Do your kids do school work over the summer?

[Anonymous]

No! I actively discouraged my kids (now grown, they excelled academically) from doing their elementary school summer packets (unfortunately, in higher grades, the school required them). Unless your child was struggling with a subject and needs to catch up to the rest of his peers, or you feel the school’s curriculum has gaps that you need to compensate for, summer homework is unnecessary and may be counterproductive. Assuming they mastered the material during the school year, they won’t lose very much. Moreover, the school will review everything when school starts, anyway, and those kids who would probably benefit the most from working over the summer because they didn’t master their lessons are the least likely to do any summer work. After working hard during the year, your kids had to work during their summer “vacation”, so that they can go back to school and review the material they’ve been doing all along.

Please don’t make your kids read. Required reading only makes sense when it serves a purpose. When a child is learning how to read, requiring them to practice makes sense, as practice is necessary to acquire any skill. If a teacher gives a class the assignment of reading the next chapter so the students can discuss it the next day, or tells everyone to read a book of their choice and then write a report on it, that reading has a specific purpose. Making a child read just to be reading is turning an intrinsically enjoyable activity into a dreaded chore. They may read whatever time/material you demand, but if they resent it, they are unlikely to read anymore.

Instead, just help them realize how much fun reading is. Take them to library events and bookstores. Even if they aren’t interested in selecting books, make them wait while you select some books for yourself (and maybe a few fun books for them). Don’t worry about whether they’re reading “literature” or challenging material. Let them read picture books, comic books/graphic novels, magazines, joke books, choose your own adventure, books like Guinness Book of World Records or Ripley’s Believe-It-or-Not, even puzzle books like I Spy or Where’s Waldo. At home, read together (it’s not just for bedtime) maybe while they eat, play, etc., or read to yourself and occasionally share something funny or interesting with them.

Everyone needs a chance to relax and recharge. Growing up, I loved school. Every September, I’d be excited about all the new things I would be learning that year and eager to dive in, but by the Spring, I felt I was hanging on by my fingernails, just dragging myself through the days I was counting down to the next summer vacation. If I hadn’t had those summer breaks from school, I think I would have burned out long before I graduated.

Summer is your golden opportunity to do things with them that the schools can’t. This is your chance to show them how academics can be fun, and let them see things in “real life”, but keep it fun - lessons are for school. Moreover, there’s a lot more to life than academics, but the more they’re exposed to, the more it will help them academically. Take them on field trips to museums, festivals, zoos, forests, beaches, historic sites, performances, etc. Do projects together. Cook together. Learn something new (not necessarily academic) together. Play together. HAVE FUN!

[Anonymous]

I signed my daughter up for a math and English program for six weeks. I was worried that she would be prepared for 8th grade math. She got an A+ the last quarter in math but I don’t trust it. Year end grade was a B.

I had no idea this was an enrichment program and not just a basic let’s go over the basics of middle school math. She said it’s boring, she’s not liking it but she gets up at 7 am and goes without complaint. She comes home happy at 12:30. I have no idea how she is doing but I hope it’s helping her retain what she will need for 8th grade.

She hates reading so there’s not much of that going on.

[Anonymous]

1st and 4th grade AAP. I encourage reading and have them do a few pages a day in the next grade level workbook in math. I think the math really helps- some is new that gets reInforced the following school year, while other things my kid admitted they had learned but forgot how to do. All in all, it really doesn't take that much time.

[Anonymous]

My rising 5th grader reads. That’s it. Rising 8th grader reads too, but is also teaching himself geometry w/ text books to get the basics down for math next yr. In elementary, the kids only read in summer, but they also do that all year for enjoyment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What school work do you make your kids do over the summer? I am worried about them sliding back academically in the summer. We let them take a break since the end of school but this week I am making them do worksheets and typing classes. And of course making them read books. FWIW kids are going into 3rd and 5th grades.

No. They do go to some camps, do swim team and go on a family vacation. They are learning and exploring every day.

They read every night, books they choose for their own enjoyment (and yes, they also sometimes read during the day).

They will be fine, and don't need me to ram more official learning down their throat - they learn through play, learn how to be with other kids, and through life.

[Anonymous]

We always had a reading routine where before bed, we would meet in my bedroom, which had a sitting area with a couch and chair, and read together (albeit silently) for an hour. We mostly kept that up in the summer, though some nights we fell asleep because we stayed at the pool too late. Also when they were young, they loved flash cards, so we did flash cards. In HS two of mine took summer school classes. But that was it. And, while it wasn’t studying, my kids did the sports summer workouts when they got to HS. But, that was it. I would never had done work sheets. I guess I never worried that much about them losing skills and it never really had any sort of negative effect.

[Anonymous]

No. They all read in the summer, but we don't "force" reading. It is more that we have always led by example and enjoy reading ourselves. We all sign up for summer reading at the library, and everyone gets excited to check off their activities/reading minutes. I agree that any type of reading is fine - joke books, comics, graphic novels, audiobook, etc. Even my older two (middle school) still read all the time for fun.

My exception is my youngest - he has some disabilities and struggles just to get "2s" on his report cards/score above 25th percentile for iready, so he goes for tutoring. But he did not know the difference between a letter and a number until halfway through Kindergarten...

[Anonymous]

The kids can have a completely normal fun and active summer and still do academic work! It’s not like it takes all morning to do. I don’t really get the aversion. The US has the long est school break of almost any other country. Why wouldn’t you have them do some review versus have them do nothing for almost 3 months?

[Anonymous]

I am not opposed to it but I don't know when I would fit it in. My DD is a rising third grader and does summer swim, camps, and we are often at the pool doing social things in the evenings. She is tired!! She reads before bed and in downtime but I try not to force.

[Anonymous]

We just do very very little TV and no video games. You’d be surprised how much time there is to fill with reading for pleasure, board games, and outside play. Mine does math camp two mornings a week, weekly swim, weekly instrument. Today he helped with chores and has read 1 new Boxcar Children book so far.

[Anonymous]

We did when they were in public - spelling and handwriting because those weren't really taught.

Now that they are in private they have school assignments they have to do.

[Anonymous]

DCs are in summer swim and volunteering, sounds busy enough but they still get chance to have lots of screen time, so I ask them to read some books they like daily if possible. I also signed them for math preview for the rising school year, to have a peace of mind they don’t get overwhelmed when school starts.

[Anonymous]

No, never. Let them enjoy endless summer days. Soak it in because one day they will enter the working world grind.

[Anonymous]

Our school would assign summer reading lists starting at like 2nd or 3rd grade. My kid always read some of the books on the list if not all of them.

[Anonymous]

I was tutoring my kids from the time they were 3 years old at home. If the school assigned any work, my kids would finish it - regardless of if it was graded or not.

But, normally, what I was covering every single day was more comprehensive and rigorous than anything that the school could offer. I followed the curriculum up to 6th grade from core knowledge. Added Singapore Math and Vedic Math. My kids also learned Spanish and the native language much before it was offered at school. They also learned rules of grammar, multiplication tables, and practised cursive.

If you have not taught your kids to sit down and do some kind of school work or learn something (maybe the 3 Rs) as a matter of daily routine, you are doing them a great disservice.