How much studying is your elementary child doing this summer?

[Anonymous]

We are doing about an hour per day after camp, b/c I have learned from experience that if I don't the transition back to class for my DC is a bear.

[Anonymous]

The average child can lose up to 2.5 months of learning over the summer. Completely ignoring your children's education over the summer is detrimental to their learning. Why would you willingly do this?

Of course there are ways to make it fun and the term "studying" might not be appropriate. But there should definitely be some review and some advancing going on during the summer. Whether you do specific workbooks, hire a tutor, or rely on their summer camp programs- you should absolutely be ensuring the summer brain drain does not occur in your child.

Additionally, each child learns in different ways. You know your child best. If a tutor is best for them- fantastic. If summer reading programs are perfect- go for it. Regardless of the method, just make sure you are doing something to prevent the brain drain.

[Anonymous]

None officially for my rising 2nd grader. We read lots of books before bed and went to the library for him to pick out new ones to read a couple of times. I don't make him do it on a schedule. He wrote some silly letters to friends and family but that's the only writing practice. I'm a high school teacher and tell all my students to STOP taking summer classes to get ahead. Be kids. Everyone needs a break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average child can lose up to 2.5 months of learning over the summer. Completely ignoring your children's education over the summer is detrimental to their learning. Why would you willingly do this?

Of course there are ways to make it fun and the term "studying" might not be appropriate. But there should definitely be some review and some advancing going on during the summer. Whether you do specific workbooks, hire a tutor, or rely on their summer camp programs- you should absolutely be ensuring the summer brain drain does not occur in your child.

Additionally, each child learns in different ways. You know your child best. If a tutor is best for them- fantastic. If summer reading programs are perfect- go for it. Regardless of the method, just make sure you are doing something to prevent the brain drain.

OP here. I am getting my child to do a handful of Kumon and similar workbooks for about 10 minutes per day. 10 min of work can become 30 with the bathroom, drink and snacks because he is starving excuses. He used to enjoy working on his journal but that has been difficult to get him to do.

I am going to charge the ipads to start using MYON.

[Anonymous]

There seems to be a big divide on this thread between parents who have their kids doing structured homework/studying/worksheets/assignments (or want them to be doing this) and parents who lean more towards contextual learning via whatever the child or family happens to be doing or discussing (roadtrips, museums, cooking, board games, shopping, budgeting, task planning, current events etc.)

I'm not sure there's a right way and a wrong way, though I personally have a strong preference for one over the other. But that probably has more to do with my personality and the personality of my DC than anything else.

I also wonder whether the parental opinions about this differ depending on how the child is doing at school. Are the parents who do structured homework in the summer concerned that their children would otherwise be below grade level or falling behind?

Same question on this idea of the "average" child losing 2.5 months of learning progress over the summer. I am absolutely sure this is not the case for my DC, even though there are no structured homework assignments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average child can lose up to 2.5 months of learning over the summer. Completely ignoring your children's education over the summer is detrimental to their learning. Why would you willingly do this?

Of course there are ways to make it fun and the term "studying" might not be appropriate. But there should definitely be some review and some advancing going on during the summer. <-bullshit Whether you do specific workbooks, hire a tutor, or rely on their summer camp programs- you should absolutely be ensuring the summer brain drain does not occur in your child.or else!

Additionally, each child learns in different ways. You know your child best. If a tutor is best for them- fantastic. If summer reading programs are perfect- go for it. Regardless of the method, just make sure you are doing something to prevent the brain drain.

shrug. That's a risk I'm willing to take. Why would I do this, you ask? Because they're only kids once. Their summer days are packed with fun, joyous and interesting activities that they direct themselves.

[Anonymous]

Rising 6th and nothing formal or required. She's logged over 3000 minutes of reading for her school's reading goal this summer, but she loves to read and this has been all her (including the choice of books). Strings camps, art camp, and a week of sleep away space camp, but these were also things she wanted to do, and some weeks are outdoor Girl Scout camp, visiting grandparents and traveling with parents. We've done some family outing to places like the Archives and Library of Congress (but also the Beach at the Building Museum and Climb Zone) that were on her bucket list from school last year. Lots of pool time. She works really hard during the school year and needs to recharge. If that means that she ends up at UVA instead of Yale, I can live with that. At least she won't have a nervous breakdown.

[Anonymous]

DS will be entering 1st grade this fall. We've been reading every night - DS reads a book to us, we read to him. DS reads just about anything that he sees during the day - signs, menus, you name it - as well. We've also talked about the space probe that's flying by Pluto, weather and barometers, Legos, the bird's nest in our backyard, and other random items of interest. He's at camp during the day, pool in the evening and weekends. So no "studying." I'm a big fan of summer reading programs, but otherwise am not convinced that "brain drain" occurs in the mostly upper-middle-class demographic that inhabits this forum. As a kid I loved my reading/camp summers that involved NO "studying", and did end up at Yale (though UVA would have been a great alternative, PP).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be a big divide on this thread between parents who have their kids doing structured homework/studying/worksheets/assignments (or want them to be doing this) and parents who lean more towards contextual learning via whatever the child or family happens to be doing or discussing (roadtrips, museums, cooking, board games, shopping, budgeting, task planning, current events etc.)

I'm not sure there's a right way and a wrong way, though I personally have a strong preference for one over the other. But that probably has more to do with my personality and the personality of my DC than anything else.

I also wonder whether the parental opinions about this differ depending on how the child is doing at school. Are the parents who do structured homework in the summer concerned that their children would otherwise be below grade level or falling behind?

Same question on this idea of the "average" child losing 2.5 months of learning progress over the summer. I am absolutely sure this is not the case for my DC, even though there are no structured homework assignments.

I'm the PP with rising 3rd grader on the first page of this thread, where my son is doing 10 minutes 4-5 days a week, plus daily reading. I take the summer to help him work on some deficits because there is NO time during the school year to focus on stuff that's challenging for him, where he'd benefit from some extra time and attention. Maybe if I SAH but I don't. We play together after dinner and I reserve one hour of study/read time after that during the school year. He needs free play daily, so that's important to me during school.

So I use summer to catch up and reinforce, not get ahead. I will teach times tables through 6, which technically is getting ahead, but I know from experience this is a weak area for him and I'm saving some weeknight time during school by doing it now.

Daily reading has been a requirement from Day 1 and that includes my reading to him at younger ages. Now it's mostly him reading although I still reAd to him some.

[Anonymous]

Here is what my 6 year old is doing. Swim team, read with me for 15 minutes per night, 2-3 hours of YouTube, half day of various camps (tennis, science, nature, sports), playground, riding bike, Legos, making train tracks. Basically, summer fun stuff. He needs a lot of exercise which he does not get during the year, so this is the time to focus on exercise and the outdoors (and yes, iPad in the morning bc he is an early Waker).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average child can lose up to 2.5 months of learning over the summer. Completely ignoring your children's education over the summer is detrimental to their learning. Why would you willingly do this?

Of course there are ways to make it fun and the term "studying" might not be appropriate. But there should definitely be some review and some advancing going on during the summer. Whether you do specific workbooks, hire a tutor, or rely on their summer camp programs- you should absolutely be ensuring the summer brain drain does not occur in your child.

Additionally, each child learns in different ways. You know your child best. If a tutor is best for them- fantastic. If summer reading programs are perfect- go for it. Regardless of the method, just make sure you are doing something to prevent the brain drain.

OP here. I am getting my child to do a handful of Kumon and similar workbooks for about 10 minutes per day. 10 min of work can become 30 with the bathroom, drink and snacks because he is starving excuses. He used to enjoy working on his journal but that has been difficult to get him to do.

I am going to charge the ipads to start using MYON.

That is normal for a six year old. I go by pages not time. Feed a snack and drink and do bathroom before starting. Remember you control what is on the iPad. We limit games to good behavior, not the iPad. Most of the time only learning apps are on there. Right now our six year old likes stack the states and stack the countries. I am always amazed at people making a stink over kids and iPads. It is not the actual iPad that is the problem, it is what is on there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average child can lose up to 2.5 months of learning over the summer. Completely ignoring your children's education over the summer is detrimental to their learning. Why would you willingly do this?

Of course there are ways to make it fun and the term "studying" might not be appropriate. But there should definitely be some review and some advancing going on during the summer. <-bullshit Whether you do specific workbooks, hire a tutor, or rely on their summer camp programs- you should absolutely be ensuring the summer brain drain does not occur in your child.or else!

Additionally, each child learns in different ways. You know your child best. If a tutor is best for them- fantastic. If summer reading programs are perfect- go for it. Regardless of the method, just make sure you are doing something to prevent the brain drain.

shrug. That's a risk I'm willing to take. Why would I do this, you ask? Because they're only kids once. Their summer days are packed with fun, joyous and interesting activities that they direct themselves.

You say you are taking a risk, but you are not. You are doing "fun, joyous and interesting activities." My point above was that learning should be occurring- but its not necessarily in a structured way. Some children thrive on traditional learning. Others learn just by doing the "fun, joyous and interesting activities."

The problem comes when a child is placed in front of a tv or video game 8 hours a day. When a child has no access to books or interesting activities. Where they attend a bare bones daycare rather than a stimulating camp with a variety of activities. When their parents are working three jobs so they do not have time to have joyous and fun interactions with their children. When travel isn't financially possible.

The truth is, no DCUM child is probably dealing with the brain drain unless they have some sort of disability or lack of interest. And those parents are probably already doing plenty to ensure their children are as up to speed as possible. For most of us, providing our children fun and joyous summers include an abundance of learning opportunities that we are just not identifying as learning opportunities.

But for those parents who are choosing to maintain some semblance of structure to this learning- great. You know what works best for you and your child. Adding 20 minutes a day or even an hour a day to an otherwise fun and joyous summer will not hurt them and might help them. It most likely isn't needed.. but it does not hurt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None. DS is entering 6th. This thread has been a real eye-opener.

Where do you all live? How would you describe your culture/ethnicity/race/country of origin?

Nobody I know in my neighborhood does this, nor do DS's classmates at his independent school in DC.

Wrong. Likely every kid is doing something. We are also at private school and my DD started off the summer with a similar complaint. Talking to the moms, I have found that every kid is doing something either a workbook, camp, or tutoring. Summer break for privates this year is really long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average child can lose up to 2.5 months of learning over the summer. Completely ignoring your children's education over the summer is detrimental to their learning. Why would you willingly do this?

Of course there are ways to make it fun and the term "studying" might not be appropriate. But there should definitely be some review and some advancing going on during the summer. <-bullshit Whether you do specific workbooks, hire a tutor, or rely on their summer camp programs- you should absolutely be ensuring the summer brain drain does not occur in your child.or else!

Additionally, each child learns in different ways. You know your child best. If a tutor is best for them- fantastic. If summer reading programs are perfect- go for it. Regardless of the method, just make sure you are doing something to prevent the brain drain.

shrug. That's a risk I'm willing to take. Why would I do this, you ask? Because they're only kids once. Their summer days are packed with fun, joyous and interesting activities that they direct themselves.

You say you are taking a risk, but you are not. You are doing "fun, joyous and interesting activities." My point above was that learning should be occurring- but its not necessarily in a structured way. Some children thrive on traditional learning. Others learn just by doing the "fun, joyous and interesting activities."

The problem comes when a child is placed in front of a tv or video game 8 hours a day. When a child has no access to books or interesting activities. Where they attend a bare bones daycare rather than a stimulating camp with a variety of activities. When their parents are working three jobs so they do not have time to have joyous and fun interactions with their children. When travel isn't financially possible.

The truth is, no DCUM child is probably dealing with the brain drain unless they have some sort of disability or lack of interest. And those parents are probably already doing plenty to ensure their children are as up to speed as possible. For most of us, providing our children fun and joyous summers include an abundance of learning opportunities that we are just not identifying as learning opportunities.

But for those parents who are choosing to maintain some semblance of structure to this learning- great. You know what works best for you and your child. Adding 20 minutes a day or even an hour a day to an otherwise fun and joyous summer will not hurt them and might help them. It most likely isn't needed.. but it does not hurt.

OP here. My kids experience a lot and I limit screen time to less than one hour per day. On weekends, they get a movie. Ipads have been solely limited to trips only so on road trips and airplanes mostly.

I recently quit my job to spend more time with the kids. I may be putting too much pressure on myself. 6yo is obsessed with animals and knows much more than I do. We read no less than 10 books a week on various animals. I spent a lot of time researching camps for 6yo. He is attending a mix between fun camps at both private schools and the neighborhood rec center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rising 2nd grade girl:

Reads like a fiend. Just finished Little Women, for example. Read it in 2 days.

It's harder to get her to do math. School sent home a summer workbook with 35 lessons (12 questions/lesson). She does two each Sat. and two each Sun. We do arithmetic and subtraction flashcards in the car, with sums up to 12. I am open to any and all suggestions of how to make math more fun and more organic - not something stupid and boring like workbooks and flashcards. I myself was more heavily into reading so it's hard for me to think of these things, but I try!

Otherwise, she is doing weekly camps in things such as: robotics, music, chess, engineering, veterinary science, space, dinosaurs.

That's wonderful, PP!

And no, you are not a Tiger Mom. Just a parent with a balanced approach.

- signed a Tiger Mom (not a balanced approach)

Thank you, PP!

Signed,
Balanced Mom