Do You Make Your Child "Study" During Summer Break?

Yes... research has shown that kids who do not read at all in the summer lose a whole grade level of skill that they have to relearn and catch up with the next school year.
I think it's important to keep up the addition, subtraction and multiplication up too...

There's still plenty of time to relax and play, and totally worth it so re-entry in the fall isn't so hard.

My son is finishing Kindergarten, and they are being given summer packets to help keep their skills fresh. Their teachers also recommended picking up workbooks from the Summer Solutions or Summer Bridge Activities lines.

Mostly, my son will be having fun, but I will be helping him keep up with his sight words, writing (as a student with ADHD, he has horrendous writing, which is a very common problem), and reading along with him. He's worked far too hard at school this year for me to let his skills atrophy.

My son has always gone to some type of one month academic summer school. He'll do that again this year. Additionally, he usually reads a book every couple of weeks. As long as he does the two, then he can still enjoy the break. We also go on a road trip and try and make those educational in that we will read maps and facts about each place we visit..

have a great summer!

YES I do.
Always have.
During summer I homeschool my kids and prep them for the next grade.
I get workbooks. From Barnes and Noble.

My son's Teacher, actually sends home a packet of "ideas" for studying over the summer, which she sends home on the last day of school.
It is not arduous stuff. Just stuff to keep their brains going. And to retain what they learned. Fun stuff. One activity for each day of the month.

And I have my kids read, over the summer. And do writing.
Just a journal. Nothing arduous.

Both my kids are in elementary school.
Well one of them is going on to middle school.

I don't have them do LOTS of "studying." But some.
Not anything like the same load they get in school.

Lord, no!
Summer is for swimming, baseball, sleepovers, adventure and friends.

If that makes me a "bad" mom? So be it!
My kid does SO much during the school year--he's earned his summer!

Yes, I do! We read every day and do a page or two of the summer workbooks. I don't go overboard with it, they do maybe 20 minutes worth of work each day, but I think it's important to keep some sort of routine going over the summer.

We usually do our work in the morning, that way, the rest of the day is free to do whatever we want. Happy summer!

Yes, I do try to keep them doing some stuff even if it's just reading and some workbooks.

I will be. She needs to be kept fresh and needs some help with a few things to make sure she's ready for 1st Grade.

Mostly reading work, but we'll work on money, clocks, days and months. Also helping her to memorize her birthdate, address and phone number. Oh, and tieing her shoes. :)

If they are lagging in an area (such as my son is dyslexic) we will keep them on track (like a summer reading list) but it usually more fun than tradition school work. We also encourage free study (reading time, science museums, history documentaries, etc) over the summer that we might not push or have time for in the school year.

Yep.. Not everyday of course.

But our daughter loved books. She always had a book within each.. and could read a chapter book a day if we would have let her. She would keep a stack next to her bed.

She also liked brain teasers, and word games.. She would pick out activity books, she liked playing school.

7 minute mysteries, joke books.

We would go to the Teacher Supply store and she would pick out workbooks she thought looked like fun.

She painted, crafted, all sorts of things.

She also was always in advanced classes read on many grade levels above her grade.. SHE LOVED all of this. And so we encouraged her.

She never saw this as homework or summer work, she saw it as fun..

Attitude makes the difference.

Yes. They have to complete a reading log and either a math or science page every day before they can play on the XBOX or any electronics...OR go to the pool.

My youngest will be going into the 6th grade, and unfortunately, we still have 6th graders in elementary school here.

My middle school child will be held to the same expectations.

I will most likely have a tutor come once a week to help them as they study better with someone who is not personally involved with them.

Nope.
My son's idea of an extra special treat is a trip to the book store.
As a reward for good behavior, being a wonderful helper and great grades, I never say 'No' to him in the book store.
Reading is one of his favorite things to do.
As far as learning goes - there's ALWAYS something fun to learn!
He's taking a week of archery instruction with a compound bow this summer and he'll be learning some of the physics that goes with it.

Summer Bridge Activities. Yes, you should definitely have that as part of your summer. I always did it first thing in the morning, except for when summer swim team practice was first thing in the morning. Then it was second thing in the morning.

Part of what I taught was the multiplication tables and the states and their capitals. SO much easier than the kids trying to learn rote memorization during the school year. We played games with all this too. We had the time - so nice!

We did lots of library time too, and museums. I tied a lot of our summer bridge work to what we were seeing in the museums as well. Miss Frizzle and the Magic School Bus was perfect for that!! (I can still hear my son say Dorothy Ann's go-to "According to my research...!" LOL!)

Those with younger kids who are posting that they'd never, ever do any summer work with their kids other than maybe encouraging them to read: That's nice, but as kids get older -- yes, even older elementary -- they really need to keep up math skills and writing skills over the summer. By fourth, fifth and sixth grade, kids do lose a lot of skills if they don't use those skills. And schools do expect kids to come back in the fall ready to move ahead, and not needing days or weeks of "reminder" lessons.

My daughter has done a drop-in math program each of the past four summers and will do it again this summer (two to three one-hour to 90-minute sessions each). She goes to a one-week, half-day writing camp that she loves. And she and I together usually come up with at least one "project" she wants to do -- often it's really a Girl Scout badge or other activity but she gets rewarded for doing it. She also does crafts, sees friends, and just plain plays. FYI she is going into seventh grade in the fall.

One saying we use around here is "Math is a muscle," meaning that you have to exercise your math skills or they get slack. It really is true. For younger kids you can make it fun and relate it to everyday tasks like measuring, but as kids get older they just need some formal math (and, I would add again, writing) practice so they don't get rusty. Staying home doing nothing but playing outside is nice, but as kids get older it does not serve them well when they return to school in the fall.

The American public school model is based on the old agrarian model where kids were needed to help work on the farm (or in the family store etc.) in the summer months. We don't need that any more but the three-month-summer model remains, leaving kids to lose knowledge and parents to scramble for day care, camps and other "coverage" if both parents must work all summer. I see lots of families stress out every year about how they will make three months of coverage happen. I love the long period of time off with my kid! But I think the model is way outdated for everyone involved.

No way. The kids are in school all day long, like we are at work. I feel like they deserve a summer "off". My kids get good grades, if they didn't, maybe I would feel differently but for now, I feel like I want them to have fun and a break, and they do. =)

I always tried to keep my kids reading over the summer. 3rd grade is a great time for multiplication flash cards, they just don't teach that in school anymore. Make it a game, include rewards. It's worth it, trust me!

My son is going into 4th grade. I make him read every night and I'm planning on this summer having him do Kahn academy online and math worksheets to keep up his skills. Not too much...it is summer vacation after all! But, yes, he will have a little homework each week.

I work with my children on emerging and new concepts all year long. The summer is no different. We are always having tons of fun during the summer and about an hour or so daily does not make them enjoy their summers any less. My children are natural readers and I thoroughly enjoy teaching them anything about their worlds and the upcoming year as well. I much prefer my children to be as prepared as possible instead of blindsided by a concept they do not understand.

I have a son who is autistic going into 1st grade and a daughter going into 4th grade. We do not use workbooks unless they request them and we're playing around online with programs as well seeing as this is constantly used in the classroom. That is not to say I do not teach my children how to do typical work with a pencil and paper.

Yep! We do a workbook and set a summer reading goal. We also do some writing--like write 10 sentences about what we saw/did at the zoo. We turn a lot of day-to-day stuff into a learning opportunity, but I do like doing paper/pencil stuff too!

Yes for my 1st grader.

Last year we did 1-2 hrs of work - reading, spelling, handwriting, math, geography, language, devotions, journaling, telling time, easy science projects (differences in freezing water and a plastic toy or when you add x (rocks, cotton balls, salt, apples etc) to y (jello, ketchup, water, oil, pudding, milk) and get z and then he wrote about his findings). This summer we'll be doing higher levels of the same stuff and I'm introducing pragmatics into the routine.

My son likes schoolwork so it wasn't hard. Plus we are early birds and always had plenty of time after bfast, which is when we did school, before his friends even got out of bed or places to play or shop opened.

He always had the rest of the day to go to sports camps, language school, music lessons and playdates (do they still call them playdates in 1st grade?). It makes for a busy summer but well rounded and he's been making As all year, so its paid off.

I will always push for us doing summerschool because it helps him not struggle so much during regular school.

*and in my experience since preschool, my son, who has always done some sort of summer school work, is one of the kids who has to spend his first month or so of school waiting around bored to death wasting time for his other classmates to catch up bc they never reviewed over the summer. So not doing even a little schoolwork over the summer and giving your kids their break doesn't impress me. My son's summers are always spent with tons of friends, doing every single thing Houston has to offer, vacations, playdates, sports and sitting around being lazy. The schoolwork is just icing on the summer cake for us, thank goodness.

We do not do any school work over the summer, but we do make regular trips to the library and we read daily.

eh. my hippy dippy loosey goosey unschooling free spirit self wants to shout 'no! my children learned from living, not from spending glorious summer days hunched over a worksheet!'
but my reality wasn't quite like that.
since we homeschooled for a good bit of my kids' educational years, it was a moot point. we did year-round 'school', but i tell you true, we were lazier in the summers. cuz summers are lazy glorious goodness. we are summer folk.
but i do understand the worry over kids who get a long summer break and have a difficult adjustment going back to school.
i don't think it's awful for kids to keep their heads in the game over summer. only i have a problem with the way it's presented to so many of them. even the way it's phrased here, my lovely leelee, 'making' them 'study.' it sure sucks the sweetness out of the joy of learning cool new stuff, doesn't it?
so i'd be rolling a hairy eyeball at the school's Workbooks because they sound dreary. and naturally that's my rebellious i-create-my-own-curricula bias too. but i do think it's a good idea to keep the kids motivated and excited about learning. i'd just find unit study flavored ways of doing it, rather than sticking them with Schoolwork.
khairete
S.

No! No workbooks!

My 5th grader will swim, ride bike, play, read, spend time with friends and family, and go to 3 one-week daycamps (Camp Invention, Circus camp, and Horse camp). We'll stay up late and sleep in, and plan our days around the weather.

I'm so looking forward to it. (Now I just need to find a way to fit my work in, too!)

Yes. I have them read. I usually sign them up for the reading program at the library. But they like to read so it is not horrible and they get prizes. And yes they do workbooks. But they also have their summer. They have not complained much about having to do a couple pages in a workbook, that takes maybe 30 minutes total of their day. Mine will be doing more math this summer since they are going into HS and I want them to do well. Math tends to be the subject they have to review the most. My 5 yr old will be practicing writing. She knows her letters and such but does not quite get that onoe has to follow the other to make a word. She writes all over and sometimes no idea what the letter is.

I am planning on doing a summer reading program with mine, I want to read daily and read every book we own over the course of the summer as well as have playful reviewing with flash card games etc. oh we are going to do a butterfly garden as well :)

My son will be starting first grade in September. We will be doing more project-oriented learning on our own this summer, reading every day and he'll be tutored to help keep his skills sharp and work on his task persistence, something which needs more maturing and practice.

I think every kid is different. I know that my son will do better with daily reinforcement regarding reading; the math will be something we can work on through 'family math' type games, charts, and the projects/field trips/nature studies we'll be doing. Those other things are all play-oriented/self-led (I just augment) and are fun for him-- or at least, he says they are. This will also help ease our transition back to school. For such an early reader, I think taking the summer off completely would make things much harder once school starts again-- they say that kids lose about 2 months of learning/knowledge during summer in some subjects, so spending a little bit of time every day is perfect for us.

yes. we do study.. maybe 30 minutes per day-- probably 4 mornings a week.. also..we will have afternoon independent reading time.. maybe 20-30 minutes int he afternoon.. when it gets too hot outside..

the little bit of time.. wont spoil their summer fun... and will help them stay on the path ...

Nope!
~They do read nightly though...but that hardly counts and has been their routine for since forever!

Now granted, my kids are also elementary school age (next year I will have a 4th grader, a 2nd grader and one in K) and the two older ones have consistently been above grade level in everything!

If the time comes when I no longer go to the before winter vacation parent/teacher conference and am no longer told that my kids have completed all the necessary requirements for that year (seriously, being done with the years work before Christmas break is frustrating!) and they begin to struggle or what have you, then I might consider it? But for the most part I believe summer break should be just that, A BREAK!

So excited for summer! I LOVE having my little munchkins home with me all the time!!

My daughter is wrapping up kindergarten. She has come so far this year, she started out not really reading much at all to being able to read most Dr. Suess beginner books all by herself. Her teacher said we really need to keep up with the reading over the summer so they don't lose skills when they start 1st grade. But we were not given anything specific. My feeling is we are going to be visiting the library a lot for new reading material.

100% NO - NEVER - NO WAY. DS is going into second grade. We will go to the library regularly and play. He will go to camp three days a week. No plans to do work books. We don't do them during the year.

Nope. Summer vacation is meant to enjoy. They never had a problem going I to the next grade. When they got older they had summer reading to do.

Learning is everywhere, learning happens all the time, learning is not a seasonal thing. Now, I plan to continue our daily routines of random math cards, reading time that amounts to 60min/day - using the read to self and read to others routine at school. My son does not do well with things like worksheets and sit down learning time so that is not my approach at home, but YES I will continue to work on his current skills and "up the ante" on where he is. I also wished that the schools were able to find a way to offer summer school to families that were voluntary, I would pay for this personally, not just for those that are behind. I remember my school offered this and I was able to take an Art Class, Computer Sciences, Science Classes etc each summer it was fun, kept me interested in different things and made summer more than just another summer. Our Park District offers various day camps, but none of them are run by teachers - that is the difference I seek personally.

When the sks were younger, they spent their summers with BM and we just nudged them with reminders to get the summer work done. By the time they were in HS, they were doing AP where the summer work was an essential part of class and graded.

My DD will do whatever summer work the school assigns. We will also continue to do things like read, go to museums, and other educational opportunities. At her school, there is a free summer program in July that she will attend, at least this year. But will I be sitting her at the table in August? No. Not specifically.

I never did.
My daughter loved to read, and read voraciously over the summer. Sometimes she did the summer reading program at the library, but only if she wanted to.
My ex and I actually had a big fight over this. He wanted to make her write book reports on the books she read over the summer and I told him he would do no such thing. Making something she did for fun into homework would accomplish nothing but killing her love for it.

I sure hope I never do that to my kiddo!

My son, who will be going into 4th grade, continues to read nightly for 20 minutes at least and usually more b/c he loves to read. Then in August we start reviewing math and doing 1 math sheet every day/other day.

My son has always been pretty cerebral and actually enjoys academic tasks... so I wouldn't say we MAKE him "study" during the summer, but he does do a fair bit of academics during the summer... probably more than during the school year because he's significantly above grade level, so when he isn't spending 7 hours a day working on social skills and school procedures, he makes much more noticeable gains in the academic skills.

He usually picks out a "workbook" from the book store and just works through the pages a few at a time (Big Book of 3rd Grade or whatever). I picked up a Singapore Math problem solving book for him to do this summer, but he found it and is now on until 3, so that won't be lasting very long. Oh well.

If he didn't LIKE doing it, I probably wouldn't make him, though. We spend enough time cooking and watching jeopardy and playing Scrabble and dominos that I'm not worried about his brain turning to mush in two months.

Oh, yeah... he's going into 2nd grade.

nope. My kids are going into 3rd and 1st and summer is a time for fun and a time to relax. They do like to read, so they do that just naturally on their own, but I do not do worksheets or anything like that.

Hi LeeLee,
I've always had my son do workbooks during the summer. We started this about 2 months before he started kinder, so he was prepared when he started. Then during the summers before 1st and 2nd grade, I take him to the bookstore and let him pick out his own workbook. He knows that he does not have to finish the whole workbook during the summer and that he doesn't even have to do a page everyday but he does have to work in it over the summer. He likes picking out is own too. I just take him to that section of the book store point out the ones appropriate for the grade he's going into and then he sits there and looks through them and picks the one that looks more fun to him. I've never had to argue with him about doing it either, because we don't set rules about it. I'm totally fine if he goes a few days without opening it but he has to do a little something every week, and I let him pick the times he works on it. I've noticed that when I say 'You don't have to work on it now, you can do it later', his response probably 85% of the time is, 'No, I'll do a few pages now' =) He's now starting 3rd grade, is testing above his level in all subjects and is now being tested for the GATE program. I think it's a great thing for the kids to do over summer, but I don't think it should be forced on them cause then they dont' want to do it, it's more a punishment and then that attitude carries on when the school year starts.
Have a great summer!

i think those workbooks trying to bridge the grades are great, esp since its only a page or two.

my big thing is to read. read a book, then i ask them whats happening and make sure my daughter comprehends it and can explain it. i make sure she is reading a book that is more challenging so she is ahead when the next grade starts. i think reading is the very best thing for the summer since its not so workish.

I have not read ANY of the other responses...so here is what we do.

No. I do not MAKE them do school work. We typically get them workbooks and if they want to they can, and they normally like to on rainy days. My kids are signed up for two weeks of swim lessons, two weeks of VBS, one week of camp, and a vacation that splits two weeks. So that is 7 of the 9 weeks of summer already booked with activities. Granted, they all only take the morning, but we get summer passes to the local pool and let them go to movies, jump yards, out to lunch, museums, parks, etc.

I am off every other Friday and we'll most likely do some sort of trip on those days. We are close to DC, and the museums are FREE. Lots of learning there. So we do more "fun" learning versus books in the summer.

I will have my youngest going into 5th work on reading mostly in the summer cause that's what he struggles with the most. I will also have him do some writing. But for the most part I have not worried about it much. My oldest is going into high school and going to be in PreAP classes and has to but that's his choice because he's choosing the classes.

I do make sure my GD reads throughout the summer. And if she gets bored, I will suggest the workbooks. She kind of likes them so it's not a problem. I will also suggest, when there's more than one kid, that they play school. I don't "make" her do it on a daily basis or even weekly, just every now and again.

No. Not at all. At the beginning of the school year they spend 2 weeks reviewing what they learned last year to see where the teacher needs to start this year. The kids are kids and deserve to have a break. You know those teachers are not studying up or taking classes to learn to be better teachers, they're traveling and taking their time off having fun. The kids are kids and need to have some fun too.

As a general rule I don't. This year will be a little different. I cyber/homeschool, and we had a few rough months of sickness which put them a little behind. So we will be doing some in the morning but not an outrageous amount.

My 1st grader is behind in reading. Didn't realize that the glasses we just got him weren't working because his eye's changed with a month or so of getting them.....bad mommy moment. Since the new glasses he is moving along, but still needs to be worked with.

Yes, I would buy little workbooks from Walmart and have my son do one page a day.

Yes, we'll do IXL math on the computer to keep up their facts and writing practice for the young one who needs work in that area. I'll probably also have him go over his Spanish too, so he doesn't forget it all before fall. My daughter will be working on math and drawing. We'll make it fun and quick each day.

If your child is behind I might consider doing some light tutoring. However, if s/he is on track, I'd stick to a fun library reading program and leave it at that. Everyone needs a break.