What are your Dcs doing in the long break post-GCSEs?

[Sobek]

Dd finished her GCSEs in the middle of June. Since then, she hasn't really left the house. Sleeps in until lunchtime, then watches crap programmes she downloads on her ipad all day (with lots of visits to the fridge in between). I don't really see her, she is in her room all the time, often with the curtains and windows closed (in this weather!). She's been given a bit of work to do over the hols in preparation for starting her A levels in Sept, but she did 15 mins of Maths and decided it was too hard (should she really be considering Maths?!). She's got a music exam in a couple of weeks, but won't practise. Thank goodness she signed up for NCS at the end of July. At least she'll be doing something other than lying around in bed all day for 4 weeks of the hols. Still, I am worried. Is this normal? She almost seems depressed (I posted about this during exam time and was hoping that she'd be relaxed and back to normal by now).

What are your Dcs doing with themselves in the long break? Have they also been given preparation work to do for their A levels?

If she is doing NCS then that will help her get going again. I think in a lot of ways it is normal for them to have a few weeks of a slump now after all the GCSE pressure.

DS is revising his physics as he too it in Y10 so needs to get back on it before A Level, he is doing a couple of short coding courses before doing Computer Science and has been given a bit of maths to do. He is going away for a week with PGL and then doing his NCS too in a few weeks. Most of the time now though he is chilling out playing Portal 2.

Sorry to hijack, only just discovered NCS - is it too late for my 17 year old for this year?

My 16yr old finished his GCSEs beginning of this month.

He starts college mid September. Until then, he's doing some volunteer work in the area he'll be studying in for 4 or 5 weeks and galavanting all over the place/seeing family in the other weeks.

Mine just lies in bed all day. I hate it & worry he is lonely & miserable. can't organise his life for him though.

Mine's off tomorrow for a 4-week overseas expedition.

Not sure what DD18 is doing between now and October when she goes up to university

Mine's working 5 days a week at local tourist attraction - had a week off after GCSEs finished.

She's really enjoying it so far: working with lots of other young people so pretty sociable and fun. If she wasn't doing this she would definitely be spending most of the summer in bed on her laptop!

Gosh your kids are all so busy! My Dd seems even more of a slob now. She has just announced that she wants to meet up with a friend tomorrow, so she might finallly see daylight.

Jean NCS is very popular, but there is no harm in calling them to find out if there are any places. You never know, someone might have dropped out.

I'm relieved to read your OP. MY DS is doing nothing, sleep, computer, eat, the very occasional outing if forced. I worry he's depressed but I don't think he is, just lazy.
I think this behaviour is more common than we're led to believe.
I'm starting to get grumpy about the lack of effort put into getting a job.
MY DD was exactly the same for a year or so, then came out f it and hasn't looked back. She's in Italy and France au pairing this year and has an internship lined up too. DD i.e his big sister, tells me not to worry as he'll grow out of it when he's ready

Mine does f all. Only 15 though so little employment opportunities. From next week will be doing 1 day a week at a friend's sports shop (token payment) and two evenings athletics coaching. No friend meet ups though as he says none of his mates do that. The rest of the time he's watching Criminal minds, internet surfing and FIFA on the x-box.

Pretty normal I think.

dd is doing a lot of stuff, but I don't believe many of her friends are.
On the days she doesn't have a commitment, then there's a lot of sleeping in going on.

Dd says that all of her friends are doing absolutely nothing, but I happen to know that at least two of them have arranged work experience placements for the holidays.

It's good to know Dd isn't the only one slobbing out. What age was your Dd Cromwell when she did that? It is heartening to know that things could change!

I've got a couple of friends with boys who said that they've got exactly the same problem. They lie in bed half the day and then play minecraft for the rest, and hardly ever leave their rooms.

Friends tell me not to worry, that it's normal to need to rest after working so hard for their GCSEs, but my Dd didn't work hard at all and I would have thought a week or two would be sufficient time to recover anyway!

NCS is bloody brilliant and cheap She'll come back a different, more mature person. Best thing my DD ever did.

DS is going on a school trip next week (even though he has left, it was open to those going to 6th form) so will be away for a week in Europe.

Then he has 3 weeks of NCS in August.

We are going on holiday at the end, so after three weeks of vegging around he is actually going to be pretty busy.

I'm happy for him to have had some down time as he was full on with revision for the early half of the year.

Glad to hear the positive reports of NCS. My son has just completed the first week. Prior to that he'd been vegetating in his room :/

After his last exam mid June til now he's slobbed about playing PS4 online and eaten mainly with the very odd outing with mates.

Hopefully he will be starting a Saturday job next week. That will leave him doing the above for only 6 days a week.

Might squeeze a few days away with us in if he wants to come.

dd has just completed a lifeguard course..... just needs prompting to be a bit proactive in finding the work now

Lifeguard course is a good idea. Does it take long to qualify?

Have heard good things about NCS. Hope it helps to improve her confidence. That is one of the main issues I think.

She announced today that she wants to find a job! She must be bored! The problem is that NCS will take up four weeks of the holidays so she hasn't really got the time now unless it's weekend work!

She'll be knackered on the weekends between the NCS weeks - I wouldn't sort a job until that's over. My DDs confidence improved beyond recognition just after one week. I really can't speak highly enough of the course she went on, and the leaders involved.

Thats odd, I posted a reply to you yesterday but it's not here [hmm ]

Lifeguard training was 5 x 9hr days then a further 3 hr exam / assessment.
Trouble being they only ever seem to run them during term time so quite difficult to find one you can do except during exam leave.

Sobek DD just fished yr 2 of uni, she's very sorted but was totally reclusive as a younger teen.
I don't buy into the 'need' to rest after exams but they do seem to have a remarkable capacity for doing very little.
I've tried to stop worrying but every now and then I have an attempt to get him going. My last attempt was pitched at the need to put something on his UCAS form that isn't WoW. It worked for about half a day