, in a very urban neighborhood.  We’ve lived in Florida and Tennessee and we’ve traveled to Mexico as well.  Needless to say, my children have experienced a variety of different lifestyles and regional cultures.  None of this compares to the diverse population we’ve encountered on this trip.  It’s been a real eye-opener for her. It’s led to many questions (most of which I did not know the answer and we needed to come back to the hotel and make good use of the free internet and Google).  Not only that, seeing people openly embracing and displaying their cultures and beliefs has given her more courage in doing the same.

History! History! History!: Ever since reading “From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” as a child, I had wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  My daughter did not, but I “forced” her to go anyway.  She surprised herself and actually enjoyed it though!  We’ve spent the last year in an in-depth study of Ancient Egypt, Rome & Greece.  We built Egyptian & Greek Temples, Roman Aqueducts, wrote in hieroglyphics and of course looked at tons and tons of pictures.  Seeing all of this in person was just jaw-dropping and really “drove home” the lessons that we learned from our studies. Even my daughter was impressed.

Navigation: We have gotten lost more times than I can count, so far on this trip.  Together, my daughter and I looked at subway maps, paper maps and used our iPhones to find where we were going. We’ve used maps in our studies at home, learning about latitude and longitude and to locate countries, cities and regions.  But, getting lost and putting map skills to practical use was the best lesson ever.  In our own home town and on field trips, there is rarely such an urgent need to quickly find out where you are and how to get some place.

Becoming More Observant: My daughter is artistic, she sees her surroundings in angles, colors and light.  This is a wonderful quality that I do not possess, but the down side of this is that she doesn’t take note of the practical in her surroundings.  In the same vein as the “navigation lesson,” getting lost has taught her to be more observant of where she’s been and what’s ahead of her.  Being in a large crowd of people has helped her become more aware of her place in space. “Is she blocking the doorway of the subway car?”, “Is someone standing too close to her purse?” and so on.  Again, lessons I’ve tried to teach at home, but didn’t kick in until now, because it was absolutely necessary.

These are just a few of the many lessons learned on this trip.  Others include making good decisions, spending money wisely, making an itinerary (and staying flexible) and not to mention the value of good walking shoes versus fashionable shoes.

I am so thankful to have this precious time with my daughter and stand in amazement at the valuable lessons she’s learned in less than a week’s time.

This post was written by Christina S..  She lives in Detroit with her husband and two daughters.  They have just finished up their 11th year of homeschooling and looking forward to more travel and learning with her family.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy Homeschool Netherlands and our Travel and Field Trip Pathways.

All children love to draw.  Why not build on their love for art and drawing, and incorporate some math, by teaching them to draw to scale.  This week’s unit will help you do just that!

Learn how to draw to scale in this unit. Hands-on activities include demonstrating ratio and scale and making Chocolate Crispies. Then have fun drawing a garden, an archeological dig, and a dinosaur. Online activities, worksheets, and video are included to reinforce the activities. This unit is designed to last one week, depending on how often you teach math.

This unit, as well as over 900 other Pathways, is free for everyone. Please help keep LessonPathways.com free by supporting our advertisers. If you need to make a purchase, please consider using our online shopping mall, where a portion of your purchase will help make LessonPathways.com even better.

Yes folks, you read it correctly – we’ve added new Pathways to our already awesome K-5 collection of resources!

Have you ever needed a local field trip idea to compliment your current lesson plans?  Ever wished to find a way to educationally enrich your travel plans?  We’ve created a new set of Travel and Field Trip Pathways do help you with just that!

Travel Pathways are designed to help families plan fun and educational trips. They can be long-distance family vacations or local field trips. Whether you are traveling by airplane, boat, bus, or taking a car adventure, these Pathways will serve as a fabulous personal travel guide!

Travel Pathways highlight an area or attraction, give insider information from someone who has been there, and include links to educational content and resources from which families can learn more about the location. The goal of these Pathways is to offer families an easy way to learn while traveling, without spending a significant amount of advanced planning time.

We’re currently in the BETA phase of these Pathways.  There are great lessons, videos, activities and field trips to help enrich your experience in Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington D.C.  Please take a look and let us know what you think!

If you are interested in creating a Travel Pathway based on our neighborhood or state, we are currently accepting volunteer submissions.  It’s quick and easy, all you need to do is gather in the information and fill out a simple form.  We’ll do the rest!  For more information see the Travel and Field Trips Guided Journey page.

It’s the first question when you tell someone you homeschool your children.  It’s one of the many concerns for new homeschoolers and those that are considering homeschooling.  It’s the “s” word …. socialization.  “What about socialization?”

Some people wonder if their children get enough socialization, particularly new homeschoolers, smaller families and those living in more remote areas.  Homeschool family or not, all parents want their children to grow into successful adults that can navigate their way through society and interact well with colleagues and other adults.

Who doesn’t love getting together with friends?  In addition, playing sports and taking classes teaches valuable life skills such as working together as part of a larger group, relating to different personality types and learning how to tactfully handle criticism and praise.

As homeschool parents, we definitely need to put forth a bit more effort than our public school counter parts for our children to participate in sports, scouting, art classes, etc.   We often find ourselves shuttling our children here and there, several days a week, in the name of socialization.   But, how much is too much? Is there such a thing as “too much socialization”?

As a homeschool mom of 11 years, I can tell you, emphatically, “YES!!!! There is such a thing as too much socialization!”  How much is “too much”?

A well balanced homeschool includes socialization.  Who doesn’t love getting together with friends?  In addition, playing sports and taking classes teaches valuable life skills such as working together as part of a larger group, relating to different personality types and learning how to tactfully handle criticism and praise.  However, as the old adage goes “too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.” If you find you do not have enough time in the day to complete your schoolwork or get household chores done, on a regular basis, you may need to ask yourself if your homeschool schedule is balanced enough.

Sometimes “too much” places unwanted stress in your child’s life.  Trying to emotionally and physically keep up with a demanding schedule (i.e. spreading your family too thing) can be trying and children can bring about feelings of pressure and anxiety, often manifesting itself as negative behavior.  If your child’s behavior has changed significantly since adding in all of the “extras,” you may want to consider if it is “too much.”

Where the line of “too much” is drawn varies from family to family and even from child to child. Within our household, it has changed from year to year, depending on the emotional maturity of each of our children.  We’ve had to reevaluate our own needs based on some of the situations mentioned above.   Also, if we notice our children have started to lose their individuality in favor of modeling other children’s behaviors, style, etc., we carefully consider if their lives are balanced enough.

Have you ever reach the “too much” limit?  How did you recognize this and how did you handle it?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.

This post was written by Christina S.. She lives in Detroit with her husband and two daughters.  They have just completed their 11^th year of homeschooling and looking forward to many more ahead!

This week’s featured Pathway is from the Year 3 Language Arts Guided Journey and is sure to be fun for all ages!  Based on the delightful tale of a young boy who wakes up one day to discover is entire body is flat, Flat Stanely Part 1 and Part 2, is a great addition to your summer reading line up.

Part 1: Try to imagine waking up one morning and finding that your entire body is suddenly as flat as a pancake. That’s what happens to a boy named Stanley in this very funny story by Jeff Brown. This week you will begin reading the first three chapters of the book, “Flat Stanley.” You will make a poster of yourself as a Flat Stanley, write a Five W’s poem about how Stanley becomes flat, find and measure flat things around your home, and much more. Your writing assignments this week include writing a letter, writing about the most unexpected thing that has ever happened to you, and writing about the best and worst of being a flat person. Language arts will focus on choosing the most specific word to complete a simple sentence. This unit is designed to last one week, depending on how often you teach language arts.

This unit, as well as over 900 other Pathways, is free for everyone. Please help keep LessonPathways.com free by supporting our advertisers. If you need to make a purchase, please consider using our online shopping mall, where a portion of your purchase will help make LessonPathways.com even better.