My ds has done no school work all summer

[molk]

I am starting to feel a bit anxious because, apart from reading, my ds has done NO school stuff all holiday. I had intended to get him to do a bit of writing and maths a few times a week, but it hasn't happened.
He is about to go into year 2.

The dds had done no school work until last week,when DH bought some workbooks home to 'play school' with.They have spent the holidays riding their pony,swimming,fishing,biking and playing-it has been bliss and I'm not looking forward to them going back to school.They get a lot of homework during term time and need to be able to switch off for a bit.

Pelagia, my DD has been learning tables since reception...

mrsqboring, that train sounds fantastic!

We've played a lot of cards this summer... good for algebra and memory, and adding up the winnings..

And haven't really opened a book, apart from reading to DD every night. I rather fear DD will be struggling with it in Y1 (especially as her class is competitive - well the mummies are). squared.

O god anyone else getting their 'school gate' dread on?

LaLaLaLayla- school holidays.The clue is in the name!

No homework done here. Like others have said, it's a holiday. I'm a teacher and homework is the last thing I want to be inflicting on my DS. Fun, exercise, fresh air and more fun is what we've both needed. School will be here far too soon...

Mine haven't done any school work, both going into yr1. DD has read loads and written us all letters everyday because thats what she does. She's also done some activity books, again out of choice. She's also done a little scrap book of "interesting" things, thats interesting to a 5 yo btw!

DS has again done no school work. He's not read at all (can't and won't) but he's asked for a book to be read to him everyday and I've of course read it to him. He's played for hours with his camera which has really helped calm and ground him. Maybe next week that calming and grounding will prove to be more important than any work he could have done over the summer.

OP I really wouldn't worry. Surely its important that your ds enjoyed his holiday and is going back to school refreshed and ready to learn again.

It's the HOLIDAYS! enough said

Mine have done no formal school work. They have read piles of books - this is no hardship, I can't stop them reading, I do know how lucky I am.

They have been to stay with their grandparents, have made jam, learned about archaeology and life in Roman/Medieval times, learned all about bears and have made lots of new friends. (jam making, reenactment visit, zoo visit, playing outside)

They have been to Devon, have made sandcastles, learned about geography and water erosion (walk through the Lyn Valley), have made salads for a BBQ, have seen porpoises and seals in the wild and learned about coastal formatinos (boat trip).

They are about to spend their last week learning more about conservation (more zoo), history (museum in Cambridge followed by lunch at Brown's, which is in a converted mental institusion so history potential), find out about early Medieval Britain (Mountfitchet Castle), have helped me play Gardens of Time (bit of brain training) and will no doubt make several visits to the local library for more books. Oh, and DD2 has told me she no longer believes in Santa.

work books and drill are unimaginative ways of stimulating learning during the school holidays

So flame me already.

Mine (age 5 and 7) have read to me at bedtime every night which is a normal part of our routine anyway.
Other than that my 7 year old has done some maths learning/ practice on Bitesize online.
I was getting a little worried we weren't doing enough too but after reading these posts I'm going to relax a little.
They draw and write for fun anyway- we go through paper like it's water in this house!

My Dc have got up early every morning, spend half an hour doing a research topic on the computer...I chose a tpoic which will be covered next year.
Then we do some free reading for another half an hour. Some mornings we do half an hour of Maths problems and attempt a few questions from Sats papers.
At the weekends we do creative writing and make story booklets...I wish....
The real truth is my Dc go to bed at 10 o' clock...get up at 9:30 ish...watch t.v for another hour, play with dolls e.t.c...do a bit of scootering/cycling (fine days only!). This is usually followed by making "potions" seven year old girl style..
We have had a good Summer of "play"...!!! They genuinely are good readers so they do read books but that's it I'm afraid. Children need a break...they will catch up soon enough once back in the school routine..

...but I still don't understand why parents are so reluctant to do, say, 5 minutes x tables practice a day if it does prevent the slide that can be experienced when school starts? I genuinely don't get it. And before anyone thinks that I am an evangelical HEdder or anything, I am not, I am a normal mum - supportive, yes, pushy, no -who has seen first hand with DD1 the importance of regular practice in a subject like maths - why should it stop because it is July 20th? I don't pretend to my kids that going over x tables or number bonds, whatever, is going to be a fun-filled 10 minutes but recall skills in maths are SO important that for us they are simply a regular feature of our day.

I don't think MNers are necessarily reluctant to spend 10 mins/day, lovecheese; it's more that some of them find that spending a few weeks a year exploring alternative ways of learning can be very stimulating. Obsessive playing of Monopoly and Scrabble is just a good a way of practising mental maths skills as work sheets, re-jigging a cake recipe for 4 to suit a family of 6 is another way, not to mention building work of various kinds where you have to calculate measurements. It's still regular practice, just adapted to the outside world.

And imho number bonds are a very inefficient way of teaching calculations.

I'm not daft enough to think that all learning has to be done sat down with a pencil or stop-watch in hand, Cory, and my children do a lot of "Learning" without them realising - playing cards, reading a recipe, writing letters to Grandparents, reading a map in the car, whatever - but I stand by the need to go over x tables etc on a regular basis. My 10 year-old will forget what 7x8 is after a day if I dont. .

I think it's a case of knowing your own children, lovecheese.

I learnt time tables at school, my parents spent no time going over them with me, but did other things that school could not supply. I think they knew that I would learn this sort of thing very quickly anyway and that too much going over of the same thing would only turn me off. As I still know my time tables 40 years later, they can't have been completely clueless.

It's a fair bet that at least some MNers are clued up on their own particular children and their particular needs.

Is it normal for children of that age to be doing schoolwork over the holidays? He can only be about 5, surely? I agree generally that it's good for parents to take an interest in their child's learning etc, but don't see the need for homework at that age.

It's good that he's reading - though personally I always thought of reading as fun, not work!

Don't worry molk he'll get right back into it.

I also had good intentions but my DS also going into Yr2 has only done some reading, a bit of drawing and making construction lists and blue prints for an automated dragon made from odd bits of lego I don't think he's going to get the actual model completed in the next week so I'm a but disappointed

I get both the boys to read a book to me every day - DS1 will be going into Y1 and DS2 going into Reception. DS1 also has a holiday journal to fill in, so he has been doing a bit of writing. Having seen the way DS1 is forming his letters in his holiday journal I have been making an effort with him to help him with handwriting - but that's just things like saying "whenever you write d in your holiday journal today, make sure you start with the curly cat and go up and down" or "make sure the tummy of the y is on the line".

I don't need to prompt the kids to do maths as they like it anyway and will make up their own games with dice etc and practise without realising.

97% of the summer holiday is spent on play.

mmm - thought I felt ok about our non working holiday.
Some of you are making me feel I may be letting my 6 year old down!
La, la, la.. not listening... go away...

We've done no work with DS either. And as he's quite a bit behind in maths, he's an ideal candidate. But we have paid him with 10p for lots of little chores - and he has had to add those up to see how much he has, and subtract the money he spends, deal with change in the shops etc. He helped me map read on holiday and work out how much further we had to go every now and again. He has baked with me and weighed the butter and flour etc. At the beginning of the holidays we practised some times tables but as we both lost the will to live after a day or so of that we stopped.

Lovecheese, how many children have you at school, and what ages?

DS is going into y3 and he quite likes to practise maths at bedtime each night. For me it's quite a relief in summer to NOT have to quiz him every night (due to later bedtimes, etc. ).
And I offered a chocolate finger for each 12 lines of text he might write... this morning he finally got around to producing his first 12 lines all summer. He will go on Math Quiz computer games, too, for fun, but that's fun.

I guess I don't understand how it works in other households; how you get 2 or 3 DC to sit down & placidly plow thru 20 mins of formal "work" each day. I just don't have the energy to enforce such a regime (in addition to all the other stuff I do daily & the exhaustion of the daily grind in termtime). It's quite nice that in summer DC get to do completely different things, lots of football, multisport days, Brownie Camp, etc. I have relished seeing them have the opportunities to do those kinds of things.

Lovecheese

I don't do it because my dc don't need it. My dd won't have forgotten stuff. My ds didn't forget stuff. He went through his whole school life, never got less than an A in any exam he ever took and is off to uni.

They don't need it. I do not regard academic ability as the magic key to happiness. And when they are on holiday we telex and have fun.

We are all different.

I have no problem with your doing maths. As long as you care not what I do with my dc. They are doing just fine thanks

Hahahaha.
No. We don't actually telex and have fun.
We relax.

Support for Lovecheese here - we do bits and bobs of deliberately taught learning and practice during school holidays, at weekends, during term evenings and even if the children are home sick from school for the day!

I do this because its' a lovely way to spend time with my children (three, 6,4,and 2). I find it very hard to play with them in the sense of getting on the floor playing lego, soliders, my little pony etc etc, and whilst we do go out and about lots I just totally love finishing off a great day out with a linked project at home - I seek out the teachers packs from sites and download worksheets and games prior to our trips - I just love love love this sort of thing, the children do too though I am aware that they are too young to know any different.

Rosemary - I just love love love this sort of thing

You'll turn them off formal work if you are doing it at home most days in the holidays!

Do you send faxes too Pagwatch ?

Ds is going into yr 3 and has done nothing of any educational value over the summer holidays. If he has fallen behind then so be it. I find it rather sad that at the age of 6/7 people should be considering it normal for dcs to do academic work in the holidays.