Do you get your children to do any 'written' type work over the long summer holidays?

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I really don't want this to become a slagging off for 'hot-housing kids' type thread, but it's a genuine question.

Was talking to another Mum who said that she finds her children 'slip backwards' in reading/ handwriting/ maths etc over the long summer holiday (we get 8 weeks) unless she gets them doing bits and pieces over that time.

We've encouraged the kids to do a 'holiday diary' type thing in the past - sticking a few photos/ tickets/ brochures etc in a book and writing a few lines, but not much else really.

DS2 would probably relaly benefit from playing a few maths type games etc regularly.

What other sorts of things do you do?

I don't do anything except read to and with them. Lots of drawing and colouring in. Holiday diary sounds like good fun, might give it a try.

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DD1 is always writing in her diary

with DS1 the challenge would be to stop him he loves all writing and reading so he is always doing something.

DD2 often starts to write a story and will pick this up at serveral points to work on.

DS2 writes if he needs too, He is more luckly to write out signs for game or instructions.

Depending on which teacher they have they are sometimes give a holiday project but it doesnt take much work.

HTH

hi, i'm a teaching assistant and after thelong summer hols we do find that kinds have forgotten a little bit of what they've learnt, keeping a holiday diary is a lovely idea!!!!

My girls do reading and writing over the holidays, as well as maths, but in a practical, everyday way- postcards, diaries, reading stories and comics, helping with shopping and cooking etc. I would be horrified if they were set homework though.

Been on the wine again Cod?

Thanks Memoo - that's what I mean - fogetting stuff it's not regularly used.

We obviously continue reading etc, but I think it's very easy for boys especially (who don't always sit down and do craft/ diaries/ notes etc in the same way girls seem to do) to be encouraged to do at least a few minutes of something each day.

def holiday diary - standard practice for schools to backtrack after the summer slighlty as kids genuinely have forgotten stuff... 8 weeks is a long time when you're 5 and you're been on the beach eating ice cream! Actually, it's probably not so much the reading/ writing, it's the remembering how to sit still and concentrate at the task in hand that is the issue, but either way, an occasional five minutes asking them to write a list of what they would like to do tomorrow isn't going to kill them...
particularly a problem for yr R into yr 1, after that most schools ask for some sort of 'what I did in the summer' thing anyway round here...

Oops - meant "forgetting stuff if it's..."

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"NO FGS ITS STUPID"

and I and find that kind of comment really irritating too

Next?

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My dad used to force me to keep a holiday diary during the summer. I hated it.

But I did used to keep my own "personal" diary so I guess that would have helped too.

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Yes, we definitely get the children to write during the holidays - even if it's only little things like postcards and emails to friends and family, it ensures they keep writing and formulating their thoughts.

No i dont make them do any writing etc in the summer holidays. It's the holidays FGS. Mine get enought work to do at home and at school term time. Oh and mine don't forget how to do school stuff either.

Certainly not.

They muck about, hang around, play outside with their mates.

Nothing structured at all. Sometimes they are to be found with pencils and paper, but that's up to them.

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I think there's a lot to be said for leaving them alone.

Hours of messing about with no adults around.
The boys in particular seem to spend a lot of time doing things with sticks, big sticks, swinging them around......very worthwhile imo.

A very good activity with children is to try to get them to read a newspaper article every morning, and to recount over breakfast/lunch what the article said.

It really doesn't matter what the article is about, what is interesting is to see whether they understand it, can recount its essence in an intellible, interesting way, and use is as the basis for a grown-up mealtime conversation.

No I don't,although I know plently of parents who do.Ds works hard during term time.He does read in bed and reads his magazines.I don't agree with getting rid of the long summer holiday either but I do appreciate that working mums find it difficult.

Yes we do.

We started it when we moved to France because they had a lot of catching up to do, and it helped, enormously, particularly as the holidays here are so long - weeks and weeks to forget spelling and grammar rules and how to do long division.

But it only takes half an hour every other day (or whatever fits in around the fun stuff) so it's hardly a big hardship. And they - mostly - enjoy it

castille - and it's also quite embedded in the culture here in France (all those cahier de vacances...)

Only to label drawngs, for my own personal gooey amusement at his idiosyncratic spelling.

There is a fab and colourful picture of a "Paret" in my kitchen.

Smug, DD has a sign on her bedroom door to keep her brother out.

It reads "PRIVET"