Work during holidays?

[PoppyPlum]

Is it essential?

If the DC involved are bright and hard working (as per school report), can you just let them get on with playing during the school holidays? Or will they be massively behind?

Many people I know are doing all sorts of work with their children but I was planning to continue regular reading but nothing else..

KS1 age.

I've never done any work with my primary kids other than hw set, reading and maybe times tables and spellings in ks2. Ive never done anything extra!

We spend our time relaxing, activities or museums etc. Just as important as work imo!

We get nothing set..
DD is about to go into year 3.. she is doing the local library reading challenge and we keep a "holiday diary" where we are both writing things we are enjoying doing every so often

Our kids (6, 9 and 10) go to a sports club. It's childcare but it's also a good contrast to what they do at school. A summer running about developing their physical skills is great for their brains. At home they read, do arty things, play football, play on the computer and watch Cbbc but that's all 'child led', well except for when I shout at them when they go from one screen to another and tell them 'no more screens today'.

DS is going into year 2.
He’s reading one chapter a day to me of first chapter type library books. He’s doing the summer reading challenge and has read 4 books so far.
His holiday homework was to learn 2,5 and 10 times tabkes so we’re spending 10 minutes a day on that.
He has an Usbourne my first story writing book so he’s doing a page of that about 3 times a week.
He has to send school a postcard and learn a poem tongue twister or limerick by heart- we are trying “Cats sleep anywhere”.
That’s all we’re doing.

With KS1 children I always keep up their reading with me otherwise I do always find they lose a level over the holidays.

I generally do a bit if something with older children too. DS2 is doind a few comprehension papers and some French as those are his weaker area. DS1 is also doing French and comprehension this summer (I've only just appreciated that!)

Hmm yes CountFosco that's how I would describe our days currently, child led.

There's lots of good stuff going on, they're putting on shows, made bead necklaces today, baking yesterday. Lots of playing in the garden and having friends round. Climbing trees and swimming. Hardly any screen time.

BUT I can't really get them to sit down and do writing, and reading is going ok with one but not so much the other. They love listening to me read or audio books though.

Sounds like I might need to step up the reading a bit to stop them dropping down the book bands..

We do reading, a bit of writing (like a sentence per day, not loads!) and some maths games on an app ( a couple of times a week).

Goodness me, no nothing! Who cares if they 'lose a level' they'll get it back very quickly. It's the holidays. Our current target obsessed education system is so damaging to children's mental health you MUST give primary age school kids a complete break from the madness over the holidays.

DD is going into year 4. This holidays she will read every day through choice. She will choose to writes some days. Our holiday activities also include museums, art, exploring the countryside, a sports club... she's learning plenty, but getting a desperately needed break from the tick box exercise that is school!!

We do a little maths. There's an app called Doodlemaths that they love and in theory I get them to do 5 - 10 mins a day.

Obv I don't remember every day, but it does mean they hit the ground running when they go back. Mine are going into years 3 and 5.

I also encourage (not force) them to read every day (30 mins to an hour) and for my 9 year old, the books I bought for the summer are mostly from the Y5/6 suggested reading list.

I always suggest children read over the summer holidays, even if its not loads, or just reading leaflets about places you visit or whatever, if you can find something they want to read for fun then even better, but it shouldn't be about reading levels so much as building an interest in reading.

If they are putting on shows, baking and doing craft stuff to be honest they are doing enough that they will be fine as they are still using their brains, its children who spend the entire summer glued to a screen and are barely even interacted with that tend to struggle. (not that screens are evil, or even that there is anything wrong with the odd lazy day, just some children are on them all day everyday)

They love listening to me read or audio books though.

I think this is what really matters TBH. I had two children who have been very enthusiastic readers, the eldest basically hot housed herself as soon as she was at school. The middle child was much less confident and found reading harder work but she always enjoyed being read to and now at 9 she loves reading to herself. In fact all the DC still like being read to even though the elder two can read to themselves (and do every day). I think we give up on reading to children too soon, I'm reading His Dark Materials to the eldest child at the moment, she can read what she wants to herself but I insist on reading more challenging texts to her, it stretches her to be able to discuss these more challenging books.

Ds is going into year two and we read everyday, both him to me and myself and DH to him. We will also do a small amount of maths and some writing to stop any summer slide. The school have also requested we also help him learn to type faster as he uses a laptop at school due to Sen.
Ds will also direct his own independent learning throughout the summer as he has an intense interest in science.
We also do a lot of craft and take him to NT and EH sites and lots of soft play to help his gross motor skills.

Depends very much on the child. If it's one who is weak academically and would see a huge drop in skills if they did nothing, then yes. Otherwise no.

I think it's no harm though to read lots (summer library reading programme is good) and maybe keep a diary or some other form of writing. There are some in my class who I have suggested specific things to work on over summer (turn taking, tables etc) and I'd hope that the parents would do that as those things were suggested for a reason.

I think what I'm most worried about is that if I insist they do stuff, it'll become a thing and they won't want to do their actual school work from September!

We've stepped up the reading a bit this week and they've quite enjoyed it, got done new books etc. The writing remains a bit of a struggle. For times tables I've bought a cd for the car, that should do it shouldn't it

Shopping lists, a diary or journal for the holidays? Puzzle books for the car,
Books like these www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?productId=644323&catalogId=10051&searchTerm=quest&filters=3collection

It's a good idea for them to continue reading in the holidays and not be on screens the whole time but yes just let them play. You're probably doing lots of educational stuff anyway (having interesting conversations, doing cookery measuring out ingredients etc) it's just that it's not formal and it's happening naturally which is way better.

Summer reading challenge and regular reading in the daytime to supplement bedtime stories.

Otherwise for me, focus is on exploring on day trips, arts/crafts, baking, anything to continue to help with his fine motor skills.

We did nothing for the first five weeks save for reading to them at bedtime as usual.

DD read to herself for pleasure (age 6 going into year 2) and did the summer reading challenge because our nanny suggested it.

This week she has been doing 10 minutes of mathletics or reading eggs each day, just to get her back into the swing of things.

They need a break, and I don't want to make the whole year about school! X

Anything we do is completely led my DS(just about to start yr 3). He reads for pleasure voraciously (all fact and information books) and loves doing mental arithmetic so will ask us to ask him questions (21 x 7) etc.

We never once have sat him down and told him to get on with something. He got exceeding expectations in all his sats and in every area on his report but to be honest it is all his doing as we have never pushed him as we don't want to ruin his love of learning.

I think it's important to keep reading and maybe do a bit of writing in a fun way (postcard to granny from holiday etc.) but I wouldn't be sitting down with workbooks every day. In terms of education I think it's a great time to encourage their interests rather than whatever happens to be on syllabus (trips to museums, buy a knitting kit, do science experiments, learn to juggle - whatever they happen to be into).