Littles Learning Link Up: June 19, 2018: End of the School Year!

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

We are enjoying the first week of our short summer break before our summer session. Perfect timing, seeing as one of our local churches is having VBS this week. And even more appropriate is the theme of their VBS. They will be learning about events from the book of Daniel, events that took place during the time we were just learning about. 

Last week I actually squeezed two weeks of our curriculum into one, leaving us with just one week to finish up during our summer session. We read about Queen Esther, giving us a chance to watch the VeggieTales story about her, and we read about the Israelites returning to Jerusalem and building the wall, giving the children a chance to sing a song they remembered from their co-op play a few years ago. In our world history readings we were learning a bit about ancient Persia, but mainly about ancient Greece. We read about wars, and the Golden Age of Greece, including Greek drama, science, and philosophy. 

We continued reading from Aesop's Fables for children. Plus we are trying to finish up The Children's Homer, we are so close being done. And we are also still reading Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, plus the last Kane Chronicles book, The Serpent's Shadow. 

We didn't really get to any science last week again. I have every intention of catching up on our science and art during our summer session. 

The children have been working on their math individually on the computer. The older girls continue to work in CTCMath. Hannah alternates between Starfall and CTCMath. And Harold is working in MathSeeds. They have all been working on language arts using different materials. Harold is using Grammar Galaxy, while Hannah is using Hake Publishing's Grammar and Writing 3. The older girls are using MaxScholar. All of these are review products, though one is for the single review team which means I won't be posting it on my blog, at least right away.  In fact, the review for MaxScholar will be posting today or tomorrow. 

Tabitha also finished her standardized test. We use the online CAT from Academic Excellence. I started using this a couple of years ago when she was in 3rd grade because I knew they were used to learning online, and figured it would be the least stressful way to test them. Tabitha did an amazing job. Here's a little peek, because I am so proud of her. Keep in mind, she's only in 5th grade!

We started a new tradition for the last day of school. I took pictures of the children in the same sort of pose as I did for the first day of school. 

I also needed a picture for one of my photo-a-day prompts this week for "plot twist." This is what I did.

The signs say:

Last day of school

We are finally done

We are finally done (while celebrating)

Summer Session Starts Soon!

I also wanted to share the great costumes the children came up with for this year's Kids and Pet Parade for our town's Community Days. They came up with the ideas themselves. The themes for judging were "Past, Present, and Future" and "Judges' Choice." 

Amelia made the backpack and helmet for this military costume all on her own (well, maybe with some help from Tabitha).

Tabitha decided to go as Ma Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. As we didn't have a bonnet, she used one of my old veils to look like one of the kerchiefs ma wears sometimes when she is out gathering eggs or cleaning.

Hannah made the wings and beak for her Puffin costume. Because birds were around in the past, present and will hopefully be in the future.

And Harold made the mask and wings for his Purple Martin costume. Same reasoning as above.

Let's take a look at that review schedule real quick:

Two weeks ago I posted my reviews of New American Cursive 2 from Memoria Press and Critical Thinking Detective Book 1 from The Critical Thinking Co. 

This I will be sharing about MaxScholar, Grammar and Writing 3 from Hake Publishing, and The Master & His Apprentices. In July I will be sharing my reviews for Math Refresher for Adults from Math Essentials and the eGuide for The Josefina Story Quilt from Progeny Press.

Here are some things I would like to share with you:

And here are some ideas for keeping your children busy this summer:

Summer of Fun Round Up

Whether you can get to the beach or not, here are some fun beach related ideas.

Beach Fun Round Up

Maybe you prefer to camp over going to the beach. I have a round up for that as well.

Camping Fun Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 5 wonderful posts linked up. I will be sharing  one randomly selected post, plus the top clicked on posts.

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Lisa from Syncopated Mama shared Fun, Free Staycation Idea.

This week's most clicked on posts are:

Brandy from The Barefoot Mom shared Aluminum Foil Boat STEM Activity.

Brandy from The Barefoot Mom also shared Nature Stamping.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

I am sharing over at

An InLinkz Link-up