to not give my kids the summer 'off'

[Jockjockjock]

YABU - Cruel! Let them have 8 weeks off
YANBU - sensible, go for it

Kids been out of school since March, both primary age, and not back til Sept - if even then. Been doing home schooling routine, fairly easy going, but 9am start, lots of outdoor time in afternoons, and no screens allowed til after 5pm.

Summer hols are coming up so I was thinking of ignoring that fact and just carrying on, given how much school they've missed, and we aren't going anywhere.
IS that cruel??? to skip their summer break? We have a local caravan booked for 2 weeks so they'd have that time off.
Can't think what else they'd do all day otherwise, given the lack of holiday clubs, or mixing with friends that they would usually do in summer.

[EmperorCovidula]

If they’re enjoying it then I’d keep going as it will keep them occupied. Otherwise what will they do all day with almost everything closed?

[PhilCornwall1]

Can't think what else they'd do all day otherwise, given the lack of holiday clubs, or mixing with friends that they would usually do in summer.

Our 13 year old has been out with his mates, beach, bike rides, town, etc, for a few weeks now. He generally gets his work for school done by lunchtime, so the rest of the day is his own.

It's been crap enough for them over the last few months, he's certainly having his full summer holiday.

[Teapot13]

I'm continuing in a low-key way because I found Easter break with no structure really hard. We're doing a set amount of reading each day and I've ordered Spanish workbooks to work on a bit each day. (They are in a bilingual program so not a crazy thing to try.)

[chancechancechance]

@Bringonspring

I think your pretty naive if you think a 7 year old doesn’t notice where they are against their peers. I don’t want my year 1 to feel behind his peers. Why would I want that for him? Much better for everyone if I can support him

I don't think anyone should be measured 'against' in learning. I tried to get mine to think about what they liked, what they were good at, what they wanted to try next. I tried to not care what others were doing and to teach them the same.

I think they didn't feel behind because we didn't look at things as behind/ahead.

[Summer776]

Yep we are continuing. 2-3 hrs Monday to Friday for 9 and 12 year old daughters. Its giving some structure and stimulation so why not. I'll be off with them in the summer as I am a TA so planning walks.and mini projects too eg chalk art, science experiments, baking etc

[chancechancechance]

@IceniSky

Learning seems to be seen so negatively in this country. You can learn and have fun on the same day.

Yes, but I think that is not so easy to achieve when it is about catching up, not falling behind etc. and there is a lot of that talk around at the moment.

Learning of course can be fun and is always happening anyway.

[Charles11]

Mine have always kept up with maths and reading throughout the holidays, as well as other stuff. Not every day as we did do lots of trips out but usually about 4 times a week.
I’m carrying it on.

[Yester]

Remember most of the Europe don't start school.til 6 or 7. They have better literacy and numeracy rates than the UK. Just don't let them be on screens for too long and have screen free days.

[IceniSky]

Learning seems to be seen so negatively in this country. You can learn and have fun on the same day.

[RETIREDandHAPPY]

It sounds as though you have done well with homeschooling. They need to enjoy some freedom while they can. Enjoy the summer and let them just be children.
As a teacher, mother and grandmother, I would advise you to encourage some reading every day as most children lose ground otherwise. Also read to them more.

Possible activities: nature walks, gardening, baking, cooking, craft, picnics, sewing, boardgames, charades ( very popular with mine at the moment and hilarious), treasure hunts, monster ball and other outdoor games.

Most important of all, leave the stress of homeschooling behind and take this time to enjoy them.

[ceeveebee]

I don’t know if our area is unusual in this but there are at least 4 different holiday clubs running nearby that I know of - they are limiting numbers eg 6 kids to a group and so prices are higher but they are running (at least I hope they are as I have booked some!)

[Bringonspring]

I think your pretty naive if you think a 7 year old doesn’t notice where they are against their peers. I don’t want my year 1 to feel behind his peers. Why would I want that for him? Much better for everyone if I can support him

[chubbyhotchoc]

We've only been managing an hour ish a day (y1 and reception) so we will keep going through the summer to gain some ground.

[chancechancechance]

I think if kids are worried about what they know vs. peers in primary it must be very sad for them.

You can play games that reinforce spelling, maths, language without ever mentioning why you're doing them, you just make them fun.

[mindutopia]

Mine will be doing school work straight through, because frankly by 'school work' I mean the 1 hour a day I have time for. The rest of the day I work and she pretty watches Netflix because I don't have time for anything more. I don't think she'll suffer for having 6 weeks off watching 8 hours of Netflix a day instead of 7.

[AgnesNaismith]

So sad to see someone hear talking about a year 2 child not falling behind. Behind what? Arbitrary learning goals set by government? Year 2 is a 6 or 7 year old. There is no behind and no ahead. Just children who have their whole lives to keep learning.

Behind the other children in their class @Writerandreader I’m aware they have the rest of their lives to learn.......but my child suffers with low self confidence if she doesn’t understand and others do. To mitigate that I’m going to make sure she’s comfortable with what she is expected to know and I’m going to make every attempt to improve her self confidence with positive feedback constantly.

[IceniSky]

We'll be doing maths and reading daily. DD Y3 was not getting maths at all but I feel we are making progress at home and I don't want to lose momentum. We've been doing an hour daily of maths. If I can set her up to be confident at her current level then ill be happy.

[Goosefoot]

@Jockjockjock

Wow, some impassioned responses! Just to clear stuff up my kids aren't actually being abandoned with worksheets- one is too young and one would never focus on their own. I'm actively teaching them - about 40 mins English, 40 mins maths, then it's art, or cooking, or sport, boardgames, science stuff, they go off and read...they've learned to surf... we go off to the beach or forest to explore for half days or days.

I'm thinking of keeping daily maths and english because despite my efforts, I'm not a teacher and their school has had sweet FA interaction with us. They're doing a fraction of what they would in school.

Lots to think about though.

Maybe unwanted advice but for math I think the most useful thing you can do with them is make sure they are quick at their sums and, if they are old enough, know their multiplication tables. And these are relatively easy to teach. You can use card games for it and it can be quite fun.

More kids go on to have trouble in math because they can't multiply quickly than anything else and it turns them off the subject entirely - it means they will always struggle with division and factoring and fractions.

[Writerandreader]

So sad to see someone hear talking about a year 2 child not falling behind. Behind what? Arbitrary learning goals set by government? Year 2 is a 6 or 7 year old. There is no behind and no ahead. Just children who have their whole lives to keep learning.

[Ticktocklovelyclock]

A bit of reading, a bit of maths everyday and no unfettered access to telly or devices

[Jockjockjock]

Thanks all, really helped and we have our plan!

[Sometimeswinning]

Carrying it on! 1.5 hours of work for them (and me!) Leaves us plenty of time to enjoy days out or lazy days at home. I cant understand the outrage that some parents want to do something positive. I have the time to give and we've plenty to keep us busy.

[Sarjest]

As we’ve been working from home throughout, the dc haven’t learned as much as they would have done, had they been in school. I’ll be cranking up the worksheets once I get some time off. One has the 11+ coming up and the other will be assessed in September at the start of his GCSE courses. He’ll be prepared for that. I hope the museums open, too.

I wish the holiday clubs were open, but guidance isn’t out yet and I think many won’t bother. Not only have they missed out on a chunk of schooling but as it stands they’ll miss out on loads of holiday experiences.

[CherryPavlova]

Mine never had ‘summers off’ in terms of no learning. We always had structure and educational but fun activities.
At primary they did library reading scheme, music summer school, theatre summer school, sailing or tennis days, a few days in France speaking mainly French, visits to museums or galleries and trips to theatre.
They cooked, read maps and navigated in the Lake District, wrote journals and made holiday scrap books. They wrote postcards and collected pebbles to paint.
I really don’t think you need to worry about worksheets if what you do provides a fun way of learning. Just put learning into daily life.

[soloula]

We've done little and often so carrying on through the holidays. Nice to have a bit of structure. Kids are enjoying it and asking for it. Some days they want to go out and play all day. That's fine. But if theyre bored then we do a bit of fun learning. We've been doing a vikings project that involves lots of crafts. We have reading time. We're making use of screens a wee bit - duolingo for Spanish, maths factor, watching some educational(ish) TV and so on so there's some learning by stealth too.