School work during summer (support, games, wife, boys)

[okaydorothy]

Hi there
What are you thoughts on the children getting required work to do during the summer vacation.

My boys are 7 & 8 and each brought home a workbook that is seperated into 15/20/15 day blocks ; each page is for one day. Ok, we have it finished but gosh it was torture. They also have required reading for the summer. Now we can concentrate on getting that done. I am hoping to have that finished by the end of july so that at least they will have 4 weeks in August to relax.

Their school reports were good ; the 7 year old gets all 4's out of a possible 5, and all e's. The 8 year old gets mainly 3's and a few 4's and all sa's.

By the way I think that having 10 weeks off is way way too much.
your opinions please
d

[southernlady5464]

They also have required reading for the summer.

When I was growing up, I always had required reading during the summer.

It tends to keep you from forgetting absolutely everything you've learned from the previous year.

And reading is always good for the soul. Liz

[Inthesierras]

We have been reading and doing worksheets every few days. It helps retain skills and gives us an extra activity for that day.

[doc1]

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

Hi there
What are you thoughts on the children getting required work to do during the summer vacation.

My boys are 7 & 8 and each brought home a workbook that is seperated into 15/20/15 day blocks ; each page is for one day. Ok, we have it finished but gosh it was torture. They also have required reading for the summer. Now we can concentrate on getting that done. I am hoping to have that finished by the end of july so that at least they will have 4 weeks in August to relax.

Their school reports were good ; the 7 year old gets all 4's out of a possible 5, and all e's. The 8 year old gets mainly 3's and a few 4's and all sa's.

By the way I think that having 10 weeks off is way way too much.
your opinions please
d

I don't care for making that a requirement for every family. I support making it available, as an option, to those who think their kids would be better off because of it for whatever reason

Some families use that time to travel, play, have adventures and just do as they darn well please.

My wife and I make good use of our family time over the summer. It just wouldn't work for us.

By the same token, when I take time off, no email, voicemail, no calling the office. I know not everyone can do that. I've been there and it just wasn't for me after I became a father.

[Mrs.Bewitched]

I bought a workbook for each of my children to complete during the summer. My youngest (6 1/2) takes an hour a day to do it (but he always finishes it the work in less time), and my oldest takes about 1 1/2 a day. Then later on, I have them read for 30 minutes.

Being a teacher, I know that when children come back after summer break, about 95% (my numbers, not real statistics ), have regressed during the summer, and their reading or knowledge is not where they left off in June. I don't want my own to regress.

[okaydorothy]

I also do not want them to regress at all. Some of the work was stuff that both of them said they havent even touched yet ; the 8 year old has not done multiplication yet and he had some pages ; we did it and he did understand it. The 7 year old also had double digit addition that he didnt cover last year. Again, we did it. Although as I am not a teacher, I dont know if I thought him the way he will learn in school.

I would rather they had less holiday time and more education. Not that I dont want them around ; i do, but I think that 10 weeks is just a little too much. We will travel to the UK and do a lot of family things.
d

[gardener34]

Until this year, I made my son take voluntary summer school. This year, I feel he is mature enough to just do writing and typing practice on his own. And of course, trips to the library for reading materials. All on our own of course.
The point of the break - is NOT for kids to sit in front of their video games all day.

[FarNorthDallas]

Our school requires it for everyone. You can attend summer school and take a class to cover half of summer homework to lighten the load at home. Some of the homework is required for every child and some of it is unique to each child.

[golfgal]

I know a lot of people complain about summer homework but seriously, is an hour or less a day really going to cut into their vacation time? No. Our kids have never had required summer work but we have always made them do summer homework, a workbook page a day for English and one for Math. They love to read so that has never been an issue--they are read for at least 30 minutes before bed.

DS14 is taking summer geometry this year. He is in class from 7:30-12:00 and usually gets his homework done then but not always. He has said that it really isn't a big deal because in the past he would sleep until 10:00 and watch tv until at least noon, this way he is hanging out with friends during class.

[arguy1973]

My kids have zero anything over the summer, my wife works at the school so they are there with here several times during the summer, but none of them are there much. They do go to the library quite a bit and if you get them to read stuff on their own..its gr8!