Reply to How much studying is your elementary child doing this summer?

Forum Index » Elementary School-Aged Kids

Reply to "How much studying is your elementary child doing this summer?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=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 &quot;studying&quot; might not be appropriate.  But there should definitely be some review and some advancing going on during the summer. [b]&lt;-bullshit[/b] 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.[b]or else![/b]

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.[/quote]

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.    [/quote]

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.

[/quote]

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. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics