Homeschooling during summer holidays?

[Mumof2bears]

I've been wondering how many parents / carers will undertake any level of homeschooling during the summer holidays this year? We have two DC (Reception and Y2) and I'm planning to continue with some Oak Academy, White Rose Maths, times tables and reading time with them during the holidays. Plus a week away as a family with no schooling! What is everyone else doing?

Mine are similar ages and will do reading and they have some activity books they enjoy doing for fun with educational activities but I won't make them. Apart from that it's just applying education to every day situations (cooking/gardening etc).

2 of mine read daily for pleasure but 1 needs encouragement so will continue with this throughout the summer holidays.

1 will continue piano practice daily (mostly)

2 will carry on with times tables.

Otherwise no formal learning just nice normal learning through family life with cooking, decorating, gardening, cleaning, crafts etc

Nope. Glad homeschooling is going well for somebody...!

We've not used much bitesize or Oak Academy so far so aiming to do 1 online English lesson a day as my son (year 2) struggles with English. I'll also keep doing spelling, handwriting and reading with him. He'll do his maths book for fun! Won't do anything structured with 4 year old son. Lots of outdoor play and unstructured time to play together too.

None for me. I think children do better with a long summer break. Otherwise learning becomes a never ending chore they dread.

DS will do an hour a day as he’s going to a Grammar school in September and can’t afford summer learning loss. He’ll also read every day. He did an hour a day last summer to prepare for the 11+ and it wasn’t a big deal, there was still plenty of time to do fun activities and if we had a full day our one day and missed a day of learning then never mind.

None. Mine are past the times tables stage. We will try to do a few practical projects - my Y8 wants to do some woodwork or soldering, because she missed out on that this term, and some life skills with my son such as buying things in shops and maybe some drawing from tutorials. My feeling is they have mainly missed the "doing" side of school/life this term, rather than the academics. Structure is really important in my family (autistic child) and getting that without our usual routine of childcare & outings this summer will be a huge challenge.

They find lockdown school pretty tiring in its own way, and they do need a break.

I am home schooling 13 year old. He has been doing 3-4 hours each day. He has also taught himself to play chess and is now on Level 7. Not much work coming home form school so I bought GCSE text books in Maths and Science and Of Mice and Men text and workbook and we are working through them. He is doing BBC bite size too. We will not be going away in July so I am aiming for him to do 2 hours each day in July but have all of August off.

No. DD is old enough to manage her own time until she starts sixth form in September. DS (y7) has been working like a trojan on work set by school and I intend to spend as much time as possible this summer boosting his confidence and seeing him laugh.

We‘ll do daily reading, maths, spelling and grammar/punctuation.
my son is year 2/year 3 from autumn.

We’ll be doing a bit as we’ve only managed a few hours each day so far because me and DH have also been working from home through all of this. We won’t be doing more than a few hours on the days we do it and will make sure they get plenty of time off too.

We won’t with my year 7 with ASD. She’s very bright but anxious and is utterly exhausted. She’s been in school part time since half term as she has an EHCP. She reads a lot anyway so will continue with that.

My year 5 has been pretty good with home learning. Could have done more but we are both working and we want some fun family time as well. She wants to sit the 11+ in September (I don’t care about it at all), so will do extra through the Summer.

Just some reading and keeping a daily diary to keep him writing and spelling but thats it

Mine (y9) has worked her arse off this term with both lessons and homework, so nothing for her, although she will choose to read and practise the piano.

No. We've finished homeschooling until September. The kids have more or less done their summer homework and we'll be reading for pleasure only now.

We will do daily reading and I will get them to do a summer diary to keep them writing.

For times tables and mental maths we will do iPad games and apps.

My youngest will do practice papers 1-2 a week as he's sitting an exam in the autumn.

I don't think oak will continue over the summer sadly.

I intend to continue to some extent - I've just bought some new workbooks with the intention of continuing with them and working on what's left come Sept even if returns to school. Expecting atm to buy next stage up for Oct which I imagine will be a lockdown unless Boris is a real clown!

I've also purposely not done all of the Oak lessons so we have a few on hand.

It sounds cruel to some, but I see no point in having killed myself to educate all this time to prevent regression and go not maintain it. Eso8in light of the guidance that suggests that the children wont be eligible for more than 15 minutes small groups work, so little chance of recovery and support work.

I always give my kids summer work to do, not loads but a little bit each week as a means of reducing the summer slump, especially in maths and spelling. Nothing on the days we are actually away on hols though

I have arranged some sessions over Zoom with a teacher who is doing private tuition sessions. My DS sits and listens to her every word unlike when I’m trying to explain anything to him!! We will probably do 1 per week over the summer just so he doesn’t completely regress over the long break. xx

Do other people like Oak Academy then? My son's school have set it for English. We've given up because I thought it could kill a love of literature and creative writing because it's so slow and prescriptive. My plan is to do around 1 to 2 plus reading over the summer. Will have a complete break first though.

DS is in reception. We'll keep doing daily reading and some daily phonics, because if we don't he'll go backwards. I'm currently thinking we'll keep doing a bit of play based maths and writing every day too. He does better with a bit of structure in the day, and also a bit of stimulation - normally we'd get it by going out but I don't think we'll be wanting to do that this summer.

@GrapefruitsAreNotTheOnlyFruit

Do other people like Oak Academy then? My son's school have set it for English. We've given up because I thought it could kill a love of literature and creative writing because it's so slow and prescriptive. My plan is to do around 1 to 2 plus reading over the summer. Will have a complete break first though.

I personally like having a fall back as I also wfh part of the week, so like having some "normality" and shockingly my lo prefers the online teschers. There's a definite difference between the teachers styles as is to be expected and the year groups. And to get the bets out of them they definitely for the lower ages need some parental guidance. But yes better than nothing and more organised and structured like a proper lesson in school, including the spelling tests etc. Though am glad they've stopped the quizzes in maths!

We haven't done as much as we probably could or should have, because we're working, so we won't stop completely over the summer. Also, the kids have had plenty of tv time/playing with each other so we need something to fill the days! They're only 7 and 5 though, so realistically you only get an hour of decent concentration.