Do you have your kids do workbooks or similar in the summer?

[Lilliputian]

We homeschool and do it year-round. We probably do about as many days of school as most kids (we have to count hours rather than days in my state, so I've never bothered to count up the days), but we do shorter breaks scattered throughout the year. In fact, we tend to do our traveling and longer breaks when school is in session so that we can travel when the weather is nicer and the prices are lower. We tend to do a lot of school in the summer so that we can do a lot of hours when everything is hot and crowded, but we do make sure to take breaks to get outside and enjoy life.

 

[Dawnlight]

Pollyannamom, funny you bring up cursive. Our schools seem to be backing away from it and a lot of it depends on which teacher you got for a particular grade (3rd maybe?). I have twins who will be going into 6th and realized about a month or so ago that my son can't sign his own name and struggles to read cursive writing. We had gone to the jfk library I think and we were all reading some notes/letters on display and he could not make them out. His twin sister had no problem, but had a different teacher who was old school and did a cursive unit. I definitely want to work with DS on this over the summer

My girls were homeschooled last year for third grade and we did cursive. We continue practicing even though they are in public this year (their school does not teach it; they emphasize keyboarding). This is a website that is a great resource for learning cursive and through advanced level.

http://printablecursive.com/

 

[SmallWorld71]

I think we have two questions here. Did I ever have my kids do workbooks in the summer? No
Did my kids learn in the summer? Absolutely! We live by the beach so we spent most days there in the summer when they were little - perfect setting for reading books! When they're in elementary school, math is so easy to weave into daily life. I did a lot of cooking with my kids (great for fractions!) and playing board games (tons of necessary skills can be learned through the classic games such as Chutes and Ladders, Yahtzee, etc..).

The school required them to complete a summer reading log which was easy enough to do with all our beach reading. Otherwise, no formal work necessary.

Their growth has not suffered for it. DS19 just finished his first year of college, DS16 has chosen to take 4 AP classes his junior year (he will have a lot of summer work this year!) and DD12 is an 'A' student in middle school.

That said, there is nothing wrong with doing some workbooks if your kids respond well to them. Some kids love to do them!

The important thing is to treasure your summer time together. They'll be all grown up before you know it.

 

[Paradise18]

We're going to spend time quizzing DD on her multiplication and division over the summer. Our math program is one of the craziest things I have ever seen with all if the different strategies they are learning. We're going "old school" and using flash cards and just plain old, "Quick, what's 7 x 7?"

 

[Sgt Mickey]

I have bought them in the past but my intentions are usually good but then we tend to forget them.

 

[Skippy918]

Nope. If DS (rising 2nd) wants to do self study, I'll encourage it, but otherwise no parent directed work. He reads on his own before bed. When I was in school, I had to do 5 book reports every summer and I despised it.

 

[mamacatnv]

It is not only for "elected" classes here- regular classes have summer work too- the summer reading project counts as 40% of the first quarter English grade, if you don't do it there is no way to get a passing grade for that quarter even if you got 100's on every test!

May I ask what age?
As a parent, this would not fly with me. I would challenge a school to go ahead and try and flunk my kid for not doing a summer project. The summer/break time is mine to do with what I please, no school has a right to punish a kid because of a summer project that said school mandated that was not a condition of taking the class. Nope, I would be making a lot of noise

 

[Art 1]

May I ask what age?
As a parent, this would not fly with me. I would challenge a school to go ahead and try and flunk my kid for not doing a summer project. The summer/break time is mine to do with what I please, no school has a right to punish a kid because of a summer project that said school mandated that was not a condition of taking the class. Nope, I would be making a lot of noise

The kids school the student would get a 0 with no chance to make the work up. The administration would just have you withdraw your student if you didn't like it.

 

[aprilgail]

May I ask what age?
As a parent, this would not fly with me. I would challenge a school to go ahead and try and flunk my kid for not doing a summer project. The summer/break time is mine to do with what I please, no school has a right to punish a kid because of a summer project that said school mandated that was not a condition of taking the class. Nope, I would be making a lot of noise

That starts in grade school and goes right up to 12th grade. If you just move into the district then they still have to do the project but they get the first two weeks of the school year to do it. So even those kids can't escape that.

 

[lauradis]

Lets say a student has 14 hrs available in a day after sleeping and eating and so forth. That's close to 100 hrs per week. To not expect or think your student can't do say 5 to 10 hrs a week of assigned homework in the summer, reading the classics and writing papers on them, math and such to me is just being lazy. I excepted more out of mine and couldn't imagine them spending a summer doing no brain work. One of the things that was attractive to me about their schools and to other parents as well was the summer homework.

Oh silly man!! here was what my child did yesterday

Midnight -2 am sleep over at a friends watching b scary movies.
3am -4 am play mindcraft and talk about boys
4am - noon sleep
noon - 2pm picked her and her friends up eat mickey waffles, strawberries, talked about boys got ready for trip to the lake.
2pm -4:30 pm played at the lake
4:30- 5 pm sang in the shower
5pm -6pm ate dinner talked to dad about the interesting rocks she saw at the lake.
6pm-7pm googled rocks at lake erie with dad
7-9pm played video games with dad
9pm climbed in to bed with her book she is reading.


She there is no time for silly worksheets. That is a perfect summer day for a preteen girl.

 

[Art 1]

Oh silly man!! here was what my child did yesterday

Midnight -2 am sleep over at a friends watching b scary movies.
3am -4 am play mindcraft and talk about boys
4am - noon sleep
noon - 2pm picked her and her friends up eat mickey waffles, strawberries, talked about boys got ready for trip to the lake.
2pm -4:30 pm played at the lake
4:30- 5 pm sang in the shower
5pm -6pm ate dinner talked to dad about the interesting rocks she saw at the lake.
6pm-7pm googled rocks at lake erie with dad
7-9pm played video games with dad
9pm climbed in to bed with her book she is reading.


She there is no time for silly worksheets. That is a perfect summer day for a preteen girl.

 

[slo]

When my oldest was in elementary school there was a kit that the school sold for summer studying.
I did this with her, because she really struggled (still does) in school.
I never did with my younger because she gets straight A's and easily retains everything she learned throughout the school year.
The summer goes by so fast, that I like them jumping off the school merry-go-round for awhile and just relax.

 

[lauradis]

 

[katie111]

My kids are 8, 11, and 12 and they don't do any workbooks. I bought them one year and never used them. We like to have lots of fun in the summer. My oldest loves to read so she'll go through 3-5 books each week, reading in the car or at the beach. My middle child hates to read so I'll encourage him to read at bedtime but won't make an issue out of it. DS8 was held back in first grade this year because of developmental delays. He has totally caught up and is reading at an early 3rd grade level now. He loves to read and already has a stack of books he plans to read this summer. I'll probably quiz him on his math facts occasionally and do some math while we're out in real life but that will be about it. I'll also have him occasionally write stories about things that we did just to keep up his grammar.

We live in a really competitive school district and both my older kids get pretty much straight A's. They work so hard during the year that they really need a break from it all. My DD13 had practically no time in 7th grade to just read for enjoyment so she is REALLY looking forward that this summer.

 

[Dizlvr]

Lets say a student has 14 hrs available in a day after sleeping and eating and so forth. That's close to 100 hrs per week. To not expect or think your student can't do say 5 to 10 hrs a week of assigned homework in the summer, reading the classics and writing papers on them, math and such to me is just being lazy. I excepted more out of mine and couldn't imagine them spending a summer doing no brain work. One of the things that was attractive to me about their schools and to other parents as well was the summer homework.

You know kids can learn from doing things, they don't have to read the classics and write papers and do math. As a parent if you are throwing a book at them and saying read that and write a paper then you are the one being lazy.
Brain work doesn't just come from a workbook you know.

 

[Missy1961]

Nope, never. Summer is for having fun and giving their minds a break. Are they learning? Yup, but not by being forced to do summer homework.

I know! When we were kids, we didn't have to worry about stuff like this. But, my parents did make sure we kept on learning - my dad took us to the library every week; mom had us help her cook so we got real world math lessons; they took us to museums on rainy days; and even days at the beach or pool meant we spent time reading.

 

[LilyWDW]

Okay... I am 33 and I know for a fact that when I was a child we had summer reading and worksheets that were sent home to be done. This isn't some new thing that has just started happening. It's been around for years.

That said, I always did my summer reading (I read a lot anyway so it was pretty easy for me) plus at least one local reading challenge (library or something like that). I also did math worksheets which I found very helpful as I was prepared for the next year instead of behind. Made the start of school SO much easier.

Oh, and I also swam (a lot), did multiple sports camps, took tennis lessons, played outside, hung out with my friends, went on bike rides, and took trips. The reading and worksheets NEVER got in the way of having fun and taking a break. That is just a silly little argument that holds no water.

 

[CdnCarrie]

No not at all. They are usually in daycare and busy with that all day in the summer.

And there is no homework sent home from the schools. I always found that bizarre when people posted that their kid got summer homework. I never had that and none of my kids do.

 

[JanaDee]

Okay... I am 33 and I know for a fact that when I was a child we had summer reading and worksheets that were sent home to be done. This isn't some new thing that has just started happening. It's been around for years.

That said, I always did my summer reading (I read a lot anyway so it was pretty easy for me) plus at least one local reading challenge (library or something like that). I also did math worksheets which I found very helpful as I was prepared for the next year instead of behind. Made the start of school SO much easier.

Oh, and I also swam (a lot), did multiple sports camps, took tennis lessons, played outside, hung out with my friends, went on bike rides, and took trips. The reading and worksheets NEVER got in the way of having fun and taking a break. That is just a silly little argument that holds no water.

I'd never heard of kids having summer homework until I read it here.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

I'd never heard of kids having summer homework until I read it here.

The only time we had it was for honors classes in HS. There was always a book or two to read and papers on those books due, but not other than that.