Do you 'make' your kids do any school work in the summer hols?

[Curlewwoohoo]

Interested in perspectives as I mull over whether to bribe or threaten DD or leave her be! DD is heading into yr6. She had a solid school report. She's very reluctant to do any school type work at home and always has been. I am very twitchy about it, I would LOVE to spend time over the summer helping her with her spellings, maths, teaching her to type, supporting reading. Full disclosure that she's dyslexic so I'd like to pick up on particular things to help her. Any such suggestions do NOT go down well. I'm conflicted as I understand she needs a break, I think it's good for her to be outside or get bored, but I also don't want her to fall behind. Give it a couple of years tops and there's no way she will do what I think, so I've got a limited window!

Other than anything school might have send home for the summer, (his responsibility to check this!) no. He’s 13 and going into year 9. He reads every night anyway for an hour before bed and he has to leave the house for some kind of physical
activity every day whether that’s football or cricket with friends in the park, swimming or gym with me, older siblings taking him climbing or paddleboarding, even just a walk, but there must be something active. Otherwise he’s like a dog! Dh and I have booked a week off and will go somewhere and I may take a few ad hoc days here and there throughout the rest of the holidays, dh has also said he’s got a few things going on at work he can use ds for 😂. We had a 2 week break over the May half term so not taking another 2 full weeks in August.

Nothing formal. I always continued to listen to mine read daily. We also chose new books for me to read aloud & made lots of library visits. We went to museums which may or may not have linked to something at school &, if we went to France, they tried speaking French, paying in Euros etc.

We do, but my eldest is likely dyslexic (bring assessed next week) and is behind on lots of areas; and my youngest struggles greatly with handwriting. I find it really hard work & disheartening trying to get them to do anything though! I'm so envious of parents whose children are ahead, and don't have it bother with school work over the holidays.

Nothing formal as they need downtime. And top 1% outcomes here.

They read for pleasure. We always talk about books - share them around - so nothing formal there.

Maths is also informal - giving them budgets to meal plan, shopping for food, cooking (money, weights and measures, budgeting). Working out how long things will take (time).

They play instruments for fun and to occupy themselves. The eldest (age 10) plays four. I don't dictate what she practices, she just does whatever she fancies. Composition etc.

Languages via Duolingo each day. Just for 5 minutes

They play each other at chess which occupies them both.

We have a rule they can have screen time until 9am (they're early risers so it's a chunk of their day) and then it's off and they entertain themselves until 4pm. Giving kids time to be bored and decide other activities for themselves is far more important.

Summer is for skills like whittling a stick and building a dam in the stream (we live rurally) and growing things. Painting. Learning to cook by choosing a recipe and having a go. Writing to penpals. Chilling out.

It is easy not to do anything when the children are already high achieving.

20 mins a day of maths/English or science each day. Nothing on the weekends.The workbooks for the next yr came last week. Started today. Reads 10-15mins daily before bedtime. Library last Friday and borrowed 2 books. She did the summer reading challenge last year and enjoyed it. Managed the 6 books.

Sometimes, it's how it's presented.

My mum was a teacher, could never enjoy doing "nothing", and was always encouraging us to be busy. I didn't mind if doing work in the holidays was "encouraged", but she had a way of making it sound like a chore. For example, she was very big on making us write diaries, and I remember a childhood realisation that every "fun" activity would be followed by having to write about it, sometimes with nagging. She would say "you mustn't get behind on your diary writing", in a teacher voice, and she would really mean it. She would ask almost gleefully "has your school given you lots of holiday work (the biggest oxymoron I ever heard)?" at the start of each holiday, and she wouldn't believe me if the answer was no.

Likewise, if we went somewhere on holiday, it was always filled with being busy all the time. There were times when we pleaded "could we just chill?"

Nope. Not a sausage. Not even when the transfer test was looming (am in NI.) I found trying to make them do work over the holidays was counterproductive and just caused friction. They always promised to hit the ground running when they went back in September. And to be fair they did. I reckon the complete break did them good. They both got into grammar schools. I think everyone knows their own child.

Any SEN child needs to continue focusing on their weak areas through the holiday. It's hard enough for them to keep up, but 6 weeks off with no reading, writing, maths will have a big effect.

Not a LOT of homework, but enough to keep the basics ticking over.

I will be for my son who is going into year 6 but only because he will be sitting entrance exams for secondary schools as soon as he returns in September.
Otherwise absolutely not.

Nope, never. I let DC choose how to spend their time during the 12 weeks school summer holidays.

Sadly, I’ve seen too many students hit burn out at University because they’ve never been given time off to just chill out and wind down.

Your response makes me feel a little queasy!

My mum was a primary school teacher and we did similar every holiday. She’d always say children forget. I do the same with dc.

Mental health issues and burnout are big issues amongst millennial. I believe it's because they matured in an environment where it's very difficult to switch off. For this reason, I never insisted my children did any revision or school work during holidays. They never did. Except last Easter break my son was revising for his GCSEs out of his own volition and I let him as it was his choice. Both my children have always carried on with music and language lessons. But this is because they enjoy them and wanted to continue (the teachers are very good, I must add)

Why?!
Learning skills over academics seems to be the big thing in our school. One family has a list of things their 10/11 year old learns and it's things like
"Starting a fire safely, putting oil in the car, changing a puncture on a bike, pruning bushes in the garden" etc.

I do words flash cards with my 6 year old DS. He was just building up his confidence just before the end of school term so I wanted to carry that on. We also read every night before bed and he spells out words. We try not to make it feel like homework but more a game, he often gets a a star for his reward chart too. It gives me so much joy seeing him learn something new and how excited he gets!

@justmarriedbecca because I suppose I think that your kids do things like play chess and play 4 instruments because they're naturally that way - ie top 1%. Don't get me wrong it sounds like you're doing the right thing by them but it's not the same as trying to get a super stubborn dyslexic child struggling with some aspects to do the thing she dislikes but will be most useful to her come September...

We do a bit of maths from a cpg book every few days to keep their hand in. Reading every day, both out loud to us and to themselves. And both do music practice.
They'll be clubs for a few weeks too learning new sports etc. I think it's easier to do a little to maintain learning rather than deal with crap transitions into to new school year. I have DC who are 'spirited' and the new teachers will likely label them trouble makers it their academics aren't up to scratch in the first 2 weeks. And once they have the label I'll spend all year trying to reverse it and get them fairly treated. It's easier to practice times tables!

Not worksheet type schoolwork, but mine have always done activity camps where they learn new skills - art, dance, sports, chess, drama, coding, science, forest school etc, so they are keeping their brain and body active and not just sitting around watching screens. They've always read for pleasure and we go to places like museums and galleries throughout the year for fun. And we do the summer reading challenge every year because they like the goody bag and medal.
By Year 5 we'll do more formal learning though as they will be due to take entrance exams in Year 6.

Yes
my kids are 15/13/11 now but we have:
always continued tutors (about 2-3hr a week for older two)
sent kids over 11 to an in person tuition centre for 3yrs a day for 2 weeks in the middle mon- weds
2 of them are expected to do 6hr a week with an online tuition site for the next school yeat
youngest does CSG workbooks for 4hr a week
all kids expected to read classics from library plus regular books

sounds a lot but we visit relatives / friends / stay at coast often and often they use car time for this - ie two people doing online tuition and 1 reading parts of Jane Austin a few pages at a tine

1 of mine was adhd so would bomb if stopped work. One is very bright (9 gcse pathway).

even when they were young they did the same eg a 6/8/10 they’d all be doing CSG and in the library more & younger were doing number jacks or alpha blocks workbooks or magazines and being tested after watching ut

can’t let intelligent kids drift for 6weeks, a few hours of work keeps their head in the game & also is a stick to manage older kids with ie ‘u can have sleepover with X and Y if your 6hr tuition site is completed’ rather than just watching dross on YouTube all day …

Are you around in the day OP.

I'm quite a fan of people learn best when they don't know they are learning.

Cooking can involve quite a lot of reading, some maths and you get to eat what you make.

I'd be tempted to get her in to cooking or other craft projects that require her to read / measure / work things out.

Why on earth are you resigning yourself to a kid who won't listen in a couple of years? I'd think a child with dyslexia moving to secondary school shortly needs more support than the average, and will need to be in good habits so that precisely in a couple of years, when the demands and expectations increase, she can cope.

You'd be complaining if she didn't receive extra support for this at school, so why wouldn't you give her what you know she needs not to be at a disadvantage.

Encourage yes make no if i forced a child to learn how would they take anything in, i would rather they learn a little on their own then try and force a lot onto them just so I can tick a box

We do the Summer Reading Challenge. They have done the Blue Peter Sports badge in the past. DD1 does a few Scout badges. DD2 does a few Guide badges. They are both usually away on a Scout/Guide camp for a week. Music practise just like in term time.

My son always reads every evening at bedtime and I make sure he gets some reading done in the day too if we’re having a day at home. He’s been having extra support at school with his handwriting, his teacher gave us a pack to do over the summer so he’s been doing a sheet every 3 or 4 days. Otherwise, no, we don’t make him do any other schoolwork - and we’re only doing the handwriting so that the progress he’s made over the last year can continue in prep for him going into yr 6. He definitely needs some rest, and with going out for bike rides/dog walks/days out/helping me with doing chores and cooking/baking, I don’t think adding schoolwork into the mix is all that necessary.