Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion RE: Summer - do your kids do 'school' work?

Another post got me thinking about kids doing the workbooks and stuff over the summer. A friend used to have her kids do them daily over the summer and thought it odd that we didn't do that. We've just always played during the summer. In the course of play, some things are investigated or curiosities arise about subjects and then we might check into it. However, for the most part DS is in a tree or building a fort with friends and rarely cracks a book unless he needs to look something up - ie. they found a cool lizard and want to figure out what kind it is. We go swimming and do other things, but he's just as happy to be at home playing with friends all day, every day.

DS has no interest in doing anything school related unless we're on a roadtrip and he finds a workbook he might want to do when the charge on the handheld runs out - if he doesn't opt for a nap first. I think we may be slackers.... I mean, if he wanted to do them, I wouldn't stop him, but I don't require it. Is this an underachiever in the making?

I'm curious about the pros and cons to continuing 'formal' education during the summer and would be interested in other people's thoughts.

We play a lot. I usually start the summer intending to do one educational thing per day, but it doesn't always work out.

<shrug>

I'm pretty okay with that, as long as they're outside playing and having fun.

I've been thinking about this lately. Summer is so short. We generally spend the summer doing various outdoor activities (track and field course for 2hrs/day for 2weeks, then soccer practice 2hrs/day for 2 weeks), then a one week trip somewhere and it seems summer is over. We do lots of nature study and playing games. But I'm currently researching various homeschooling philosophies and really want to get to how things were before DS went to school. Learning happened anytime. Summer, fall, winter, evenings, weekends. Once school started, *learning* became relegated to school time. Now that we're not schooling any longer, I'm wondering what summer will look like. I'd like to continue w/ history during the summer to get DS5 caught up to where DS8 is in Ancients so we can then move forward together. DS8 is homeschooled this year but DS5 went to K but will be coming this year. I'd like to visit historic places near where we live and learn about that time in history. Just make learning a part of life. Also, the boys are really getting into board games which take a long time to play like Parthenon (they played for over 3hrs last week), Risk, Cataan etc so we'll definitely do more of that now that we'll have long stretches of time. So while we won't do business as usual, I think I'll try to get some stuff done, perhaps a fun lapbook on ANcient Eygpt that everyone in the family contributes, math games to keep those math facts sharp, etc....or perhaps we'll just do nothing. 8-)

I don't require workbook activities or sit down "classroom" type lessons, but I let them take in the freedom to learn what they are truly inspired by. Last summer, that meant creating a "perfect habitat" in the yard for a lizard, swimming safety in a lake as opposed to the pool, lake creatures and rocks, etc. We went to a Farm Sanctuary, a museum of play, a goelogical museum and other places. From there, curiosity led to a desire to know more and seek learning. It was great!!

Hoping for another summer of the same.

Not sure what the summer may bring. I have no plans of any formal work for DS4..I never do. But he tends to do his own projects all the time. Like this morning he made his own multiplication grid before I even drank my coffee. He likes workbooks and educational math games and stuff. He can't go without something educational for too long. But I am sure we will be playing outside a LOT, as usual.

We have 2 vacations planned for this coming summer, gt camp for DS6. Our relatives will stay with us for a few weeks. That should make for quite a busy summer.

We will do whatever the kids want to do. I don't ask for any formal work with the exception of CyberEd. Our license cannot be renewed and I want DS6 to get as much done as possible before it expires.


The same here. Ok, may be not the workbooks anymore. DS6 too creates his own projects. DS4 will spend half of the day asking for science experiments. They will learn new things regardless of what I do

Yes, we're in the same boat with CyberEd, LMom. I am REALLY going to miss that resource!!!

We are another family that doesn't plan on any formal learning but sometimes--even now on the weekends--DS6 and DD4 will ask me for "work". For DS6 this is usually some hard math problems and for DD4 it's usually some basic math or fill in the missing letter in a word type activities.

Since I hired a nanny this summer I am hoping the kids spend as much time as they can outside and getting dirty.

We do very little school-type work. Our kids mostly spend the summer running around and swimming. The local parks & rec department has great day camps for kids. That said, we keep up the reading in the evenings, but this is all stories/chapter books. I do some math with them, but it's limited.

Val