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?

It does. Remains to see if they stick with the often bit! They have all sorts of plans for things they're going to do "every day" in the holiday...

This thread is so depressing. All these posts trying to outdo each other with the 'my child has happily done 30 minutes of maths, an hour of music practice and is now happily bouncing about talking about percentages'. Really? Fucking really?

MY child is outside building a den with the two kids from across the road. She's learning how to build a structure which will not fall down with absolutely no adult input.

Tomorrow she will be driving a RIB (lifeboat) a few miles across the sea so she can spend the day doing rescue and lifesaving with a bunch of other kids. She's 10. She's already spent about 8 hours in the sea this week, just playing on her body board and swimming.

She's been to a farm park and ran about with other kids.

I have absolutely zero intention of printing off bloody worksheets or forcing her to do any kind of formal learning over the holidays. Stuff that. This is about being outside, having fun, playing and socialising. This is about getting dirty, getting wet, getting covered in sand and having late nights while eating ice cream and watching fireworks. This is about deciding to jump in the car and drive down the coast to eat fish and chips on the quay while watching the sun go down.

While you lot crack on with your worksheets we'll be camping in a field and having a bloody good time.

Mycat why do you assume DC who do some academic work during the holidays don't do all that too?

Because I can assure you that they do.

I've never had my kids do worksheets in the holidays noblegiraffe and they are very high attainers so it hasn't done them any harm. Of course they write - they write shopping lists for me, they write during the games they play so they're not going to go back in Sepremier having forgotten. They both love reading and read frequently. I think the fact I haven't zapped any enjoyment out of learning by making it boring/a chore is why they are doing so well but you are entitled to your opinion.

Get My point is that this is the holidays. A break from academic learning.

How would you like it if you were on holiday from work for 3 weeks but you were expected to do 45 mins of invoicing daily, you know, just to keep your hand in, in case you forget?

I think it needs to be a total break. DD has asked to do the Summer reading challenge which is fine, we went to the library the other day so she could get her books and card but I'd much rather she was out in the sun playing than indoors reluctantly doing a worksheet.

She does do writing, she writes things on the chalkboard in the kitchen for my shopping list (normally sherbert dib dabs but hey ho) and she reads but I'm not going to push it. If she wants to get up and watch an hour of power rangers then she can. If she wants to play on her laptop for an hour she can. She's just done a year of learning, structured days and this is her time to do as she wants (within reason obviously) and completely unwind.

Even the thought of having to 'do work' a few days a week would be unthinkable in her eyes. And quite honestly, I don't blame her.

mycat I generally do work on my holiday. As does DH.

I've just got back from Miami and spent many happy moments editing my scripts by the pool. Plenty of time for all the other stuff too.

We really love our work and don't see it as a chore or something to escape from.

My DC have never really done work sheets ( either in school or out of) but they understood from a really early age that some stuff has to be ticked over. MFL for example.

I'm pretty sure your kids would rather you were in the pool with them rather than sat next to it working.

I have never done anything like this for our DDs, and it certainly hasn't held them back academically (both at a selective school). They have just broken up after a heavy two weeks of tests, and they fully deserve a total break for 6 weeks. Their grammar doesn't set homework over the summer either, thank God.

Unless you're DC actively enjoy school type work, then give it a rest. It's not going to make much tangible difference to their SATs or anything like that.

Don't be ridiculous mycat my DC are almost 17. They don't need their mother by their side in the pool.

They were probably asleep at the time. Or reading. Or scuba diving. Or perhaps some academic work .

I still spent hours and hours in their company. And will do so over the next six weeks they have off.

maqueen both my two spent some time on holiday looking into SAT for US college entrance so it might make a difference .

Oh, right, I was meaning at primary level

I know. I'm teasing.

Mine are both doing a small bit of 'work' every day (30 min) and an hour of reading. That's hardly the end of the world.

Having just looked at DS holiday homework, it appears we are expected to teach him joined up handwriting, from scratch, over the next 6 weeks!

Talk about putting children at an unfair disadvantage. Those that have stay at home parent/s will work through a thick exercise book full of directions and teaching. Those with parents who can't do that will just start off Yr2 with a massive disadvantage.

This makes me SO angry.

Most parents say they don't do this. Quite a few just happen to have the Collins or Letts workbooks lying around at home. Fuck knows what they are for or why they sell so many if nobody does them... .

Talk about putting children at an unfair disadvantage. Those that have stay at home parent/s will work through a thick exercise book full of directions and teaching. Those with parents who can't do that will just start off Yr2 with a massive disadvantage.

6 year olds can't work for more than 20 minutes at a time, anyway. Don't you think massive disadvantage is an exaggeration?

I don't think it's got anything to do with whether a parent works or not.

Some parents will do it, some won't.

Misc, it won't matter in the grand scheme of things. DD is one of the youngest on her year with a July birthday. I never gave her work to do during the holidays at primary school. She has just sat her GCSEs and I am confident she has passed them all.

I think 'massive' is the right word to describe the gap that is already widening between the children that are hot housed in and out of school throughout the year.

I can see why it might sound like an exaggeration, but I'm struggling against the weight of a system that is rigged against my son from the start. And I'm too ill to move the mountains necessary to get it sorted out for DS.

Approx 1/2 DS class are tutored or go to extra classes outside school. The school is achingly middle class and in a very affluent catchment area, where the school has raised millions for new buildings / technology/ teaching kitchens, school kitchens and chefs etc. There is a culture of mothers who don't need to work being a very strong presence of parents at the school, which is great when used as a resource for everyone, but less great when it's used as a way to keep on top of their own children's progress and push them forwards all the time.

Last year there was great teaching and a strong willed and just, good, teacher & TA.

This year has been terrible, with a very inexperienced teacher who only registers loud extraversion as intelligence & effort, and only reacts to equally loud bad behaviour as worthy of needing extra help or attention... Well my poor little quiet boy without confidence just got ignored for the past year. And he has a single working disabled mother which has been a significant disadvantage to him this past year

I was already on this thread as I was trying to decide how to catch DS up from an awful year at school, only to find this ridiculous amount and type of homework today in the depths of DS school bag. It will ensure he enters next years schooling without that gap having been closed, against all my efforts.

It makes me feel very very sad.

I hate holiday homework for primary kids. As a former class teacher, I never gave it. Even growing up in homework-happy Ireland, we got an hour or two Monday -Thursday and nothing for weekends or holidays at primary school and secondary school, bar exam years, when obviously you have revision.

Yanbu. A few minutes a day will keep mine ticking over. I'll have to bribe them though. There's still time for hours of playing.

I think this assumption that the kids doing are not having fun..My DS asked if he could go to Kip Mcgrath this summer..I said no.. I don't think he needs it..However today we played algebra battleships, he wrote a list of what we want to do over the holiday..He also did 2 hours of tae kwon do, Went swimming with friends, played in his den, played foot ball on street with friend , helped me with a few jobs, played pokemon so we went for a walk. He brought down an old holiday book to look through then read Guinness world records before bed..( completely his choice of books by the way)

You don't have to give work sheets. I never did but I gave my kids opportunities to learn things. DD 13 spent three days with two of her friends making a hedgehog house from scraps of wood. We baked cakes. In fact at Primary school we baked some cakes and I sent them to give some to neighbours next thing I knew the young entrepeneur across the road had taken orders and we ended up baking for the rest of the day to complete them! I then made them work out how much they owed for ingredients. There are lots of opportunities without making formal worksheets.

I think I was the one referenced by a pp re DC bouncing around talking about percentages. I actually didn't say that, I said he was excited about his percentage score. DS2 does his maths online using a games/competition based site and genuinely gets excited if he gets a high percentage score. This is because it's fun.

I have been through this thread and there isn't a single person who has said that they make their child study to the exclusion of everything else. Most seem to do a very wide range of activities combined with plenty of lounging about. It's those who don't ask their children to do any work who seem to be getting wound up over this.