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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No!  That’s not a vacation.

If there’s something specific they need to work on, because of a deficiency, then by all means use this time to catch up.  Assuming they work hard during the year, though, they should be able to have a break during their vacation.  Can you imagine if your boss sent you with work to do on your vacation, not because it urgently needed to be done, but just so you wouldn’t waste your vacation having the “wrong” kind of fun?  Sport camps, clinics, and planned family vacations are great, but they also need sone down time that they control, to relax and recharge in a way that works for them.

Growing up, I loved school.  I would start every year excited about the chance to learn.  However, by the time Spring rolled around, I felt like I was just holding on by my fingernails, just trying to get through one more day.  I needed the summer to relax and even get bored, so that by Fall I was ready and eager for another year.

I spent a LOT of time watching screens, but I also spent a LOT of time reading.  Thank goodness my mother let me experience the intrinsic job of reding, rather than turning it into a chore. If somebody forced you to do your favorite activity, how long would it be before you began to resent it?  Read to them, read around them, and share cool/funny things you read with them.  Take them to libraries and/or used book stores.

Meanwhile, screens are just another form of media.  While there is undoubtedly some inappropriate content, most of it is fairly neutral, and some can be very educational/enriching.  Set guidelines for content, and maybe encourage (not force) them towards positive content, but it’s not inherently as harmful as DCUM would have you think.  You might even join them.  You can have movie nights, or introduce them to one of your favorite TV shows.  Explore YouTube and gind things that interest you.  Yes, there are animal videos, and inane videos of self-important individuals doing inane things, but there are also videos of historical footage, performances, scientific experiments, expert explanations/lectures/debates of every topic imaginable, videos from around the world providing insight into their cultures, documentaries and in-depth reporting, etc.  Similarly, while you are fully justified in restricting games with content you find objectionable, gaming is not inherently negative.  It often involves strategy and problem solving, and may even have a social element (but of course you need to be wary of interacting with strangers on the internet).

Hoagies has links to enrichment websites for all ages and subjects.  
https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/links.htm

They might even like programming.  Scratch is a language developed by MIT to teach kids how to program.
https://scratch.mit.edu/parents/
[/quote]

OP here. I don’t think my 14yo has read a book for leisure in over a year. He is a straight A student.

My 12yo is barely above average in reading and needs writing improvement. [/quote]

Leave them alone.  Barely above average means still above average.  Forcing either to read isn’t going to help them improve reading.

I haven’t read a book for leisure since middle school. Once high school came, I didn’t enjoy reading books.  I got though college and grad school with good grades and have a successful career.  I still don’t read books for pleasure.

I spend hours reading DCUM now, if that counts as reading.  I’m sure your 14 yo reads on the internet.  [/quote]

This is such a sad argument [/quote]

Why? Why are you sad some people don’t enjoy reading books?  How often do you pick up a sudoku for fun or solve math puzzles? Does it make you sad that many people don’t enjoy those activities? [/quote]

Again- the reading doesn’t need to be novel-centered.  It could be reading through magazines daily. To answer your “why” - kids are not reading as well as they used to, and have much less reading endurance and focus. They also have smaller vocabularies and less writing instruction in schools. There are ramifications to this.

If your child is a teenager and an excellent reader who happens not to like fiction that is completely different than a struggling middle school reader who avoids reading because it is difficult. So please, use some nuance.

I also noticed you mischaracterized my use of “sad.” I meant to imply that it’s sad adults, like yourself, go to great lengths to rationalize the dramatic drop in reading among children.  [/quote]

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