I may have mentioned on here - once or twice- how long my sons' summer holidays are, but just in case you missed it due to having been uninterested in our goings on over the last month (hard to believe, but I'm prepared to consider that possibility), here it is again;
Ten weeks.
Or, if you work better in figures: 10 weeks.
That's 70 days. 50 school days. Or, to put it another way, 350 hours (based on the average amount of hours they spend in class on a school day).
In fact, over the summer, the Boys are off on holiday for a longer period of time than any when they are continuously in school throughout the school year, once you take into account half term and other holidays.
Now, I recall my 6 week summer holidays - whilst I was at primary school - as stretching out seemingly for ever. I know I can't possibly have lived the 1950's Enid Blyton style existence I remember, but when I look back I see weeks spent on the south coast (foreign holidays didn't feature for us, particularly), cream teas, late evenings, and after breakfast the next day, packing up sandwiches and heading off for days of adventuring in the countryside around home. We would wave goodbye to Mum at around 10am and turn up in time for tea later that afternoon. There were books to be read, camp-outs in the garden to be had, and of course not so infrequent spats with my younger sister to fit in.
What I can't remember is any pressure to do school work over the summer break.
And yet, here I am, 35 years later, with 2 children of my own, determined that whilst we are all going to have fun and relax over the holidays, Boys #1 and #2 will not fall prey to Summer Learning Loss*.
This does not mean I have enrolled them in maths camps and science seminars (although we did all have fun at the Holland Park Ecology Centre on Monday spending a couple of hours pond dipping in the name of learning about amphibians), but it does mean that they each spend half an hour every Monday to Friday morning doing something approaching school work. Boy #1, who's reading is more than fantastic, gets to practice some basic math problems (not his preferred school subject) and to work on his handwriting, (sometimes by writing letters to friends which I scan and email to their parents), and Boy #2 and I 'discuss' (for which read, 'battle over') sight words and number bonds.
We have a reward structure in place; at the end of a 4 week period when they've done 30 minutes or more for 5 days in those weeks, they get to go and pick out a reasonably-priced toy. Negotiations on what 'reasonably priced' actually means are currently underway; since the first 'reward day' is this Friday, I think we need to reach an agreement on that sharpish...
Having come this far - we're now nearly 6 weeks into the summer break** with only 4 left to go - I'm hoping that we'll manage to maintain momentum for the next month and that the shock for them of returning to more structured learning come the end of August won't be as great as it might otherwise have been. Every now and again though, as I cajole Boy #2 to 'look at the word' in the hope he might remember 'had' next time (yes, it is like that), I do ask myself if this is the right thing to do.
It's 30 minutes in a day. That's not so much to ask them to do, surely? Or am I just being an over-anxious mother; should I instead just chill out and let them do whatever they want over the loooooonnnnggg summer break?
Discuss.
* In case you're not familiar with this term (ha!), it refers to the loss of children's academic skills and knowledge over the summer break. See here for Wikipedia's entry on the subject.
** Yes, you did read that right. We have already had one and a half months of summer holidays. How the hell did that happen?
Ten weeks.
Or, if you work better in figures: 10 weeks.
That's 70 days. 50 school days. Or, to put it another way, 350 hours (based on the average amount of hours they spend in class on a school day).
In fact, over the summer, the Boys are off on holiday for a longer period of time than any when they are continuously in school throughout the school year, once you take into account half term and other holidays.
Now, I recall my 6 week summer holidays - whilst I was at primary school - as stretching out seemingly for ever. I know I can't possibly have lived the 1950's Enid Blyton style existence I remember, but when I look back I see weeks spent on the south coast (foreign holidays didn't feature for us, particularly), cream teas, late evenings, and after breakfast the next day, packing up sandwiches and heading off for days of adventuring in the countryside around home. We would wave goodbye to Mum at around 10am and turn up in time for tea later that afternoon. There were books to be read, camp-outs in the garden to be had, and of course not so infrequent spats with my younger sister to fit in.
What I can't remember is any pressure to do school work over the summer break.
And yet, here I am, 35 years later, with 2 children of my own, determined that whilst we are all going to have fun and relax over the holidays, Boys #1 and #2 will not fall prey to Summer Learning Loss*.
This does not mean I have enrolled them in maths camps and science seminars (although we did all have fun at the Holland Park Ecology Centre on Monday spending a couple of hours pond dipping in the name of learning about amphibians), but it does mean that they each spend half an hour every Monday to Friday morning doing something approaching school work. Boy #1, who's reading is more than fantastic, gets to practice some basic math problems (not his preferred school subject) and to work on his handwriting, (sometimes by writing letters to friends which I scan and email to their parents), and Boy #2 and I 'discuss' (for which read, 'battle over') sight words and number bonds.
We have a reward structure in place; at the end of a 4 week period when they've done 30 minutes or more for 5 days in those weeks, they get to go and pick out a reasonably-priced toy. Negotiations on what 'reasonably priced' actually means are currently underway; since the first 'reward day' is this Friday, I think we need to reach an agreement on that sharpish...
Having come this far - we're now nearly 6 weeks into the summer break** with only 4 left to go - I'm hoping that we'll manage to maintain momentum for the next month and that the shock for them of returning to more structured learning come the end of August won't be as great as it might otherwise have been. Every now and again though, as I cajole Boy #2 to 'look at the word' in the hope he might remember 'had' next time (yes, it is like that), I do ask myself if this is the right thing to do.
It's 30 minutes in a day. That's not so much to ask them to do, surely? Or am I just being an over-anxious mother; should I instead just chill out and let them do whatever they want over the loooooonnnnggg summer break?
Discuss.
 |
| If only all biology lessons could be like this... |
* In case you're not familiar with this term (ha!), it refers to the loss of children's academic skills and knowledge over the summer break. See here for Wikipedia's entry on the subject.
** Yes, you did read that right. We have already had one and a half months of summer holidays. How the hell did that happen?
