AIBU to have my children (8&5) do 30-40 mins of writing and maths every day of the holidays?

[Dilemmacentral]

Every morning, after breakfast, I ask that the children do 20 mins writing in a holiday journal and then younger does 15 mins of basic maths (reception - year 1 maths), and older one does 20 mins of mental maths, mainly tables? Every day, even when we went on holiday.

It doesn’t feel like a big deal. They don’t complain. They are so used to it (I do it every holiday) and in fact both seem to really enjoy the journal writing in particular.

But! A dear friend, in a genuinely unjudgemental manner, asked whether I felt guilty and said she thought that holiday were good for a complete break other than set school work. We do have set school work but very little (book reviews for eldest).

I don’t feel guilty at all and I told her as such, and we just moved on to another topic. I plan to continue doing. However I’m wondering about others thoughts out of nosiness and whether others do this too.

I feel the heat hols are so long. And it’s only max of 40 mins so that they hit ground running in September. Am I alone though?!

I posted fairly flippantly earlier in the thread and didn't think much more of it but coming back to read it is quite interesting.

I still think that doing maths and English every single day with a 5 and 8 year old is OTT. But having said that my 13 year old DS who has ADHD had a really bad year in maths last year, and he has had weekly maths tutoring over the 11 week summer holiday, and he has caught up on all of the concepts he didn't understand from last year.

I still think daily homework would have been too much. Half the summer holidays my kids have summer camp (so I can work) so it's a huge rush in the morning anyway. The other half of the holiday we generally spend our time after breakfast deciding what we'll do that day, then packing our bags for the beach/lake/camping/whatever. Fitting in an hour of maths once a week has been quite a challenge as it is. They do read, but I'd have struggled to have fitted in formal maths every day, plus I just don't think there really would have been any need.

I also still think there's a lot to be said for simply unplugging. Kids have increasingly busy, structured, stressful lives. It's good to have a break from that.

We don’t pay independent school fees, and summer schools are an awful lot cheaper than school fees!

Where do you find summer schools user1499173618 ? Are they language schools? I always wonder how people know which ones to trust. There aren't loads for under 16s at all - we did have a bit of a look as DD's school don't do a French exchange, but decided against it.

My 13 year old will have been in 4 countries (Germany, France, Croatia and Ireland) in 6 weeks this summer, only one of those being a family holiday. It worked out that way somewhat by accident and we haven't used any summer schools.

I have found quite a few through word of mouth (trusted friends) and others by googling. I’ve been sending DC to summer schools for over 10 years, so have a lot of experience. I’m not keen on language schools on the whole - they are mostly quite disappointing as many DC aren’t very engaged. Specialist camps that develop hobbies are more successful.

I've only ever heard of language or horse riding, or church/ charity/ council run camping or adventure holidays (not explicitly educational) as summer holiday residentials for under 16s alone in Europe. Films and TV give the impression that the USA is overflowing with children's summer camps for anything and everything, but if Europe is they're well hidden!

What sort of activities would interest your DC?

Tbh it's a language school in France or Spain (a good one holistically - good immersion in the language and excellent pastoral care) that would interest me enough to pay, and potentially 2 of my DC eventually, though imo the youngest isn't old enough yet to go away without a family member. One of my DC would be up for any sport pretty much, but there's plenty of opportunity local to us and I wouldn't pay for a sports camp.

I think we'll continue to DIY it in the absence of really good language schools.

How about Les Glenans? www.glenans.asso.fr

It’s a very well known French sailing school and, while it’s totally French, there’s a good proportion of non-French DC looking for an immersive language experience? There are also good residential surf camps in the Biarritz area with similar participant profiles.

Hmm information is quite sparse on that website isn't it user - not much in prices or how juniors are housed and cared for. My French isn't great though so perhaps I'm missing an obvious section. Companies who don't provide obviously relevant information up front always feel sketchy to me.

www.glenans.asso.fr/catalogues

Ask for a catalogue! I thought the website gave quite a lot of information.

No I think it’s great. I wanted to do similar with one of my children but haven’t managed it

I think this is a fab idea. They're awake for 12(ish) hours so asking them to do 40 minutes is nothing. My DD is only 1 but I'd like her to do this. It'll be nice for them to keep the journals and read them back in the future too!

Well despite my earlier smugness my 9 year old flatly refused to do the maths sheets set by her teacher. Thanks to some of the posters on this thread and their flexible learning ideas we did netball shooting in the garden every shot was a times table challenge which she really enjoyed and we did for 20 mins

The thing is, writing in a diary shouldn't really be seen by children as "doing English" - it's something that many, many children carry on with right through their lives. My adult daughter has over 100 diaries in her room and while nowadays she might not write in them each day, she'll certainly write in them several times a week. She wouldn't see that as work - it's a fantastic way to record your own life, make realisations about your own behaviour and get something out of your system.

One thing I noticed with my son was that he liked learning facts, so I'd set him a task and he'd go off and learn things himself, such as all the prime ministers in the last 100 years or all of the states of America and their abbreviations and exactly where they were on the map. There's a guy who does odd jobs for me who's in his 60s and he still does that kind of thing - he sets pub quizzes now and will always say that the best education he had was where he set himself tasks.

It's easier to just let your kids do absolutely nothing over the holidays but it's not the best way of learning. Think about driving lessons - if you had an eight week break in the middle of learning, you wouldn't expect that to work out well, would you? Habit is great for learning and if the OP's children enjoy what they're doing, why on earth wouldn't you do it?

@Oliversmumsarmy
Ages ago, you mentioned that my description of DS suggested Dysgraphia. Had an assessment last week. Outcome is dysgraphia, with dyslexic traits. Thank you.