Hi! It’s Jessica, one of the moms who build Teuko.com, our online community of lunchbox packers. With the Covid-19 pandemic, this summer is very different from what we used to have. My kids, now 7yo and 10yo, won’t join any YMCA or SF Rec&Parks summer camps. It seems that we won’t travel, even locally (as some counties keep on reopening and suddenly closing). Yep, the situation is bad 😦
I tried to let my kids totally free to do whatever they want when starting summertime. Unfortunately, too much unstructured time was not working very well. My husband and I still have to work… and imagine a kid showing up every 5min with “I’m bored”, “What can I do?”, “Can you play with me?”
So I created these “Summer Camps at Home” packages. I used what exists on the web and organized all these resources so that it makes, at the end, somehow, a ‘Summer Camp at Home’. The deal is to get my two kids busy, having fun and learning at the same time, so that my husband and I can keep on working (at least without being interrupted too frequently 🙂 ).
What’s about these “Summer Camps at Home”? Simple: each week, a theme. A new mission. The first week was about Space and the Universe. Then it was about our Planet Earth. Next: from Prehistory to Gauls, Ancient Civilizations, Middle Age, etc. I chose these themes in this chronological order to let my kids travel in time while being… unfortunately… stuck at home.
I share these “Summer Camps at Home” packages here, in this blog post, since different friends were interested and it’s easier to share them all in one unique place. It’s not perfect, but I hope it will help.
If you want to understand how I organized this, keep on reading. Otherwise, no worries, you can skip the next section and go directly to the part where you can download the packages. I’ll update this blog post each week, as soon as the next package is ready.
Wishing you a happy summer, moms and dads! We’re in this together! ❤
— Jess
What’s in this homemade ‘Summer Camp’
Each week, a theme. A new mission. And each day, there is a new activity or challenge. My kids are in a French-American bilingual school, so the challenge is to help them keep on having a balance between French and English. That’s the reason why I’ll indicate what they really use (videos, books, etc.) and the resources I would have used in the other language.
– “Summer Activities/Cahier de Vacances”. I bought Passport and Hatier edition, as indicated by the French teachers of my children (1 activity book ~ 1 month). They started with the Hatier, 2 pages per day, which matches pretty much with this ‘summer camp’ since they have regular 2-pages of exercices (much more like games actually) from Monday to Thursday, and then 2 pages of Escape Game, for Friday. The kids enjoyed comparing their Escape Games, my 10yo saying it was taking place in Egypt, and my 7yo saying there were pirates!
If they were not doing this “summer camp” activity in French, an English teacher recommended me the Summer Bridge Activities.
(NB: choose the appropriate level for your kids. My 7yo will go to 3rd grade and my 10yo will go to 6th grade in Sept. 2020, that’s the reason why I took levels 2-3/CE1-CE2 and 5-6/CM2-6ème)
I indicated 30-40min for this activity. It usually takes 20-30min for them to do the two pages. The 5-10 other minutes are for correcting quickly with the kids in case there is something they did not understand (giving them feedback and explanations is, I think, important… and it’s just 5-10min).
– Journal writing. It is just ~5 lines for my 7yo and 10-15 lines for my 10yo. They’re free to choose between French and English.
Each kid has a notebook, something like this one (they got these at a birthday party in a goodie bag – I can’t remember when, but the mom who organized the birthday party rocked – very cool gift in the goodie bag! 🙂 ). And these notebooks will become a time capsule. Really! For instance, when the subject of the day was to write down a list of the ingredients for making a new sandwich, my 7yo wrote “tomatoes mashed with a hammer” and “camembert”! (Lol! should we try to make this sandwich?)
– Khan Academy for English Grammar and US Math (or for Computer Programming if they’re not doing the Lego challenge – but so far, they’ve only been enjoying the Lego challenges)
My husband and I really enjoy Khan Academy because there are videos explaining the concepts before the kids have exercices to apply the concepts. And each week, we, parents, get an email, a report where we see the time our kids spent for watching the lessons and for doing the exercises.
– Piano/Music. Here in San Francisco, the Community Music Center keeps on giving lessons, via Zoom, during summer (and accepts new students). My 10yo participated to a fundraising recently, organized by this school, for music scholarships, in order to help some children keep on enjoying playing music thanks to financial aid. Music is an art that helps with focus, discipline, and sensibility. They both started studying a Beethoven piece since it will be the 250th birthday of Beethoven in December.
For Week 5, I included a free workshop from the Seattle Opera. With these free five-video course, kiddos will sing, act, create original opera characters, and write a song inspired by their character. This course is for 6–12yo kids. When kiddos are done, they’ll have the opportunity to create a video of their finished creations and submit it to the team of the Seattle Opera who will pick some of their favorites and feature them on their website.
– For Sciences/History: Kiddos enjoy a French TV show on Youtube, which is, in fact a serie of 25-30min kid-friendly documentaries: “C’est pas sorcier” + the title of the subject of the day.
I also printed the corresponding questionnaire of the theme, when available, created by a French teacher – and so far, my kids like completing them.
In English, I would have selected PBS documentaries available on Youtube too, like this one for Egypt (summer camp week 4 about Ancient Civilizations 😉 ). If you have Netflix or Amazon Prime, there may be some good documentaries too. American friends, let me know in the comments if you’re interested to have a questionnaire in English ( I can try to find one, or translate the questions, and your kids’ mission will be to find the answers – via books, documentaries, etc.)
– Lego Challenge. Few weeks before the end of the school year, we watched some episodes of Lego Masters. I noticed that after a 45min episode, my kids were playing like 2-3 hours straight!
I saw that Lego put lots of educational content on its website and I used the ideas of some themes for creating my own daily Lego challenges. I did not include any images as the goal is to let their imagination and creativity spark. In case they’re bored with Lego, I suggested, as an alternative, the Computer Programming courses available on Khan Academy. But, for their age, I prefer seeing them playing with Legos 🙂
– Depending on the weather, excursions, bike, scooter, roller, gardening, art, craft, cooking, etc. Contrarily to what we could watch in The Sandlot, my kids are not going outside alone (unfortunately…). San Francisco is a ‘big city’. So I take an hour sometime to go with them. Having a break is not bad actually, helping me going back to work refreshed. When going outside, we wear our homemade masks and pay extra attention to respect the social distancing… hoping that normal days will come back fast…even if it will never ever be the same again…
– Reading: We joined the Summer Stride program from the SF Library https://sfpl.beanstack.org/. My 10yo is currently reading The Watsons go to Birmingham (mandatory for 6th grade, asked by the English teacher from her Middle School), and The School of Good and Evil book 6. My 7yo just finished reading The Lemonade War and started The Lemonade Crime.
– Every Friday, we have Movie Night. For the week 1, about Space and Universe, we enjoyed The Martian. For the week 2, about Earth, we watched The Journey to the Center of the Earth. I put a list of movies for each week, but you’re free to choose the movie you and your kids want 😉
Very important!
None of these activities are mandatory!
If they complete a task, they earn some points they can exchange in video game time or, exceptionally, money (for instance, $1 for 5points). For instance, indeed, if one kid does not do an activity, the other kid, by doing the activity, get the bonus points, and thus, the bonus recompense – money can be great for talking about saving, investing, or donating.
And there are no ‘chores’ listed (cleaning, making your bed, ..) because, first and foremost, by living together as a family, I think it’s common sense that we should take care and help each other with that kind of tasks (I just keep on repeating the message every day orally, like “Can you clean your room today?” “Can you please help set the table?” etc. 🙂 )
I’m not sure if this system works just with my kids… It’s not perfect but it does its job! Let me know how it goes for you, hoping that this will help you too!
The “Summer Camp at Home” packages
Week 1 – Space & Universe
| List of movies (choose one for Movie Night) | |||||||
| Hidden Figures | The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program. Review on Imdb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/3f6qPOe | ||||||
| The Martian | An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Review on Imdb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2CdGQ6p | ||||||
| Solo: A Star Wars Movie | During an adventure into the criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his future co-pilot Chewbacca and encounters Lando Calrissian years before joining the Rebellion. Review on Imdb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2Z3ZQxx |
Week 2 – Earth
| List of Movies (choose one for Movie Night) | |||||||
| Journey to the Center of the Earth | On a quest to find out what happened to his missing brother, a scientist, his nephew and their mountain guide discover a fantastic and dangerous lost world in the center of the earth. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373051/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2Z5iCob | ||||||
| The land before time | An orphaned brontosaurus teams up with other young dinosaurs in order to reunite with their families in a valley. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095489/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2Z90olP | ||||||
| The Lost World : Jurassic Park | A research team is sent to the Jurassic Park Site B island to study the dinosaurs there, while an InGen team approaches with another agenda. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119567/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/3f0BCtr | ||||||
| Disney Nature – Oceans | An ecological drama/documentary, filmed throughout the globe. Part thriller, part meditation on the vanishing wonders of the sub-aquatic world. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765128/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/3gCpwap |
Week 3 – From Prehistory to Gauls
List of Movies (choose one for Movie Night)
| The Flinstones | In a parallel modern-day Stone Age world, a working-class family, the Flintstones, are set up for an executive job. But they learn that money can’t buy happiness. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109813/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/3gxygOR |
| RRRrrrr!!! | A tribe of prehistoric people is puzzled – a murder has happened. The first ever one. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0357111/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2O2tlcx |
| The Croods | After their cave is destroyed, a caveman family must trek through an unfamiliar fantastical world with the help of an inventive boy. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0481499/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/3gwHBGM |
| Asterix et Cléopâtre | Popular animated hero Asterix and his faithful sidekick Obelix travel to ancient Egypt to help Cleopatra build a new summer home. Cleopatra and Julius Caesar have made a bet, with Caesar wagering the project cannot be completed in a few weeks time. With the help of a magic potion, Asterix comes to the rescue of the Queen of the Nile as Caesar and an angry architect plot against them. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062687/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/31SFatR |
| Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra | Astérix and Obélix go to Egypt to help architect Numérobis who is building a palace for Cleopatra. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250223/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2AG6Veg |
| Asterix at the Olympic Games | Astérix and Obélix compete at the Olympics in order to help their friend Lovesix marry Princess Irina. Brutus also tries to win the game with his own team and get rid of his father Julius Caesar. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463872/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2AG6Veg |
Week 4 – Ancient Civilizations
NB1: I could not find any questionnaire linked with the “C’est pas sorcier” documentaries. I also added other French TV documentaries. Thus, I selected other quizzes on the web, and the kids will be invited to search in some books we have at home or on the web.
NB2: This week, my friend Pudji shared a Yoga for Kids session she did with her 10yo son (~20min Youtube video). My kiddos will be invited to do the Yoga session on Wednesday. You’re invited to try it too!
List of Movies (choose one for Movie Night)
| The Mummy | At an archaeological dig in the ancient city of Hamunaptra, an American serving in the French Foreign Legion accidentally awakens a mummy who begins to wreck havoc as he searches for the reincarnation of his long-lost love. Imdb review: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120616/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/3ffWjl6 |
| The Prince of Egypt | Egyptian Prince Moses learns of his identity as a Hebrew and his destiny to become the chosen deliverer of his people. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120794/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2O5fLW1 |
| Jason and the Argonauts | The legendary Greek hero leads a team of intrepid adventurers in a perilous quest for the legendary Golden Fleece. Review on Imdb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057197/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/3207Gd5 |
| 300 | King Leonidas of Sparta and a force of 300 men fight the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Review on Imdb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416449/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2DjfsVb |
| Troy | An adaptation of Homer’s great epic, the film follows the assault on Troy by the united Greek forces and chronicles the fates of the men involved. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332452/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/3e9XX6I |
| Gladiator | A former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery. Review Imdb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2Z9Ebny |
Week 5 – Religions
My 10yo will be a 6th grader in a few weeks. In history, for the French program, she’ll study “the birth of Jewish monotheism in a polytheistic world“. In 7th grade (“5ème” in French), she’ll study Islam and Christianity. Since I found interesting “C’est pas sorcier” videos about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (very understandable and entertaining 25min French documentaries for both my 7yo and my 10yo), I also added other videos, about Hinduism, and Buddhism, in order to have a complete 1-week “Summer Camp at Home” program, and also to broaden my kids’ knowledge about the religions and beliefs in our world. Since ancient times, indeed, religions have an immense part in humankind. And when we travel around the world, when we discover the history of a country (by visiting ruins, or a museum, or a temple or a church), it’s great to understand and respect the culture of the people we visit. Thus the theme of this week: religions.
For music this week, I included a free workshop from the Seattle Opera. With these free five-video course, kiddos will sing, act, create original opera characters, and write a song inspired by their character. This course is for 6–12yo kids. When kiddos are done, they’ll have the opportunity to create a video of their finished creations and submit it to the team of the Seattle Opera who will pick some of their favorites and feature them on their website.
NB: I could not find any questionnaire linked with the “C’est pas sorcier” documentaries. I also added other French TV documentaries. Thus, I selected other quizzes on the web, and the kids will be invited to search in some books we have at home or on the web.
URL Links
List of Movies (choose one for Movie Night)
| The Ten Commandments | Moses, an Egyptian Prince, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people. Imdb review: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049833/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/3hbnnTg |
| The Prince of Egypt | Egyptian Prince Moses learns of his identity as a Hebrew and his destiny to become the chosen deliverer of his people. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120794/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2O5fLW1 |
| Muhammad: The Last Prophet | An account of the birth of Islam. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430377/ Movie on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3jhb9KK |
| Krishna Aur Kans | Hailed as India’s first stereoscopic animated film, ‘Krishna Aur Kans’ is an exciting narrative full of action and drama. The movie chronicles Krishna’s early years — from his birth as the nemesis of his tyrannical uncle Kans. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2321492/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/39bwOiB |
| The Legend of Buddha | The story of how Prince Siddharth Gautama came to be Buddha, The Enlightened One. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434147/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/32tiyk9 |
Week 6 – Middle Ages
NB: On Saturday 8/1/2020, my friend Ashie, from Stemchef.com, will host a FREE online kids day of fun! Yoga, dance party, baking, robotics, … and so much more! Save your spot now!
Info: www.stemchef.com/kids
URL Links
List of Movies (choose one for Movie Night)
| A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (TV Movie 1989) | After a horse accident, Karen wakes up to find herself in past Britain, close to Camelot, the famous castle of King Arthur. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097104/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/32Zb6xx |
| The Visitors | A medieval knight and his servant ask a familiar wizard to move them back in time to prevent father-in-law’s accidentally killing. Instead, they fly away to the 20th century. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108500/ |
| Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves | When Robin and his Moorish companion come to England and the tyranny of the Sheriff of Nottingham, he decides to fight back as an outlaw. Imdb Review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102798/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2X2Ey1H |
| Ivanhoe | A knight seeks to free the captive King Richard (Norman Wooland) and put him back on the throne. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044760/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/3g5BOYP |
Week 7 – Renaissance
URL Links
List of Movies (choose one for Movie Night)
| The emperor’s new grove | Emperor Kuzco is turned into a llama by his ex-administrator Yzma, and must now regain his throne with the help of Pacha, the gentle llama herder. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120917/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/33naaD2 |
| 1492 : Conquest of Paradise | Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the Americas and the effect this has on the indigenous people. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103594/ Movie on Amazon https://amzn.to/2D5ExU7 |
| Being Leonardo da Vinci | It has been 500 years since the death of Leonardo da Vinci. In “Being Leonardo da Vinci,” Finazzer Flory gives viewers a captivating, unforgettable look into what makes and shapes the mind of a legend. Imdb review https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9788956/ |
Week 8 – Kings & Century of Enlightenments
URL Links
List of Movies (choose one for Movie Night)
| The Black Tulipe | In 1789, when the Revolution went on, a bandit named “Black Tulip” held the surroundings of village Roussillon in fear. The poor people respected him as Robin Hood, who declare himself a revolutioner but Count Guillaume de Saint Preux “plays” this benefactor. Imdb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058692/ Amazon:https://amzn.to/3frcfAs |
| Marie-Antoinette | The retelling of France’s iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 15 to her reign as queen at 19 and to the end of her reign as queen, and ultimately the fall of Versailles. Imdb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422720/ Amazon: https://amzn.to/3fxh7nF |
| The Visitors: Bastille Day | Knight Godefroy de Montmirail and squire Jacquouille are stranded in 1793. Using trickery to break free from their shackles, both perilously partake in the Montmirail family’s run away in the quest for an exiting time-shift. Imdb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2441982/ |
| The Man in the Iron Mask | The cruel King Louis XIV of France has a secret twin brother whom he keeps imprisoned. Can the twin be substituted for the real king? Imdb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120744/ Amazon: https://amzn.to/2PrIjtx |
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Thank you for sharing Jessica!
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