Anonymous wrote:Summer is the time for learning; the regular year is a time for watching videos on smartboards and playing games on school-issued laptops.

My eight year old and my six year old are going to learn cursive and continue with math and reading this summer. They have the whole rest of the year to atrophy.

Sorry, but if that’s true then that’s school specific.

Summer is the time for learning; the regular year is a time for watching videos on smartboards and playing games on school-issued laptops.

My eight year old and my six year old are going to learn cursive and continue with math and reading this summer. They have the whole rest of the year to atrophy.

Anonymous wrote:
Always. Math and writing (they do their own reading). I call it Mom Camp. There's also music practice, daily swimming, cooking, early morning or late night walks with the dog, and board games. In the past, my friends used to send me their kids too, but now they're all older, they've each got their own thing.

The one year we were away for almost the entire summer and did no math was the year their MAP-M dipped a bit between Spring and Fall. Brain drain is real.

Oh the horror! Have you and the kids recovered yet? That must have been so traumatic. Bye bye to top colleges.

+ a million

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love me some worksheets ! They reinforce what was taught. Growing up I played school almost daily with my friends. I did tons of worksheets. I read books and wrote my own book reports.

They do not, but you can continue to play with them if you like them.

-teacher who doesn’t assign any school work over any break and doesn’t make my kids do it either

I don’t understand this and would love one of you teachers to explain please. My kid forgets their long division etc and I feel benefits from just doing then. Why is that wrong?

Always. Math and writing (they do their own reading). I call it Mom Camp. There's also music practice, daily swimming, cooking, early morning or late night walks with the dog, and board games. In the past, my friends used to send me their kids too, but now they're all older, they've each got their own thing.

The one year we were away for almost the entire summer and did no math was the year their MAP-M dipped a bit between Spring and Fall. Brain drain is real.

Anonymous wrote:There are so many ways to enrich your child's life over the summer. Seriously, no need for worksheets! Do the library reading program. Get your kid a nice journal and encourage them to do whatever they want in it--write, sketch, cartoon. Take them on a few educational field trips. My daughter is still at the age where playing school is fun (in K this year). She likes to make books of her writing and drawings. Old ds does some coding and programming related camps because that is his interest.

I suggested similar to this at 20:03 back on pg. 2 of this thread and someone suggested that perhaps this came naturally to me because I'm a teacher and that they have to be more "deliberate" with homework to achieve the same results. I figure spending time with your child and discussing things during the day is just basic parenting.

We don't do the school work but we do workbooks and reading. Plenty of time between camps, sports and activities.

There are so many ways to enrich your child's life over the summer. Seriously, no need for worksheets! Do the library reading program. Get your kid a nice journal and encourage them to do whatever they want in it--write, sketch, cartoon. Take them on a few educational field trips. My daughter is still at the age where playing school is fun (in K this year). She likes to make books of her writing and drawings. Old ds does some coding and programming related camps because that is his interest.

No, no, no, no, and no. My kids tracked reading minutes when they were in ES. Which was never a problem because they are great readers. They had math packets assigned in MS and a school One Book. Now, both are at TJ and up to this point have had summer school AND a huge soul sucking, time sucking amount of summer homework. New school policy—. NO HOMEWORK THIS SUMMER!!!! Can you tell how happy I am?

Thank goodness. They work hard enough during the school year. Plus, one has a semester of summer history and one has a school years worth of CS at the school. And summer history kid also has marching band start August 1 and college applications to start. Before you know it, this will be your kids summer. Enjoy the downtime while you have it.

Research has shown little to no benefit of summer homework for UMC kids. And UMC kid don’t experience much, if any, summer brain drain. Basically, if you are the kind of parent who asks if your kid should do dummer homework, your kid doesn’t need it.

Limit screen time. Take your kids to the library regularly. Limit screen time. Did I mention limit screentime? Otherwise turn them loose or send them to a camp in an area they find interesting. They will start formal summer homework and summer classes and summer jobs and college applications and internships and... soon enough— most middle and high schools have some summer homework.

My kids always had ~15 min Khan Academy (what ever they wanted), ~15 min keyboarding, and ~30 min reading before they were allowed to do anything else involving screens (TV, computer, gaming). Sometimes they were busy all day with swim team and neighborhood playing and didn't do any summer work, sometimes they spent a large chunk of the day indoors on computers and had summer work done by 8am. If they had summer work from school, that could get done during those set aside times.

I never made it a super structured task - it just fit in with other things that were going on. But with the almost daily practice, by the end of each summer my kids had read many books (weekly library trips), ramped up typing skills (they were always faster than peers), and made a surprising amount of progress in Khan Academy on topics that interested them.

Nothing other than the required reading. She reads a lot anyway, so it’s just making sure she reads the stuff on the required list.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love me some worksheets ! They reinforce what was taught. Growing up I played school almost daily with my friends. I did tons of worksheets. I read books and wrote my own book reports.

They do not, but you can continue to play with them if you like them.

-teacher who doesn’t assign any school work over any break and doesn’t make my kids do it either

If there is no value in worksheets why are they sent home daily as homework?

I teach in an elementary school. Most teachers in my building assign very little if any homework. We are a two teacher household and have probably assigned no homework between the two of us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love me some worksheets ! They reinforce what was taught. Growing up I played school almost daily with my friends. I did tons of worksheets. I read books and wrote my own book reports.

They do not, but you can continue to play with them if you like them.

-teacher who doesn’t assign any school work over any break and doesn’t make my kids do it either

If there is no value in worksheets why are they sent home daily as homework?

They shouldn’t be. Sorry you’re not at a good school.

My kids always participated in the Fairfax County library summer reading program where they completed a reading log and got a coupon booklet when they turned their logs in.

We also did math, writing, handwriting and typing practice over the summer. For math you can print out released SOL tests, have them take them and then work on any areas that they might be a little shaky on.

If you consistently set aside 30 minutes to an hour each day it becomes a part of the routine w/o being a huge chore. I think it absolutely did make a difference for my own kids.