APS Elementary Summer Assignments

[Anonymous]

Is it typical in APS elementary schools to assign summer reading or any sort of "homework" over the break? I was at the pool today chatting with a family who also has a rising first grader and I was floored to hear their expected reading list for this child over the break. They shared it was a school thing not their own doing. They have to track the books the child is reading and there is a specific total they need to hit. Is this typical? If so, I'm wondering why not all the schools have the same expectations and ask of students over the break.

[Anonymous]

Is the school ATS? ATS has a very specific reading challenge that they do every summer. It is one of their hallmark things and a school community thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the school ATS? ATS has a very specific reading challenge that they do every summer. It is one of their hallmark things and a school community thing.

Yes, ATS is their school. Ha! Another win for ATS I suppose. I wonder why all the schools don't do something. Our N. Arlington elementary suggested keeping up with with learning over the summer and provided some online resources but no real emphases on anything specific. It is eye opening how different elementary schools are all within the same school district.

[Anonymous]

We have a rising 2nd grader and our school doesn't have anything specific for over the summer. We are just going with it even though we would have liked to have something a bit more structured come from the school.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know how to say this super gently but where have you been, OP, that it’s news to you that ATS does things differently from the rest of the schools in APS?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know how to say this super gently but where have you been, OP, that it’s news to you that ATS does things differently from the rest of the schools in APS?!

Not the OP - if you have to start a response off this way, maybe, don’t bother posting. This isn’t helpful. Not everyone is aware of all the difference between schools. Even the highly sought after ATS that is mentioned a lot.

[Anonymous]

Our school just uses the Arlington Public Library summer reading program.

[Anonymous]

ATS asks kids to read 50 books and do 10 good deeds during the summer.

Seperately title I schools have had summer “book fairs” in recent years where all kids get to pick out free new books to keep.

[Anonymous]

Our rising first grader was encouraged to go to the public library but nothing specific. We weren't given anything to do for reading, math or anything...

[Anonymous]

Knew it was ATS from the OP. It is the only school where things like homework, cursive, and summer reading are still encouraged, esp by the parents. Most APS parents are anti homework and I can only imagine their despair at how their snowflake will handle reading 50 books while at sleep away sportsball camp.

Most of APS is about sports than academics. Which isn’t terrible, for UMC students sports are often a gateway to good colleges and sales/lobbying jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Knew it was ATS from the OP. It is the only school where things like homework, cursive, and summer reading are still encouraged, esp by the parents. Most APS parents are anti homework and I can only imagine their despair at how their snowflake will handle reading 50 books while at sleep away sportsball camp.

Most of APS is about sports than academics. Which isn’t terrible, for UMC students sports are often a gateway to good colleges and sales/lobbying jobs.

Oh, please. The most rabid sports family I know went to ATS, because ACHIEVEMENT. Quantifiable achievement, like standardized test scores and making travel teams and whatever.

[Anonymous]

Any ATS parents care to share the suggested reading lists? I have a rising 3rd grader who only ever picks graphic novels from the library/book store, and I’d love some other book suggestions to add to the mix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our rising first grader was encouraged to go to the public library but nothing specific. We weren't given anything to do for reading, math or anything...

Did they not do summer math packets this year? My kids are in MS now but there was always a summer math packet in ES. The links are here but they say 2022:
https://www.apsva.us/curriculum/mathematics/

[Anonymous]

Our school sent out a reading Bingo challenge. My kids do the Arlington Library program to get baseball tickets and we “make” aka strongly encourage our kids to read the Mensa list books for their age group.

https://www.mensaforkids.org/achieve/excellence-in-reading/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it typical in APS elementary schools to assign summer reading or any sort of "homework" over the break? I was at the pool today chatting with a family who also has a rising first grader and I was floored to hear their expected reading list for this child over the break. They shared it was a school thing not their own doing. They have to track the books the child is reading and there is a specific total they need to hit. Is this typical? If so, I'm wondering why not all the schools have the same expectations and ask of students over the break.

Why don’t all schools do it? Because it’s not equitable unless the school is going to purchase all the books and send them home or ensure all branches of the library have 20+ copies of each book on the list.

Parents who prioritize academics are already working on academics at home or using supplementary things like Mathnasium, Russian Math, Kumon. My kids have summer learning goals every year and we work together to define them and then we make posters to track progress.

Affluent, educated families have kids who suffer less learning loss than other kids and are free to choose to allow their kids a break in the summer to play. We try to strike the right balance of letting kids relax and keeping their skills sharp. We aim for 15-30 min per day of academic tasks, including reading. Fortunately both my kids choose to read on their own longer and more often, but that is because we encourage, support and model that behavior.