Summer Book Camp

What to do when school is over but you have the whole summer ahead of you?  I was looking for an simple way to incorporate learning into our day without it feeling like "school." I had checked the internet for ideas of "summer camp" with a different theme each week. Too complicated that required lots of planning.

I wanted something simple and easy to do. No planning, no scheduling, nothing. I plan for school. I did not want to plan for summer. Easy - that was my key word. So I came up with an idea..... an hour each day, was all that I asked.

We went to the library to pick out some books. They chose any books that interested them. I did not interfere. We came home with about 20 books - 10 for J and 10 for Kaleb. The next day, I had J pick one book for our story time. (The kids will take turns picking one book for the day.) Then, based on the book we read, we would do a craft or two, maybe play a game, or even do some cooking.

There was no plan. I had no idea what book they would choose for the day. One child would choose the book before breakfast which gave me time to see about a cute craft or game. I had to have the stuff on-hand - no planning. If I didn't have it, I substituted or found something else. No stress, no plans, just fun. One hour - that's it. If we don't have time to do it one day, we skip it. No worries. We pick it up the next day.

This way I didn't feel like all they were doing was playing on the iPad, watching T.V., or fighting. We were learning, reading, doing something fun. And each book that we read went towards J's reading goal of 100 books for the summer - which certainly made her happy (one less book).

So, here is our first book on the fly...... (not every book will have so many crafts but they were so cute, we couldn't stop ourselves)

J borrowed Madeline's Tea Party from our local library. Just the title calls for a tea party! It was a cute book about Madeline hosting a tea party and how Pepito isn't very pleasant during the whole event. We talked about how rude Pepito was being and how kind and forgiving Madeline had been in the end. We also touched on manners - how Pepito was lacking in them! He came an hour late, spit out his tea at the table, and even tried to remove the tablecloth like a magician. 

So, with little time to plan, this is what I came up with. 

We began our Book Camp by making a cute pocket card from Messy Little Monster (link  below). It was a free printable teapot with a cute pocket for a tea bag.

We added an apple tea which is very popular in the other country and seems to be a hit with our elderly neighbor.

J will deliver the cards to our neighbors for a little treat. They turned out cute.

Then, we made mini tea cups from tp tubes. These were super simple to put together and I already had a tube on hand. This idea came from KroKotak (link below).

We made mini tea cups from some left-over plastic Easter eggs. This cute idea came from Multi Crafting Mummy (link below).

I didn't have the large buttons on had to add to the bottom of the cups so we used water bottle lids and a ton of glue. We added marbles for some weight while they dried. Make sure you use eggs that don't have a really pointy end or it could be a problem. 

I had some mini popsicle sticks so they made a mini spoon for their new tea cups.

They made the tea bag catch game as well from All Kids Network. This craft uses a water bottle, pipe cleaner, and a marble. We used a soda bottle for a larger cup to make it easier for catching the tea bag.

They made the tipping tea pot craft from Danya Banya's free printable (link below). We used these for decorations for our own tea party.

J had a plastic tea party set that I placed on a towel complete with water. They played tea party for a good hour, taking turns serving each other as drinking the "tea."

Here are the crafts we did minus the plastic egg cups because they were still drying. Not bad for an hour of fun.

Then, we had our own tea party. The kids didn't want hot tea so we used iced tea. But we still used the tea cups. I used whatever treats we had on hand - a few muffins and some cookies. No massive prep.

Daddy even joined in the fun! Not bad for the beginning of our Summer Book Camp. Kaleb"s book is tomorrow, I wonder what he will pick:) Hope you join us for our Summer Book Camp! 

I didn't read the book prior to finding all the tea party crafts. After reading, there are a few more ideas that came to me...

(1) time - practice time, they leave the house at half past nine, the tea party was at half past three but Pepito arrived at half past four, make paper clocks and practice half hour time

(2) manners - work on table manners, who doesn't need a brush-up on manners?

(3) geography - the story take place in Paris, take a picture look around Paris, talk about the Eiffel Tower, make one from spaghetti noodles and marshmallows or legos

(4) measurement - in the first few pages, Madeline is being measured with a tape measure, have some fun measuring items around the house

(5) baking - make a cake, if you are adventurous make a three tiered cake, or make a cake from play dough

(6) writing - make invitations for your own tea party, decorate with whatever!

(7) bible - forgiveness, Madeline forgives Pepito in the end, talk about forgiveness

Lastly, you could watch the movie Madeline or even the cartoons. It used to be on Netflix but it has been removed. We were planning on watching it as a treat for lunch but we had to find a different movie! 

Links

All Kids Network - has the cute catch the tea bag in the cup craft idea. 

KroKotak - has the idea for the tp tube tea cups with saucers. 

Creativity in Progress - has the idea for turning plastic eggs into little tea cups.

Messy Little Monster - has the free printable teapot card complete with pocket for a tea bag.

Multi Crafting Mummy - has the idea for using a plastic tea set for water play. She even added dice to use as sugar cubes!

Danya Banya - has the free printable tea pot paper plate craft - to make a tipping tea pot.

Red Ted Art - has a cute tea cup printable. You have to subscribe to the newsletter and it takes about an hour to receive but they are super cute. We hadn't received the file so we didn't do this. She also has a few game ideas to play with the tea cups.