to give my dc's some school work over the summer holidays

[justalittlelemondrizzle]

My dc's 7 & 8 break up for the summer this week and I've bought them some English and maths work books to do over the holidays.
I usually do print outs of things that have come up on their reports that they have struggled with and set them a fun project.
Most of the summer is going to be about them having fun and enjoying some downtime. They have lots of friends round our area who they enjoy playing with all the time. Is it wrong for me to get them to do some work a few days a week for maybe 45 minutes at a time so they don't slip behind.
They're pretty average. My eldest tries hard and is doing well ut got a working towards in maths on her report and my youngest is very lazy and that did show on her report this year with a few working towards when I know she is capable. Do other people do this or am I being a mean mummy?

I see school holidays as a time for educational stuff that is not taught in school. For example Ds is doing a two day sailing course and in two weeks both my children will do a drama course. They choose what they want to do in the holidays.

In the past the six week break has been used to learn to ride a bike, swim, master a one handed cartwheel or draw. My children might forget some academic stuff, but they become more mature through other experiences.

We won't be doing that. Nothing formal like worksheets, set times and days. But, like Enniejuan, they do have activities to do each day and we do a lot of child directed learning (which I'm sure lots of people do) so that if one is interested in blowing things up (yup) we find a book for children on the periodic table and learn some fun things about chemicals. We are going to Spain so they are learning a few Spanish words each day. We did a bit of trigonometry today (as I have to do it so I explained it to them). We read everyday. We do lots of day trips so they learn things through that. It's mostly unstructured and informal but there is so much fascinating stuff out there so it's all included (because I'm a massive geek and love learning too!).

I'll be doing a little bit with my DD aged 10 as she starts Yr6 in Sep. They regress so much over the summer and her teacher has worked wonders this year to build her confidence. As we're in a grammar school area she takes her 11+ on the 15th Sep so they have only been back for 12 days - if you let them switch off completely over the summer they struggle.
So we'll be doing 10 minute tests on verbal/non-verbal reasoning/maths a few times a week, times table practice, and handwriting practice (as she's rubbish at it!!)

My eldest is home educated, we don't have 6 week breaks at all.
When schools are off, we do learning through games, hands on projects or by visiting places.
If your child is struggling with maths, they might learn better if it was made a bit more fun, search online there are plenty of maths games out there.
If you have a "lazy" child, you need to make learning more appealing.
All children learn differently, workbooks and sheets don't suit all children at all times.

It depends what they find fun. I take mine to 'stealth' educational things. Art galleries, music things, nature, politics. Basically I fill up the time with stuff they don't tend to do so much of at school to expand her horizons a bit. And I do worry that kids these days don't get enough time to actually 'play' and create. I definitely wouldn't want mine to feel like academic achievement is the most important thing - they get enough of that kind of competitiveness at school and with peers. But we all have different values, so I guess whatever you want to do is fine.

I suspect that learning by stealth is very good for most everything apart from maths. Fine for younger kids, but the older ones have to sit and actually just do maths.

I never did any schoolwork over the summer when I was a kid in the 80s, but then again, being bored is an invaluable education that my children will miss out on entirely. They think they deserve fuckloads of praise for playing a board game with their friends for an afternoon.

In my day, a board game was welcome respite from being forced into interminable gardening work.

Mine are 7 and 10, I'm doing the same. In their 13 waking hours every day, 45 mins 4 days a week is hardly going to eat into their holidays. DS has already been home 3 weeks, still another 6 to go.

I don't think I'd ever do workbooks over summer but we do lots of things that use maths (counting and saving pocket money, measuring for baking cakes etc) and we do lots of craft things that help with handwriting and spelling and imagination - but not formal school work, no. That said my Dd (6) loves writing stories & poems and has been ploughing through library books so she can get a medal at the end of summer for reading a certain number of books - it's a summer reading scheme the library are running.

dorisdog You are soooo right. I remember teaching 'art' as a supply to a YR 1 class. They had to look at a print of Van Gogh's Sunflowers on the whiteboard and then they had to effing COPY it onto tiny pieces of paper.

YABU.
By all means do other educational type stuff with them. Go to the museum, play musical instruments, play sports, take them into the great outdoors to look at nature etc.

There are plenty of valuable mind expanding activities that toucan do together that they will love but making them do English (can't you just read with the ) and maths over the summer - wow that's just fucking MEAN!

I was thinking about this thread this morning and one of the workbooks that are so mean we have my DS asked if he could buy off the car boot, another he asked me to buy in pound land..

I think it is the making them that is what people are confusing.. I don't think the majority of the parents who do stuff are forcing the kids to sit down and not play until they have done 2 hours of schoolwork just keeping the brain ticking over.

I agree sharon I have really happy memories of doing extra work in workbooks in a the holidays and at weekends. It wasn't something I felt forced to do, I genuinely just understood the joy of learning. That's the message I want my son to have, that learning is not mean, it is amazing and empowering! He is only year R so we are doing magazine puzzles and (at his request) a diary of the holiday and continuing his reading practice and diary.

Learning isn't "mean" it is a wonderful privilege. And yes, there are lots of ways to learn and I wouldn't focus too much on academic stuff in the holidays but it is not at all "mean" to encourage some.

DS(12) is doing Duolingo and has chosen some books to read. Zero homework from his academic selective school. DD(9) has been set school homework (average state primary) and has to prepare a short PowerPoint presentation for the first week back at school in Sept! . DD needs to work on some areas of her maths (as indicated on her report) so that's what I will try to cover and consolidate. I don't attempt to do this daily since we do have 6 weeks and it's great to have lazy, relaxing days not doing anything much.

Manila so learning sports is fun and good, learning maths is MEAN? Do you think that might reflect more about your own tastes?

Well the five year old has just finishing his 10 spellings. Done and dusted by nine

Now being the mean pushy abusive mother I am according to this we are off to cuddle and realese ducklings before going swimming and finishing off the day with a community bbc at the local allotments

He will probably need counselling

BBQ obviously

I do,but only for a very short time every second day. About 10 minutes.

This comes up every year and I always think that most parents who are really anti doing holiday 'work' must have really clever children who don't need to do it as they are top of the class anyway. Well, good for you.

My children are not top of the class. 2 years ago, coming out of Reception and Year 1, they were below the bottom group in their classes. So I did some work with them every day. And yes, I had to force my youngest. Because he'd had a year of being allowed to just play and not bother doing the more focused activities, so he wasn't used to having to do work. I knew Year 1 would expect more work so I had to get him used to it. He got a head teacher's award the first week back as his teacher was so amazed he could now write a sentence.

He didn't have a great Year 1 and started work refusing at school. I changed his school for Year 2 and wanted him to get used to doing work independently. So again in the summer we did work every day. Mostly very easy worksheets that I knew he could do, in order to get him used to working by himself. And all year he has managed to stay more or less in the middle of the class ability wise. I would like him to go into Year 3 ready to work so again will be doing work with him most days just to keep him ticking over.

His older brother is still in the the 'bottom' group of his class. And realistically I know it's unlikely for him to ever get near the top but I would like him to be able to keep up with his group. In Year 1 there used to be work given to the bottom group and then work given to him because he was nowhere near even their level. But now, after lots of summer holiday work for the previous 2 years, he can keep up with the other children in his class who are also not quite at the required level.

So while lots of children might not need to do anything during the summer holidays, if mine don't then I am sending them back to school very much at a disadvantage which I am keen not to do.

Likewise majestic. DS2 (9) had completed some maths by 8.30 (areas where he has initially understood but has then struggled to retain the techniques in his brain), iced and decorated the fairy cakes we made last night and has now gone off to rugby summer camp with DS1 and some friends which basically involves a bit of training and lots of messing about on a bouncy castle. This afternoon we're off to the cinema and have then planned a walk in the woods this evening to check out good spots for blackberry picking later on in the year. I don't know how he copes with such a horrible life

What a great story kits , and one that shows that encouraging a small amount of work is far from "mean"

Yep mine had the horror of some times tables ping pong tests and then baked and decorated cakes and is now dressing up before a friend comes for a play date. They will mess around and play until the afternoon. Then we are going swimming and I promised to take them for pizza and ice cream. If we aren't too knackered we will go and see the bfg - which they are begging me to see! Life time therapy for sure!!

Kitsandkids- I've done this. He was plodding along around average. The summer between y2 and y3 we practiced small skills ad nauseum. I picked times tables, spellings, and catching/ throwing a tennis ball. Did them so much he really cracked them.

The difference was astonishing. He loved year 3. It made such a difference to be among the very best in a tiny skill (times tables), he gained so much confidence for the rest! All of a sudden he saw himself as a clever child who can do anything. Before, no amount of praise or "just do your best" helped.

DS is going into year 1. His report stated that he's "emerging" in numbers, reading and writing. I've got him a little workbook to do just to keep his toe dipped in. He quite enjoys it. to be honest, his baby brother arrived during his first year at school and I've not given him as much support as I would of liked.

I'm not a massive fab of the school system and pushing kids to hard. But I don't want him to go back in September and be even more overwhelmed. He understands and enjoys the work and I think he'll benefit from a bit of one on one time. He keeps wanting to do more pages so I don't think it's upsetting him or pressuring him.

DD2 aged 10 spent Sunday driving a lifeboat, canoeing and kayaking in the sea, on a board board and paddle board and did resus and life saving skills.

Monday and Tuesday she helped dig out a space for a new pond in the garden. She used the spirit level to make sure it was level enough to be put in place. She helped catch the fish and newts from the old pond to put in the new one. She got absolutely filthy (as did we all).

Today she's gone to a friends house and later she's doing a 2 hour course on building computers.

We still haven't touched a worksheet but she has read two books in the last week.