MCPS summer reading activities for Kindergarten: Are you doing all of them?

[Anonymous]

So I finally got around to reading all the materials sent home for our rising kindergartener in MCPS, and I came across a calendar with daily reading activities. Are other folks planning to tackle each and every item on the list? Have folks with older kids BTDT? Do kids really turn in documentation for each and every activity?

[Anonymous]

No. Pick and choose and do what appeals to you and your child. It's summer and people need to lighten up.

[Anonymous]

I read somewhere that MoCo can't actually make any kid do work over the summer. I don't know whether that's true. But perhaps it explains why both DC's have projects that are due in early September, instead of on the first day of school.

[Anonymous]

No. Didn't do any of them with my first and aren't doing anything with the second. We do read all the time, but that's just part of our normal life.

[Anonymous]

OP here: we read every night --- but the kinds of books my son is interested in aren't really the kinds of books on the suggested reading list.

[Anonymous]

I don't even know what I did with the reading list (or frankly that one even existed). Can somebody tell me what they're supposed to be reading? I'm just curious.

[Anonymous]

Just for more information, why not call the child's school or the MCPS central offices to find out why the books were on the recommended list?

If the goal is to get parents and children reading high-quality books, then choose whatever you like that is high-quality.

If the goal is to get children exposed to specific genres, then consider whether you want to do this, too.

If the goal is something else, then, well, whatever the rationale(s) behind the list, you're now informed and can choose to follow, borrow, or disregard the list armed with this information.

[Anonymous]

OP here: I don't have the list in front of me (it's at home). It's not actually a list. It's a calendar with daily reading/writing activities for the months of July and August. Rather than list a title for one activity, it says something like "read a book about spiders and draw a spider and label all the parts." We went to the library last week and I tried to find a spider book that would interest my son, but he and I both had the same feeling of "ick -- this is gross." Instead he wanted to read books on skateboarding and a biography of Tony Hawk. Some of the other activities on the list were easier to sell to my son (eg: read a fairytale; book of poetry; a "true book" which I'm guessing is nonfiction (and hoping that a how-to book on skateboarding will suffice); a book with an unusual setting; a book about friends, etc. --- then they all have supporting activities that entail writing or drawing). I'm not sure if this is a county-wide activity list for all MCPS schools or if it's something that just our school is doing. I'm certainly not opposed to reading --- we read all the time --- but there are tons of writing activities that I'm not quite sure how to tackle since my kid can't write well yet (he can print his name and short words, but it would take forever to dictate multiple sentences to him to print). And according to the paperwork we're supposed to turn this stuff in during the first week of school.

[Anonymous]

We're supposed to turn it in?? Yikes! I have that calendar and thought is was just suggestions. I have mostly ignored it b/c my daughter can easily do most of the things on it and saw no need to even try to have her do it. Now I might have to play catch up - that's not exactly the kind of study habits I wanted to instill in her!!

[Anonymous]

OP: Relax. I've not heard of any school around here that requires you to turn in summer work for kids just entering kindergarten. Your child won't be behind in any way or at odds with the teacher if you don't do these activities. Or if you feel it necessary, just pick one or two and be done with it. For what it's worth, my older one is going into 2nd grade and I can think of a half dozen schools where he's got friends. Not one of my friends did this stuff or turned it in. And you know what? No one was asked about it either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: I don't have the list in front of me (it's at home). It's not actually a list. It's a calendar with daily reading/writing activities for the months of July and August. Rather than list a title for one activity, it says something like "read a book about spiders and draw a spider and label all the parts." We went to the library last week and I tried to find a spider book that would interest my son, but he and I both had the same feeling of "ick -- this is gross." Instead he wanted to read books on skateboarding and a biography of Tony Hawk. Some of the other activities on the list were easier to sell to my son (eg: read a fairytale; book of poetry; a "true book" which I'm guessing is nonfiction (and hoping that a how-to book on skateboarding will suffice); a book with an unusual setting; a book about friends, etc. --- then they all have supporting activities that entail writing or drawing). I'm not sure if this is a county-wide activity list for all MCPS schools or if it's something that just our school is doing. I'm certainly not opposed to reading --- we read all the time --- but there are tons of writing activities that I'm not quite sure how to tackle since my kid can't write well yet (he can print his name and short words, but it would take forever to dictate multiple sentences to him to print). And according to the paperwork we're supposed to turn this stuff in during the first week of school.

I think this is the kind of summer reading list you can play with, adjust it to make it appealing to your child. I suspect the goal here is not to make this 'work,' but to engage parents and their children with books in a way that goes beyond just read-and-listen. The activities you describe sound like the kinds of things that intend to get children talking and thinking, extending what they read to other settings and applying the content in novel ways. When this starts to feel like 'homework' that sucks the joy out of literacy, someone's taken a wrong turn!

If your son can't write yet (and no worries on that count), you can ask him to do something like draw a picture of something he read (or imagine what happens next or whatever) and he can dictate a simple caption to you as he watches you write it on the drawing. Go with what feels right; have fun; and see that your son feels good about what he's doing. You'll be okay.