6 year old boy doing 1 hour english/40 mins per day in holiday. Too much or just right?

[pepsi]

A friend of mine was telling me how she has been working with her ds6 every day in the holidays to try and improve his skills for Year 2. He doesnt have any learning difficulties or anything, is just an average child I would say. I was amazed when she said she is doing an hour of writing, letters, drawing, plus 40mins of sums every morning. Of course this amazement has now turned to paranoia and visions of my ds sitting at the bottom of the class with a dunces hat. I have tried to do some reading during the hols but mainly its been play, play and a bit more play, holiday, going out, etc. Whats a reasonable amount of work to do per day in the hols...if any do you think?

I guess that's probably what most people do anyway. It can't be avoided if you have an 'inquistive' child (i.e never stops asking bloody questions )

Should say far more practical. And ignore any spellings, I'm on my holidays too!

GDG....ahhh so you have met dd
Your quinisential PITA child!

Didn't do any work when we were on 'holiday' holiday though, but they can both now say Bonjour and Merci with confidence LOL. Very educational!

I just do general things - like maths that's relevant to day to day life, such as saying you can spend x amount when we go out to this shop & letting her work out what she can get.

She loves to read anyway & also enjoys writing her own little "books" so she quite often does this on her own & we help her think about the spellings etc.

She also has a couple of kids Sudoku/puzzle books left from holiday which I think are great as they are a bit educational making her think about spellings & numbers, but also fun.

I think it's fair to worry about children falling behind as they holidays are quite long & with some things you need to keep working at it over a long time to improve. I guess it's just playing it by ear & tailoring it to what you think is right for your child, but if you don't do anything that's not wrong.

I am with MB on this. I have twin boys aged 5 who have just completed their first year at school. DT1 did really well and i feel he doesnt need much reminding of what he learnt. DT2 however was not great at concentrating in a group situation at school and I felt that he needed a bit of one to one over the summer in order to recap what he did or didnt learn. They have approx 14 hours each day for unstructured play , that is 840 minutes. I dont think asking for 15 or 20 minutes out of that time for a bit of reading/writing etc is being a pushy parent. During the remaining 820 minutes my boys enjoy a "quality childhood " and believe it or not manage to cram in all of the great activities that others have mentioned as being important in ensuring that they enjoy their free time. If I am to be regarded as a pushy mum, then it certainly is not because I did crap at school and want my children not to fail as i did.
I am proud to say that the opposite is true

I agree with MartianBishop, they echo my general reasons for daily lessons. DD has no idea she is behind in relation to her peer group at her school in numercy. The school don't do SATS so it's certainly nothing to do with SAT results.

Mine also regularly go camping with us at weekends, visit the local pool/flumes, ride bikes, have playdates and are active healthly normal chldren - they watch monitored TV and play with Nintendo DS Lites (not PS2) and Leapsters. They go on the computer and the library, they are loving and loved.

Am I a pushy Mum because they do structured schoolwork at a table for 15 minutes in an entire day and see ds's reception teacher once a week.

No certainly not

This woman is mad. Her son is 6!!! He should be falling out of trees like every other kid during the school holidays. Poor kid.

Mine has been watching an awful lot of Scooby Doo this week, after we deprived her of a telly for a fortnight while camping and dragged her round castles and the geographical features of Dorset - but workbooks god no - they need the holidays to switch off a lttle - just ask dh - he's a teacher and is going to struggle again in September

No child of reception age should be doing any homework imo. 15 mins is 15 mins too much.

IMHO parents feel they have do so much with their kids, as I have said already, take them here there and evrywhere. fill their free moments with activities. There are some children a my children's school who have no idea how to entertain themselves because their parents are always doing things with them and for them.

Oh god LucyCampCat I'm so glad you said that, Scooby Doo has never been off in our house this week! I think most mums just teach their kids naturally, you know, reading signs in shops, counting out change. Why the hell would you want to make it more structured than that for a kid who in most European countries is too young to have evn started school?

PMSL Malory - no way! She's reading Malory Towers!! Guffaw!

I think the daily stuff is excessive, however, kids can do a bit of work aand fall out of trees. There are plenty of hours in the day.

DD1 has been given bugger-all to do, either by school or me. She has been 'reading' picturebooks to herself, so that's become a bit of reading practice - I might have tried to get her to do a bit, I suppose, if she hadn't instigated it.

I have to say I remember being forced to practise my two musical instruments every day in the holidays. As a result I did get grade 8 violin and grade 7 piano by the time I left school but I haven't touched either of them since.

Although I vowed I wouldn't, I became panicked by the number of reception children who can apparantly actually read, whilst after two terms , DS can only read vcv words and a handful more. So I decided I would teach him to read over this summer. So far we have managed three sessions with his word recognition cards, and those only because I pretend I am teaching his cuddly sheepdog to read, and DS has to help him because he can only bark.

If we read 'real' books he becomes furious with frustration if I try to get him to read some of the words, because it slows down the story.

So I have abandoned the whole idea for fear of putting him off altogether.

On the other hand he has learned 3 chords on his electric guitar, can strum along in G and sing while someone else plays the melody to Redemption Song, practises his 'spider excercises' and his Jimi Hendrix moves, and does lots of writing.

He has caught crabs, learned to row, been for long adventures in the woods, endured hours of hospital visiting (my Mum ill) with patience and understanding and grown taller.

That's all fine with me, and I shall learn to be less competitive when reading the MN education section!!

ooops!
Whe I say he has cauught crabs, I mean dangled rotting bait off a quay and attracted a passing crustacean!

Play, play and more play here! Although dd2 (6) does thinks its fun to do workbooks before she goes to bed bless her! But that's entirely her idea, trying to get them to read but they'd rather be playing. Not bothered they do well when they're at school.

I'm happy
my children are happy
they do a very little school work
and they do a lot of playing, tree climbing etc not structured activities
it works for us

lol

Kaloo20, your children need and deserve the occasional day off. There's a reason why every society has a 'day of rest' be it Sunday, Friday, whatever. It's because people need to that breathing space. Daily lessons throughout the holiday is just too much.

I agree Edam

I hate the idea of primary school kids having homework, I want them to have freedom!!!! They do the work and mould themselves to 'fit in' at school during the day and I think evenings and holidays are for relaxing and for fun!

I also really believe that rest can be amazingly useful for the brain - I had piano lessons a few years ago and always found sight reading really HARD, was pretty slow with it. DS came along, life got in the way of my having lessons or even practising at all for at least a year, and when I sat down to the piano again my sight reading was spookily so much faster and easier. It's like the brain percolates things through when you're NOT thinking about them....

I think there always needs to be balance. When I'm off of work, I know that I don't want to necessarily spend my free time studying, so I don't think that my child should either. As parents, we are ideally placed for incidental teaching. So we should go to the zoo/library/park and spend time reading together/counting the red cars we pass on the way/discussing endangered species and why there are no dinosaurs left. For the formal stuff, unless there is a specific need as a result of a learning issue/ concern, then we should leave that for their real teachers.There are many many ways in which we can help our children to achieve which don't come from workbooks.

fgs. its the holidays.poor kid.

eerrr dont buy into it ladies!!(children on the continent have only just started school)
enjoy your kids
encourage crafts/arts/theatre
play counting games
sing songs
just dont bloody well structure yer day to do all above!!
pretty soon,they dont even want you to get out the car in the morning!!? enjoy them,an remember when they leave juniors, they will all read,write.....but will they like you?