WIBU to make y7 DD to revise in half term AND help her?

I would have the child direct, I would presume revision would not sink in for a child who goes through the motion just to keep the parent from nagging?

100% this.

Your friends are either nuts, lazy, jealous or liars.

You are teaching your dd cornerstone habits and life skills that will set her up for success and serve her well into her 20s and probably beyond.

Ignore the noise and carry on.

I've always done the same with DD, I used to teach science and so taught her how to revise. I am a big fan of flipped learning and DD has autism so pre-learning is really useful. It means she learns the content before it's taught at home - that gets some odd comments from other people "what's the point?", "doesn't she get bored in class?" no she doesn't because she is better able to apply the knowledge and ask deep-diving questions, or clarify any misconceptions, she finds the loud school environment challenging so retains more learning it in the stress free environment at home but she also gets top marks and enjoys doing it.

She's now in year 9, starts her GCSE course in September, has already contacted teachers to find out the exam board, downloaded the specifications, and past papers and made herself a spreadsheet for subjects and revision methods she's going to use. Has already started using YouTube to make revision resources for science, maths and computer science. All off her own back with no prompting from me.

The other parents probably just feel inadequate as they can't get their children to revise. They down play the importance of it but then probably moan or complain about the school and teachers not being good enough when their children don't perform well. You cannot expect a child to remember information from 9 months ago and in general children like to do well. You can buy purpose made flashcards so making them for DD is no bother really providing she didn't have to take them in as an example of her work.

Going forward into year 8 I would encourage your DD to make one revision card per subject at the end of the school day, it will take 10 minutes, help summarise the days learning and get the revision card production done whilst it's fresh in her mind. DD has one of the arts & crafts boxes from Tesco about A5 size which just contains her revision items,that means they don't get lost on her desk

I agree with this.

But the OP says she wasn't able to meet up with friends over the two days which does feel a little excessive.

You're doing the right thing because you're setting your child up to succeed. They will have the confidence and strong study skills that will last them a lifetime.

Sounds like your friends are anti-education. They'll be the type to complain about their lot in life even though they were too lazy to study or get a good career, and then they resent anybody who does.

Your child will be getting the good grades, and then their child won't, and their parents will be blaming everything else for it.

What a weird bunch of people. Sounds like them projecting their shortcomings onto you, especially as they asked for help.

Helping your child is what you do, and setting good habits early can’t be a bad thing. Now she knows how to do it, an hour or so a day will be fine. There are plenty more hours in the day to fill doing fun stuff.

Revision techniques have to be taught and learnt - its not innate knowledge. So I don't think you were unreasonable to share what worked for you in that respect but I also think two days of it to the extent you had no time to meet up with friends was excessive. Also what worked for you won't necessarily work for your daughter.

My daughter is doing her A Levels. Her revision technique is hugely different to mine and hers wouldn't have worked for me.

I talked through revision techniques and modelled a few when she was in year 7/8 but I wouldn't have sat and revised with her. And I can't see how I would have made two days of it tbh.

Obviously things need to be proportionate, but learning for example:
. how to make notes cards (what is important, level of detail)
. whether mind maps work for you, and how to make them
. how to use your revision notes for self testing in an active way
. that maths needs to be done by practice
. how to keep coming back to a topic to deep learn it
will be skills that are very useful come y10/y11.

Good for you. My son is in year 7 and I teach. An hour a day over the holidays is perfectly reasonable and helping them with study skills and organisation is really sensible.

You do sound ott OP. Children do learn how to revise at all the secondary schools I know as they have regular end of term assessments.

I suspect that many of today's secondary school pupils don't realise how / how important it is to revise, as they would have done GCSEs when they were modular and with lots of coursework. (I'm old enough to have done O levels.)

Revision is a skill that has to be learned and practiced.

YANBU. Learning how to revise in y7-y9 means that when you get to GCSE years you won't be one of the many parents on the GCSE threads saying 'my child doesn't know how to revise'.

I remember always having some revision to do during school breaks (1-2 hrs a day nothing too excessive). My mom didn’t help as she worked but she always found me good tutors for subjects where I needed help. I think it’s normal to do some revision?

It's not the whole holidays, it's a couple of afternoons. My school had exams every year through high school and of course we revised - it was just accepted we would.

This^
My DD has SEN so always needed my help to revise. It always paid off. I agree that your friends were jealous.
Also in reality many parents help to revise they just don’t like to admit it but then it always comes out later. E.g your friend sees a book on your shelf and says: Oh yes, CGP books are really good. I always used them when helping Charlie with end of year exams.
But she kept it really quiet while Charlie was at school..

This is making me feel a bit inadequate

Yanbu, my DD is in yr 8 and last year I helped her with revision. It is actually important that they learn these skills to enable them to become independent learners in the future. Yr 7 exams in my DD’s school also help with setting for the following year and she was really motivated to be in top sets.

I also helped this year, mainly asking her questions. I bought a mini whiteboard and coloured pens and she quite enjoyed using them for notes or to answer questions, make essay plans etc.

Somè kids are self starters, some absolutely aren't. Those that aren't are unlikely to magically know how to revise well so it's basic parenting to help them figure it out. Show them how it's done at first then they have a good model to work from in future years. It is exactly the same as them using bought flash cards or instructive revision books with highlighted information and 'quick fact' boxes on the page.
What you have experienced is a parent who either hasn't bothered or doesn't have time to help their child the way you have and to salve their guilt they are projecting the negativity on you,

You are all mad. Year 7 (11 and 12 yr old!) kids don’t need to spend holidays revising.

edited for typo

If it was set as homework, then yes, she needed to do it. I'd have used evenings rather than daytime though, so it still felt like a holiday.

I think your approach is good. Even the most motivated kids need a bit of input when learning study/revision skills. It was homework too so it needs to be done. There won’t be any half term hols where secondary school kids are not expected to do some homework in any decent school

I tried to get my kid to revise but no such luck. This week there has been last minute cramming the night before!!
Your post has actually inspired me to sit with her and teach her how to do it.... Although to be honest I was always a last minute crammer myself so I actually don't know!
I guess the reactions from others were just bitter or jealous that they haven't done anything. Fair enough if you don't believe in making kid revise during half term, but also fair enough if you do!! Everyone is different... Some kids might not really need to... Others will literally need a parent spoon feeding them at this age they differ so much!

YANBU OP. Y7 DD has exams this week, she did some revision (1-2 hrs) every day over half term. She also did plenty of other fun stuff. She’s finding this week of actually sitting the exams much less stressful than she would have if she’d done no revision. DS is in Y10 so his end of year exams are much more important, and we took a similar approach when he was Y7. He’s got pretty good revision techniques now.