Do you take summers off homeschooling to enjoy the beach, do home improvements, and just plain recuperate from the school year? Well, I do! However, by the time September rolls around and we start up again, the children are a bit rusty in their skills and out of the habit of studying. So when I saw that Bob Jones University Press has brand-new Vacation Station workbooks, I was thrilled! Each workbook is designed for children entering first through sixth grades to spend 15 minutes a day, five days a week, reviewing key concepts in reading, math, and language arts. That amounts to two pages each day over 10 weeks.

Each workbook has a fun theme, such as Wheels Westward, Ocean Expedition, Jungle Journey, or Polar Explorer, and most of the lessons tie into the theme. The first page of each week includes a chart to log time spent reading, and the last page is just for fun, such as decoding a message or finding the hidden pictures. All you need to add would be pencils and crayons. My nine-year-old daughter is the type who makes herself chore charts and keeps track of time spent practicing the piano, so these workbooks are right up her alley! My seven-year-old son, however, is out the door on his bicycle the minute he finishes a lesson, so he will need a little encouragement to get the work done. As for me, I like to keep a certain amount of routine in my home, even during summer vacation, and these workbooks fit the bill.