Holiday work

[Nextweektoo]

If your child does any school work over the holidays, how much time is reasonable/ recommended for 6 year old to spend reading/ learning over the holidays? I want my little to stay in the habit of reading and learning without it becoming too much of a chore.

I've read to my children every day since they were born. As soon as they were able, we read together, taking turns. Reading isn't a chore, is it?

Reading every night. Us to them or them to us or both.

I've also read to him since birth and he prefers this but is not keen on reading himself. We took a week off that last week of school and I've noticed that he has already forgotten some common words.

At 6 I’d agree that reading is vital but everything else can wait. My DS has 4 “jobs” to do every day this summer: each of his 2 instruments and times tables (but only 5 minutes of each) and reading (as much as I can persuade him to but at least 20 minutes). But he’s 9. When he was 6 we discovered the Dog Man books which changed our lives and I was very happy with that!

We read every day. About 30 minutes, a mix of them to us and us to them. Teach your monster how to read was very popular as well.
We also do a bit of maths every day, age appropriate.
Telling the time games, coin recognition, simple maths games, weighing stuff, volumes etc at tgat age
now (year 3/4 and 7/8) its more formal (worksheets/math factor, about 20 min a day in addition to reading)

Join the library Summer reading challenge as an incentive to read regularly. It can also be done online (without the stickers?) if you can't get to a library.
Summer Reading Challenge

The Summer Reading Challenge is great. DS did it every year from when he was 4 until he aged out. He's waiting until he's old enough to volunteer to help run it. The stickers, certificates and medals are nice to keep.

I agree with the advice you've been given already. It's important to keep up the reading, so they don't slip, but it shouldn't be seen as homework or a chore. Things like the Summer Reading Challenge and apps, such as Reading Eggs and Teach Your Monster to Read, help to keep it fun and engaging.

It's great you read to him daily as so many children sadly don't get that these days and 6 weeks is so long to go without exposure to books.

Last summer we got DS2 (then 6) to keep a daily diary to improve his handwriting as he was struggling. He didn't love it but we bribed him and got him to do 5/7 days a week for the six weeks. It really helped him have a strong start to Y2.
This year he got GD for writing which I am really pleased about especially as he is summer-born. I know the focus is on content rather than presentation but it helped him have more space and time to get his words down.

Does his school/teacher have any concerns about his reading?

I didn't have much faith in my local Infant school, so I taught my boys to read using the 100 high frequency words flash cards ( learning a few per week) and the First Steps in Reading book set, where each book features a character called little "A", " B" etc through a simple story with objects which begin with that letter. I left school to fill in the phonics blanks.

Do you realise holiday work is an oxymoron?

Children learn all the time if you let them. How about broadening their learning away from school type work - they're 6 so play based learning is the best way for them to learn.

It's their holiday. Let them play - and they will learn.

@Womblingmerrily at this age, its quite easy to help them learning by playing. A handful of coins for learning about money, kitchen scales for volume/weight ect
School based and play based are very similar, but it needs some guidance and adult support.

Hmmm….nothing?! Ours read every night except on holiday and then….its a…..holiday? And I’ve got two at prep schools…..

Thank you all for the great ideas. He is behind, just started yellow books and desperate not to lose the momentum. Im following a thread on books for this age, in the hope of finding the ones that will spark the love for reading.

I read to them every morning and after lunch we had quiet time where they read - first to me and then, when older, to themselves, We did some maths when we went shopping or did cooking/ baking. PLUS my DC always kept a holiday scrapbook/ diary which they had to write / draw every night.

We definitely had the Julia Donaldson Songbirds sets for DS to read.

We used to make scrap books on rainy days - sticking in tickets or leaflets or a feather we found in the park, and they'd draw a picture and tell me what to write, or (by 6) would write something themselves.
Go to the Library a couple of times a week - usually some art / craft type thing on, plus a separate time to pick up 8 or 12 books to read - including "younger" books they already read before or enjoyed the patterns of.
Including 'information books' about dinosaurs or trains or guinea pigs or whatever he is in to.
Sticker books
Puzzle books (word search or junior cross words)
You reading to him
Pairs type games where the words match each other or match the pictures
Play board games
Play card games
Play I - Spy
Cook together
Shop together
Regularly look at the clock and notice the time, or how long something would take, or when X was happening
Look at the Atlas or A-Z to see where we were going / had been / where someone lived
When the Olympics / Euros / World Cup / Test Matches etc one, would sometimes look up where the countries were, or what their flag looked like
Give them their own money to spend at a Summer Fete or in a charity shop - get them used to using real money and budgeting for the time they are there
Even things like laying the table - "Ooh, Granny and Grandad are coming today, so how many extra plates do we need" type of maths just in conversation.
Water play with different size containers, in the bath or paddling pool.

SOOOOO much learning can be done without it seeming like 'homework'.

Ours read for pleasure, same as they do in term time. We'll hit up the library once a fortnight.

They'll keep up Duolingo for languages and speak them abroad.

Maths is just a part of life - no special worksheets. We'll watch quizzes as a family.

Music practice once or twice a week (X4
instruments).

Nothing formal or regimented. It's the holidays. And I have a JOB