If you are working ft, how much "school work" are you doing over the summer?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

I know there's a loss of knowledge over the summer and the dc are in primary. If anyone works ft over Summer, what and how much practice stuff do you fit in over these six weeks?

They are going into y6 and y3 when they go back. Anything I should aim for apart from getting them reading lots (dc1 a bookworm so that's easy).

None. It's a holiday 🤷🏻‍♀️

Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone is definitely not aimed at 14 year olds.
Do you use the term, "darlings" to parents faces at Parents Evening?

I don't do anything, they read but that's it. If my child were a bit behind i would maybe consider it but mine have been fine.

None, it’s the summer! They’ll enjoy themselves. The older two will likely read plenty, build Lego, chill out and relax. We’ve been away already this year so we’re not going on holiday but we have some nice days out planned.

Sometimes I think we expect too much from our kids. They work hard at school and their breaks are for them to relax and also to develop in other things if you know what I mean? There’s often so little time during busy school & work weeks to do things as a family, play with friends all day, see other areas etc. The summer is the perfect time to do these things.

DS (going into yr 3 in September) is behind in writing and spelling, so we have got him the year 2 CGP books for each and we're encouraging him to do a page of each a day, plus doodle maths, which he does daily anyway. The whole lot take about 15 minutes so doesn't take much time and the aim is to remind him of what he has already covered, rather than teach anything new. He's happy to do it, but we wouldn't push it if he wanted a day off.

I had this issue at our school - my older three went there and had normal books, but now all books like this. I think they forget that the most important skill is wanting to read/realising there’s a purpose. It’s like how children are going to try much harder to write out a shopping list and read it than sit copying out letters onto paper and chanting words by rote. There needs to be a purpose to drive their interest, and it’s the same with books. There needs to be an idea that ‘I want to read this story.’ Even if it’s a simple one!

I am only a step mum although been one for a looooong time.

unless they are actively struggling with school (in which case the school should give you a gentle programme) they will catch up quickly on any loss.

Forcing them to do actual school work in holidays will just breed resentment, and may actually put them off school.

Give them a different kind of learning - reading yes, holiday diary for those that like that, but building dens, museum visits, walks in the countryside (if they are interested in that then you can get apps that ID birds and trees), science projects (not too expensive online or try your toy library), time with you spent cooking (a kids cook supper one day a week is a good thing to start that you can carry on when they get back) or helping in the garden (or whatever you are into), the right kind of TV and film, some games, play dates…

obviously if you have a kid that absolutely loves maths and wants to do some, encourage that, but I’d use difference types of maths/experiment projects rather than school work so their brains are stretched

… and above all do allow them to be bored. It’s good for them

No formal learning.

DD14 has 2 weeks of holiday camp (no screens!) and we'll go away camping for a week.

The remaining time she'll meet up with friends/family, read, try new recipes, do some sightseeing and museum visits, etc. All of which is educational.

@outofbloodychargeagain

Broadly I agree that holidays are holidays, but what’s wrong with reading Harry Potter at 7 if you are up to it?! Lots of kids that age would be able to do that, I don’t see why it’s confusing, or age inappropriate - they are designed for the average kid to read or have read to them from 8 or 9, especially the first three which are less dense.

They are children’s books, not YA novels for 14 year olds.

jeez its the summer holidays I do nothing but let them relax and have fun tbh

I don't work but apart from reading my children won't be doing school work. I like to spend time with them having fun and letting them chill. Some of our days out will be educational but that's it.

DC have just finished year 2 and year 6. I only work part-time.
DC2 will read, go to the library, bake for using maths without realising, but she will also start talking about maths that I have no idea how she knows, she decided to write a diary yesterday without me mentioning it. So, nothing formal but it seems she is practicing key skills anyway by herself.
DC1 will read a lot. Like me, she takes a book with her whenever she leaves the house. She should practice her times tables, because she has got to the end of primary school without knowing most of them and will struggle with secondary school maths without them, but I don’t know how to make her learn them and she won’t want to.

Mine is 17 now but we always did extra reading and I bought some learning games for rainy days. However, my thoughts were I was happy enough if she was physically active, practising her swimming, learning some new skills, riding her bike, etc etc.

You are not ‘only’ a step mum. You are important.

Nothing

they are not up for it at al and I am not up for a battle

No school work here. Summer holidays are for life skills lessons. Tidy up after youself, put your own laundry on, make your own lunch, pick the washing in. That sort of thing. 😂

Teacher here with a P7 and P5 after the hols. No school work here! But lots of trips to the library where we are doing the summer reading challenge, and taking advantage of the free swims and racket sports for kids our authority is offering. We will also have days of doing absolutely nothing but walking the dog and lying in the garden in the sun. It's the holidays for a reason! They will learn more about the world by having conversations and meeting interesting people and doing interesting things. A child forced to work all summer will not be in the right frame of mind to start a new school year - they'll be exhausted!

We just spent a week in London and primary aged DC have learnt loads. History, geography, anthropology, biology etc etc. All from doing popular tourist things like Natural History Museum or Tower of London. We watch BBC Teach videos before hand so they have some context of seeing the real thing. Lots of places give out activity booklets so they are reading and writing while doing that.

I gave them £10 spending money and they are responsible for working out what to buy and getting their change. That's enough maths for me!

We try to get DC to do a bit of reading and writing in DP's language. DC are bilingual but as all their schooling is in English, their literacy isn't the same in both.

I suppose that probably helps keep up handwriting skills especially for DD2, but other than that we don't do any school work.

My DCs are 8 (just going into Y4, very behind on Maths in particular) and 10 (just going into Y6, in a specialist school where they appear to have done no teaching at all in the Summer second half term, and good at Maths but has dyspraxia so avoids writing if at all possible).
DD (8) is doing Doodle Maths, English and Tables every day and she wants to get her Summer Challenge badge on Maths and English. She's also doing a page of a CGP workbook (most days, she's still on Y2 stuff).
DS (10) is keen to get his 365 day streak on Maths and times tables on Doodle Maths (he's already got his Tables down pat, that's his choice!) and is also doing Doodle English/Spelling and one lower KS2 comprehension exercise (one page) per day.
These are all basically "do this and you get screen time" jobs and they are fine with this. Only the workbooks (Maths for DD and Comprehension for DS) need supervision though both ask for help occasionally.

They are both doing 5 mins of a language on Duolingo most days.

They do this on school days too, by the way - DD because she is so behind in Maths, and the school subscription (My Maths) was crap and not differentiated, and DS because they have just let him slide for the whole half term.

(I am aware I seem like a totally pushy parent. I am not really that parent but DS, in particular, has made no progress over the last few years at school, he has been consistently ahead on his work at home and we have had to show school what he can do).

What am I reading ?! Never knew this was a thing . The whole idea of school holidays are in the name - holiday .

we have longer holidays here - Ireland . Two months for primary and three for secondary .
Have never heard of doing school work over the holidays for primary . Surely they must be completely bored and unmotivated doing work all through the year ?!

We do have plenty of reading , crafts, puzzles etc but it’s not forced at all.

My 9 year old is big in to sports so spends most of the time out or in sports camp

4 year old out with me for walks, beach , forests , meeting friends and playing . I do a lot of jigsaws and fine motor skilled projects with 4 year old as she is starting school and she enjoys these .

I think anyone making their children do school work over the summer is doing them no favors at all

Holidays are for learning life skills not academic ones imo. So we cook, craft, fix, clean, tidy, relax, budget etc.

We have some apps and DD has decided to keep a diary (which is interesting as her spelling is dire!)

@FergieFergus

Does he know 100 first high frequency word's?
If not then those flash cards are really good.
Also reading chest is absolutely fantastic.

You choose how many books you want a week.
You can order from your school book scheme or other scheme but at the same level for your child.

I don't know what's happened to schools and phonics! It's gone absolutely evangelical and cultish.
As soon as a child isn't progressing with phonics they need to try other strategies!