What is a DELVE summer project? Delving takes a deep dive into a topic of interest to a child. Once a child is focused on a subject, they (and you) find as many ways as possible to learn about and engage with that topic.
My youngest is now 10 and for years I struggled with summer activities. How much, what kind, how much screen? These questions plagued me. By the time my two oldest were 4 and 5, I'd initiated DELVE summer projects. We started by generating curiosities - I asked "what do you want to know more about? what makes you curious?" Answers over the years have ranged from mummies to viruses, the titanic to trains, origami to baking desserts and more.
We began at the library getting lots of books on that (and related) subjects. I set "book time" each day for them to look through these books and/or read for pleasure. Next, we discussed projects. Sometimes this was one big project, other times a series of smaller projects and, when they were young, many incomplete projects on different topics!
We purchased notebooks in which they wrote (or drew) their questions.
Where did origami come from and how many can I learn to fold? (Hundreds, it turns out - they were everywhere!)
How do I bake a cake from scratch? (and it's corresponding question - can you have too many sweets in the house? Yes. Yes you can.)
Why did the Titanic sink? Can I build a boat and sink it?
How do you mummify a person? Why did Egyptians mummify people? What happens if I mummify a doll? (thankfully, nothing - we tried.)
And then, on a regular basis, all summer long, we'd "delve". Reading, writing, drawing, building, solving... working on our projects.
Next post - an example of a summer DELVE project.