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!

We do, but my DC are generally not that resistant to it. Always keep up reading and music practice.

DD3 has school entrance exams next term, so we'll be doing some this summer with her - probably 30 minutes - 1 hour a day? She's also away for a week at scout camp and we're on holiday for a week, so that will only be for 4 weeks of the 6 anyway.

They have plenty of time to be bored/ creative/ go on screens/ go out and do all the other things they want to do on holiday. Or not want to do (I just made DS sew on his last scout badge and the huffing and puffing was something to behold!)

super stubborn dyslexic child struggling with some aspects to do the thing she dislikes but will be most useful to her come September...

There was often less resistance to computer based stuff - we did mathsfactor anyway - but did try Nessy and TTRS over some summers - but not sure about effects of them as we continued with our usual programs for reading spelling and writing.

It wasn't either or we did baking and new skills as well as well as library and mususm and time with family - though we had luxury of time with them - it's much harder if they're in childcare all day and come home tired and resistant.

I did at times wonder if I was just masking their issues but frankly coming to end of secondary now I think if we hadn't helped they'd have had it even harder. It did help DS at least set up good habits - when there was no work to find between GCSE and A-level he taught himself a programing language that made A-level easier for one subject. DD2 doing similar now.

Despite a teacher parent I never did school work during holidays (didn't expect my own children to either.) Didn't stop me, or sibling, or my own children, going to Russell Group Unis /Oxbridge and having good careers and lots of outside interests. Children flourish winding down , organising their own days etc etc. though of course in my childhood children were expected to be a lot more independent. You had breakfast , told Mum you were going out, she said don't be late for dinner at 1 and off you went exploring the neighbourhood with whoever you could knock up.(I'm talking about 8+). The risk with helicopter parents is that the children never learn to live their own lives.

My DD is the same as yours. About to go into year 6, academically able but doesn’t want to do anything unless it’s in her own terms (AuDHD). I’ve bought her a CPG summer holidays book and so far so good.

Nope, I’ve been known to give back holiday homework. I make it very clear that it’s MY time and we’re going to be doing other stuff. We did different learning, we baked, made ice cream, went crayfishing etc.

Yes, eldest has language processing issue so have been doing this for years. An hour of achievable work with a small reward like a soccer card every morning.
After that, all the downtime and creative, exploring physical fun stuff they could want. It makes them much more cheerful and purposeful actually.

What i find always remarkable is how many people say “ we never did extra work and had A star level and the read for pleasure anyway”

• a child that is able to do that well in a levels doesn’t need extra work
• you are the exception . most kids do not achieve these sort of results
• you got lucky. many kids need to put hard work in before they can read for pleasure

I have one of each - one with severe dyslexia, he started to read for pleasure in year 6, and up until then it was tons of hard work. He is otherwise able, but without the extra work he still wouldn’t be able to read properly And his work ethic is amazing now which will help him so much. And one who is effortlessly on the gifted and talented register. He doesn’t need the extra work, but he needs the work ethic ;)

No, i didn't.
I tried to and it became a huge problem.
I decided to pick my battles, ( despite my kids saying that I should have been on 'The worlds Strictest Parents' 😆 🤣)

Everything worked out fine!
Ds did go to Kumon though and we kept that up throughout the holidays.

Yes, every day in general (with the odd day when we don't have the time) but not much, maybe 20 - 30 minutes, that's nothing in a whole day and a good habit. It will benefit her a lot. I think a lot is lost in 6 weeks doing nothing, I am sure my daughter will forget a lot of the things she has learnt if she did nothing for that long

I've got a phonics work book for my reception going into year 1 boy. He's struggled a bit with reading so I don't want him to go a full 6 weeks without doing anything other than his bed time story. We're only on day 2 but he voluntarily asked to do extra last night and seemed to really enjoy being praised for doing well.

My kids are DS1 7 (going into year 3), DS2 nearly 6 (going into year 2) and DD 4 (going into reception).

DS1 loves reading anyway so he does that most days. DS2 finds it more challenging but he's recently started enjoying reading more as he sees DS1 loving it.

Apart from reading DS1 has maths and English work books that he can finish for September to get a reward at school, so he'll be doing that.

Won't really be doing anything else.

No, my children were never expected to do work in the holidays (possible exception was A level year - which they chose to do themselves).

We did take them out of school several times for holidays and in that instance would cover some work. We weren't living in the UK at the time, so term time holidays were fine.

Nothing formal. I make them read a small amount before bed and that’s it. My eldest will do things like Simply Piano and crafts. My youngest will
play football, play with toys or play Roblox. We do try and go out every day to do something (climbing, swimming or ninja warrior as we have passes). I’ll sneak in a few games that keep the brain ticking over but won’t make them sit down and do work.

I haven't usually but they are both behind with something specific (different things) and are having a tutor come in once a week over holidays to try and catch up a bit, especially for DC1 who is going to secondary and has SEND.

We do usually do loads of trips, museums, exercise and reading anyway though. They are having a week's holiday and one has an art summer school as well.