what did your AAP kids do in the summer when they were younger?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like lots of stay-at-home moms. What about the kids whose parents both have to go to work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is a sample of my AAP's normal summer day when he was younger:

Wake up early around 8:00-ish, help himself to sweet cereal or pop tarts.
Turn on the TV. 1-2 hours of Phineas and Ferb, Ben 10, Pokémon, etc until mom rolls out of bed.
Video games or DS, 1-2 hours
Lunch (processed Lunchables, Cheetos, Funyuns, and pre-sweetened juice or chocolate milk)
Run around outside, 1 hour +/- depending on mosquitos
Legos or more video games, usually until dinner time
Dinner
Swimming pool
TV
Bed
Sneak books until around midnight when I catch him with a flashlight under the covers reading
Sleep.

This sounds like my son's dream summer - except for the Funyuns ;o). Unfortunately for him, DH and I both work full-time, so kiddo goes to camp. Mostly SACC camp, but also a few weeks at TIC, a technology camp that he likes. But that has nothing to do with AAP. It's just something we chose for him a few years ago that he enjoyed and asked to go back the following year.

[Anonymous]

OK..here goes.
When in 2nd grade...Child A read on average four hours a day and had done such since a very young age. Is in AAP, extremely bright.
When in 2nd grade..Child B played on the ipod touch, read (30 minutes a day, at most), rode bike all day long, watched Disney XD, and went to pool. In AAP.
Child C plays with Barbie's all day long, reads 30 minutes, scooters around the block, goes to pool, and watches Good Luck Charlie on demand all day. Accepted into AAP.

I also take them on outings around town (not just the mall!) on a weekly basis - maybe 1x a week we do 1 fun activity like: Udvar, Luray Caverns, Zoo, Regional Parks, Museums, Port Discovery, Williamsburg, bowling, mini golf. etc.

When younger we used to head to Frying Pan Park, Hidden Oaks Nature Center, Lake Anne (for free shows), and the regional parks on a weekly basis. As they have gotten older, we do less, but more educational stuff see above.

It doesn't matter what you do with you kids or if they are in aap or gen ed. Just have fun over the summer and let them make some of the decisions. let them enjoy the summer days of tom sawyer!

[Anonymous]

I used to over scheduled my kids with summer camps (even when I was a SAHM) but I have found over the years (they are now rising 4th and 6th graders) that what they really want and need is "nothing time" and an abundance of casual time spent with a person who is totally in love with them (that can be a parent, grandparent, nanny). The activities are secondary.

[Anonymous]

My daughter starting at age 4:
Summer camp, usually last week in june to first week in august.

Family vacation (e.x.: Coastal Oregon; San Diego, Hawaii): 10 days (say through August 15).

August 15-School: play

[Anonymous]

They relax. They loll around a lot, playing with friends, spending time with extended family, reading, watching way too much television, playing on the computers, wii, and ds. They also have extra music lessons, and I try to get us all working on some music together as a fun group piece. I also try to teach them a few new practical/life skills each summer. I always say we're going to work on learning a new language, but we never end up spending enough time on it. We do some other projects together. They have a lot of free time. It's a challenge getting them to turn off the electronics and just use their brains free-form, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They relax. They loll around a lot, playing with friends, spending time with extended family, reading, watching way too much television, playing on the computers, wii, and ds. They also have extra music lessons, and I try to get us all working on some music together as a fun group piece. I also try to teach them a few new practical/life skills each summer. I always say we're going to work on learning a new language, but we never end up spending enough time on it. We do some other projects together. They have a lot of free time. It's a challenge getting them to turn off the electronics and just use their brains free-form, though.

+1 Wait do you have my kids??

[Anonymous]

This is the strangest, smuggest question ever posted about AAP, and that is saying a lot.

[Anonymous]

the Funyuns, lunchables, juice etc are just a shout out to classic DCUM silliness, but the rest is pretty much par for the course.

My AAP kid is just that, a kid. Not some mythical dcum stereotype of what a "gifted" kid should be.

I fail to understand why this question was even asked. Was OP looking for answers like "My kid composed a symphony, then deciphered several ancient Latin texts, self taught of course, and for fun delved into nuclear physics."?

[Anonymous]

Two working parents so we piece together (almost) full day camps, no more than 2 wks long each. Drama camp. Tae Kwon Do camp. SACC camp. Ice skating camp. Scuba diving camp. Family vacation. One week at each grandparent's house where they get spoiled, play video games on the iPad, and watch soap operas and Wheel of Fortune with Grandma. And oh yes, two weeks of academic camp at the end of August, subjects of their own choosing (Alice programming and chem lab), to get back in the groove before school resumes. Lots of swimming and play dates on weekend.

[Anonymous]

PP, would you adopt me?

To respond to another poster, I can only guess that the question was asked because someone wonders if the path to AAP is to raise a grim little robot child, whose summers consist of dawn-to-dusk academic boot camps.

[Anonymous]

The question clearly brought out the folks who love to post how their child, even though he or she is in AAP, is "just a normal kid" who does nothing! (Nothing at all! Ever!) outside school that could possibly smack of academics, heaven forbid. It's perverse -- this proud denial of anything like having a kid -- in AAP or not -- do anything academic over the sacred summer.

You can have all the idyllic, Funyuns-and-games summers you want when they're younger, and that's fine then, but frankly as kids get older -- again, AAP or not -- they are going to need to keep up some skills in the three months between one grade and the next, or they will struggle. Our relatives in another country where there is year-round school (with generous vacations of two to five weeks throughout) shake their hears at the idea of three solid months with zero academics. I do too.

My kid (yes, in AAP, middle school) does a long vacation with us, several weeks of hanging out and doing things around home and playing, one week of Girl Scout day camp locally, one week of a writing workshop (four hours a day for five days), some math work three times a week, and a lot of dance classes because she dances extensively in the school year. The dance school recognizes that kids must keep their skills up over the summer months and requires them to take a certain minimum of classes so they don't get rusty and end up falling behind (and getting injured). Why shouldn't parents also recognize that kids need to keep up academic skills to avoid getting rusty too?

[Anonymous]

There are lots of ways to keep academics up without taking actual "classes." Reading in the hammock is a great way to keep up reading skills.

[Anonymous]

You can have all the idyllic, Funyuns-and-games summers you want when they're younger, and that's fine then, but frankly as kids get older -- again, AAP or not -- they are going to need to keep up some skills in the three months between one grade and the next, or they will struggle. Our relatives in another country where there is year-round school (with generous vacations of two to five weeks throughout) shake their hears at the idea of three solid months with zero academics. I do too.

One of my kids is a national merit scholar finalist in college on a full academic scholarship. Another graduates from college in the spring. About 90% of his tuition was covered by scholarship money. They were both in gifted/AAP (depending on where we were living) programs throughout school. We did absolutely nothing but play all summer long every single year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question clearly brought out the folks who love to post how their child, even though he or she is in AAP, is "just a normal kid" who does nothing! (Nothing at all! Ever!) outside school that could possibly smack of academics, heaven forbid. It's perverse -- this proud denial of anything like having a kid -- in AAP or not -- do anything academic over the sacred summer.

You can have all the idyllic, Funyuns-and-games summers you want when they're younger, and that's fine then, but frankly as kids get older -- again, AAP or not -- they are going to need to keep up some skills in the three months between one grade and the next, or they will struggle. Our relatives in another country where there is year-round school (with generous vacations of two to five weeks throughout) shake their hears at the idea of three solid months with zero academics. I do too.

My kid (yes, in AAP, middle school) does a long vacation with us, several weeks of hanging out and doing things around home and playing, one week of Girl Scout day camp locally, one week of a writing workshop (four hours a day for five days), some math work three times a week, and a lot of dance classes because she dances extensively in the school year. The dance school recognizes that kids must keep their skills up over the summer months and requires them to take a certain minimum of classes so they don't get rusty and end up falling behind (and getting injured). Why shouldn't parents also recognize that kids need to keep up academic skills to avoid getting rusty too?

See, we view summer as the time to grow through life experience, not through structured learning.

When they get older, they will have summer jobs. Hopefully something that will translate into marketable skills when they get to college and adult life.

They can spend their summers working on academics, to get them into a school where they will earn a fancy, expensive degree that may or may not translate into a job to pay off their mounds of student loans, or they can spend their summers relaxing, having fun, bonding with family, and later, at a summer job where they will learn practical skills to fall back on in the even their $100K+ degree does not yield the type of job they thought it would.

It is always good to have a back up plan.