Will you be makeing your DCs keep up their school work in the holidays?

[sameagain]

If so, what work will you set and how will you get them to do it?

DS1 is finishing year 3, very capable, but prone to poor concentration and laziness TBH

He reads well and enjoys that so will keep that up without any pressure from me and we will do the library summer reading challenge.

I am concerned that he was more or less top of the class at the end of infants but now seems to be decidedly average - which is fine if that's where he should be, but I think he is brighter than his written work shows, because he rushes it and is unfocused. I wondered if some sort of summer project might help him be well prepared for his new teacher in Sept, but don't want to make the summer one long fight. What are you planning?

It will be fun and educational in this house but it won't be pushed too hard.

Dd1's favourite game is playing teachers, she needs to work on her multiplications but other than that her report was fab and we intend to let her enjoy her time off.

Dd2 is only 3 and in nursery, she will still be going for a few sessions a week throughout the holidays.

I will encourage reading/ sports/ board games/ craft and trips.

I have drawn up a timetable for 5yo DTS.

One hour of maths, english and writing per day (Mon-Thurs), in the morning when they are fresh.
Piano practice 3 or 4 times per week for about 15 minutes.
Practise French (they do La Jolie Ronde) for about 15 minutes a day.
Reading challenge from library
Lots of picnics in park
Visits to museum and cultural areas of interest
Rides on trains and buses.
DVDs and CBeebies
Lots of free play for them to indulge their imagination

I think I have balanced their activities quite well.

Why do 5 year olds need to work in their holidays? That sounds grim tbh. They are 5!

spokette is that because you are starting the holiday early and going to Benidorm and thus trying to avoid a truancy fine?

There is lots of eveidence to suggest that children consolidate what they have learnt thru the year with a break...it is where the info they have taken on board "settles"...I agree the life skill bit...mine will be cooking, shopping etc....but mostly "playing out" insupervised with their mates...they are now of the age where they can do this...will not be doing all of the "activity weeks" either...all those nonsense tennis, football, drama courses that middle class parents send their kids off to because they dont want their company. My oldest is 11 -- off to secondary school in sept and I look at this as precious time to be together

Mine will be doing their holiday homework. For the younger ones, this will mostly be reading.

We will also try to do some French - we are going to Ontario on holiday so it will all be reading rather than spoken French, but better than nothing.

My older ones have specific tasks to do - and they will.

Spokette i have a similar timetable for my dd's aged 5 and 7. I did the same last summer and my children have done really well this year. I am convinced it is because they kept to some sort of routine during the holidays. I was adamant that they read every day for 15 minutes as i think that reading is perhaps the most important skill. They thoroughly enjoyed their last summer holiday and are looking forward to this one.

the timetables sound GRIM

especially for such little children

I hope you don't kill the love of reading/learning stone dead for them by forcing the issue too hard. Children need bumming-around-doing-nothing time - they are processing and developing all the time, you don't have to make them learn

My boys actually ask me to practise their writing. They will be playing and DT1 will say "We have not practised writing today".

We go on holiday in the second week of the summer break so for the first week, they will only do a little reading, writing and maths because they do need to recharge.

After the holiday, they will be rested and the timetable will be put into effect. Whether or not it works, remains to be seen. Obviously if the boys don't want to do the academic stuff, I won't force them but it is only for 1 hour so I think they will do it, especially in the morning when they are fresh.

I remember being mentally stimulated as a child in the 70s/early 80s.

We would actively re-enact Enid Blyton novels, complete with lashings of ginger beer (had to get the recipe for GB, buy the ingredients and then make it).

We would keep scrapbooks of our activities, which meant sticking in ticket stubs and some poorly developed photos from an instamatic.

When I was in senior school, I would read all my reading books (we had to buy all our school books at the end of the summer term in the prior year). I could usually catch a play of them at the Edinburgh Festival each year as well, which was immensely valuable.

I really don't get the attitude of having kids switch off completely. It's crazy - their brains are like sponges, and it is senseless to actively discourage them, somehow giving vibes that Playstation is superior to everything else.

I thought my next door neighbours had a good attitude. Every summer, the kids would make a movie - they would write the screenplay, make the props, rehearse the roles and do the filming. It was perfect.

In our household, we do a lot of cooking in the holidays, mostly child led. I throw in a few science experiments too - of which advance planning is required, eg to get explosive ingredients from Ebay. The kids love it (and I don't get them to write out balanced symbol equations - not yet).

My DD will be continuing with Kumon English throughout the summer hols (20 mins per day) I have also invested in some basic maths stuff (will see how it goes!!)
As well as this we will be reading and I have planned a craft day per week where we will be making biscuits, playdough, sewing etc)
From my point of view DD is behind at school and may fall further behind without some consolidation over the hols.
I try and keep it fun - she will also be continuing with speech therapy over the hols so hopefully will be leaps and bounds ahead after the hols and ready to slide into year 2.
I think its whatever works best for your family, DD loves routine and so its best to keep some of it going for all of our sanity!!

nobody mentioned playstations

Is that what is at the root of this? That if you are not making your children "learn" by sheer force of will, they will collapse into vegetative blobs only fit for staring at screens?

I think that's a very sad underestimation of what children actually do for their own learning when they are given freedom and space

but we are not going to agree

so I will just reiterate that I think timetabling small children's holiday time is pushy and unnecessary and could be counter-productive.

Hmmm, if you leave it up to them, they will do screen based activities - at least until they get bored with them.

We are on day 10 of the holidays and the Wii cable is now hidden in my underwear drawer. I will probably change the Wireless codes sometime today.

You have to take away all the easy stuff so that they actually claim to be bored and then you have won. I am a great believer in getting children bored during the long holidays, because only then will they use their own imaginations.

Apart from cooking, I am very hands-off during the holidays. I do my science experiments as preparation for the school year - and my kids find them irresistable.

This year, yes we will. I plan on getting them to spend an hour a day on their holiday homework so they produce something decent rather than leaving it til the last weekend and doing something rushed.

We've also got sets of verbal/non verbal reasoning books and maths/english ones and I plan on making them write a few stories as English is their weak point.

My dd has to "read 3 books outside her comfort zone" as her holiday task from school. No hardship - she loves books.

And,although this goes against everything I believe about holidays being holidays, we have found that she is much happier and more confident if she does a little (a very little) maths over the long holidays. She still struggles with maths and finds it hard to retain, so if she does a little she hits the ground running in September rather than having to get up to speed again. So she will be doing a bit when we have time, usually on car journeys.

Ds will mostly be practicing football skills.

That's for DSs (8 and 10). I plan on teaching DD (3.5) to write her name.

I think the irony is that it is much easier to get them to do homeworky research type things in hols, as they are so much less tired.

Who knows my ds might actually show an interest in history if it was presented to him outside term time, ditto handwriting practice.

I'll be doing benign neglect and a bit of handwriting practice. 5 mins a day per child?
And music practice 5 mins at least, hope they just enjoy messing around with instruments.

Would love to do some sort of project with them but not expecting too much...

Ds is just finishing Reception. We will continue to work on his reading. Ds will keep a diary of his activities over the summer hols so lots of opportunity to practice his writing and spelling. I like to have a project to focus on so we will be learning more about dinosaurs, making paper mache (sp?) models, natural history museum and hopefully taking him to see Walking with dinosaurs.

We are on holiday for 2 weeks so ds so will spend a lot of time at the beach and visiting Farms etc. We are most looking forward to having leisurely breakfasts and doing stuff at our own pace.

I don't like to do formal work over the hols but I like to keep a diary as I find that it really helps ds with his spelling. When we go on holiday ds will have his own pocket money to help him with adding up etc.

ha-ha, my son would NOT get upset if he forgot his timetables or anything else for that matter.

I do remember being bored as a child, I don't remeber getting into some "imaginitive" stuff because of it.

I have desparetely been trying to get ds to go on a holiday football week, yes, I do want to get rid of him.

I hate doing crafts etc with dc.

I will be going to places, so dc will be busy while I hope to read some book

Just read the responses, seems like I am in the minority.

To be honest although we won't have a regimented timetable to follow I have to have some focus (for my own sanity!)otherwise it will descend into chaos, I'll be sat MNing all day and ds will be eating oreos by the bucketload and sticking blutack on all the walls!

I need to have order. The twins respond to routine so it is easier all round to have a timetable of activities with flexible boundaries to accommodate changes as they arise.

I really want t get the times tables nailed, so we shall be singing a lot of those in the car journey to the fun stuff.
We always do a family scarp book for my benefit not theirs and I would like DD to do some writing practise.
But mainly we shall be getting fit as fiddles for their very sporty new school.

I think that swanriver makes a good point that some homework-type activities get a better response when given to a child during the summer holiday.

10 mins a day practising handwriting is not a hardship when the rest of the day is spent playing football and watching spongebob.

What I object to is making by DS sit and learn spellings at the end of the day when he has already been at school for 6 hours. That is the time the children really need to chill!

Mine are 4 and 6. The 6 year old reads on his own every night. He also likes doing Kakuro and other number puzzles so I will not be mentioning the word "school" to him.

The 4 year old has a late Aug birthday and is just about to "click" with reading, so I will be doing some reading with her (just getting her to read the odd bit of her own bedtime story).

I don't like the thought of very young children having to work in the hols so try to do as little as possible!