Getting ready for a new school year with DK

If you are anything like me you start out summer holidays with good intentions on keeping the kids active in reading and writing. The plan was to continue their work with spelling and printing and other topics and we did pretty good the first week, but then things slowly started to slip in the summer sun. Summer is just too darn short and inviting to be writing out spelling lists and the rest of the summer was spent relaxing on the beach, jumping on the trampoline and scoring goals on the soccer field.

Now that school is just 2 short weeks away, we’ve been revisiting those early summer ideals and getting the boys to practice some of their math, printing and cursive writing before heading into their new grades.

I was getting frustrated looking for grade and age appropriate printables and worksheets online. It was time consuming and used up my printer ink and paper. Thanks to DK, we now have some handy little work books that walk us through some lessons just right for their level and everything stays together so I can see how they progress.

Handwriting Made Easy – Printing $6.99

These books are a gem! They start out with basic lessons to practice individual letters and move on to sentences, poems and lists. The books are Canadian editions, which is important so the boys are learning the proper way to spell words and supports the curriculum taught in our schools.

At the beginning of each book is a sheet of gold stars and I was surprised how motivated the boys were to get one. They would proudly bring me their book to show me their progress and when I told them they were doing great they would ask if they earned a gold star. It’s funny how something so simple means so much to children and they will work hard to get it.

Handwriting Made Easy: Printing Grade 1 is designed for children ages 6-7 and packed with exercises and activities to strengthen a child’s first skills in handwriting and reinforce the skills taught in school or at home. The illustrations throughout makes learning fun.

Handwriting Made Easy – Cursive $6.99

I’ve heard rumours about some schools no longer teaching cursive to students. That seems ridiculous to me and I’m glad that our school is still doing it, but we are still getting our oldest to practice up at home and stay with it. I was actually really impressed with out how neat his cursive writing is. My middle boy is always trying to write his name fancy and can’t wait to learn himself.

Like the printing version, this one too starts out with easy lessons and moves on to writing out poems and passages, as well as, creating their own letters to send and book reviews. It also has gold stars to earn and my oldest wants these just as bad as his little brothers.

Turn to Learn Multiplication – 18.99

Turn to Learn Multiplication, is an engaging and innovative book that teaches a hands-on approach to multiplication and times tables. It’s a hard cover board book style that is filled with bright colours and flaps to lift. Each page goes through a different number up to 12 and offers  various techniques such as number grids, times tables charts, tips and memory clues, and number lines to help reinforce the times tables until young readers have them memorized. The turn to learn wheel makes testing yourself fun and whole book is just filled with helpful tips and tricks.

For these and other great titles to keep your kids actively learning and thinking throughout summer break and the whole school year ahead, check out DK website and follow along with them on twitter and facebook!