SKL Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 In the past my kids' teachers have sent home miscellaneous stuff, like unfinished workbooks and some random worksheets. They were loosely recommended, not really expected. The 3rd grade teacher sent home some stuff a few weeks before school started, and I don't really remember what that was - some goal setting type stuff IIRC and a recommendation to read and practice math facts. This year, it seems the 3rd and 4th grade teachers have collaborated, and they are going to mail us a pile of recommended summer work next week. It isn't required, but they say there will be some sort of rewards or something given by the 4th grade teacher to kids who finish the work. Of course I already had plans for the summer, but I am interested to see what they send home. I hope it is something we can actually use within the framework of what I want to accomplish. What summer work have your kids brought home over the years? Did they do it? Do you think it is helpful? On another note, they already sent the school supply lists and dress code etc. for next year. I'm glad, because now I can plan for it instead of being in a rush during the last few weeks of vacation. Now if I could just predict my kids' shoe sizes for the fall .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VANURSEPRAC Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 "math packs" covering the material they learned in that year so they come to the next grade "fresh". Also reading challenges with rewards for # of books read, also one novel read before English class starts. This is for 6th going into 7th grade. I will continue her "afterschool math" but much slower pace. Just so she does not get rusty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linders Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Our school has required summer reading, which includes some research/writing ahead of time (e.g., author or topic research) and writing after reading which counts as a test grade for language arts. Different books are selected for each grade level. During the first week of school, several classes will refer to the summer reading. And then there are MY summer assignments, which include math, intro to coding, and lots of reading. (Or, hey, you can repaint the 6,000 feet of fence....) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 Starting in high school, my kids have summer math packets (with a prerequisite skills quiz the first week back to school) and summer reading for English and history classes. There are brief assignments on the summer reading, usually annotating and answering a couple of questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 We have 2 summer reading lists from the school - 1 is mandatory (the books on there are not new to us) and the other is an optional (enrichment) type reading list. There is some literature question paper to be answered after reading them. I am planning to go over the books and pick out what looks interesting and drop the books that are below DS's reading level. We have Spanish to catch up on - we are moving schools and this one has had Spanish since K and it is a new subject for DS. So, I will be "Afterschooling" Spanish or find a Spanish language summer camp to do the needful. Besides this, DS gets other homework from me for summer schooling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 Starting in middle school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 Yes. So far it has been of the "suggested" variety with a reward for turning in at the beginning of the next year. This summer, I am going to have DS practice math facts regularly and I am looking for a resource to practice word problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentuckymom Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 DS has gotten packets of suggested work before and they've mostly sat around. This year they have a packet with lots of suggested work and one true assignment. They have to choose a book from a pretty large list of suggestions, read it, and prepare a presentation on it for the class, including a written summary to hand into the teacher. I'm not a big fan of required summer work, but the required part isn't too hard and there are lots of creative options for the presentation, so I'm not stressing about. DS has recently gotten very concerned about doing well in school and not forgetting things over the summer, so he may actually do a large portion of the packet. I won't stop him, but I won't force it either. What I will force is practice of multiplication facts (he still doesn't have them down and the the advanced that math gets the more this hurts him) and daily reading of a book of his choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mabelen Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 In high school for AP subjects. Otherwise, no summer package, but here afterschooling is a way of life for large sections of the population. These kids will do academic work during the summer whether at home with mom or at the fancier camps or franchises. You almost have to go along with it to stay semi competitive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 In elementary, there is always suggested work, mostly involving reading and math facts, just for the purpose of keeping things fresh. There are no specific assignments. In middle school, there are typically one or two novels assigned to be read before the start of the school year, sometimes with a written assignment of some sort (questions to be answered and/or maybe a little essay). IME this will get done immediately prior to the start of the school year, like on a plane ride back from vacation when school starts in two days :tongue_smilie: At the elementary level, summer is such a great time to do your own academic things, such as firming up weak areas and accelerating and/or deepening in areas of strength. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VANURSEPRAC Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 In high school for AP subjects. Otherwise, no summer package, but here afterschooling is a way of life for large sections of the population. These kids will do academic work during the summer whether at home with mom or at the fancier camps or franchises. You almost have to go along with it to stay semi competitive. I wonder what others do for afterschooling. I live in West Teas and it is not common here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 When my kids attended public school (K-5th/6th), they never had summer homework. There may have been some reading chart/incentive for books read over the summer; I don't recall, and they would have read anyway. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBM Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 In elementary school, no; however, summer was the time for my kids to cement what they had learned the prior school year, finish our afterschooling goals, and explore new interests. Friend and family time and down time were just as important and still are. Assigned reading during summer began in junior high and continued through high school. Some of the selections were very good and others not. My youngest's university will be sending out required summer reading soon. He's also working on math and comp sci for fun and Latin because he might be taking a placement test at the end of July. Studying Latin, for him, is not for fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mabelen Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Afterschooling at the elementary level here is usually Math and reading. Many foreign born scientists and engineers in our area. Some outsource to Kumon, Mathnasium, Math Circles, others do Singapore math or follow textbooks from their home countries at home. For reading some again use Kumon, others just enforce reading lists etc. Where things begin to go more serious is in Middle School and beyond. There are a couple of SAT prep places that offer all kinds of courses from middle school to APs and SATs. Other tutoring in anything and everything is very brisk business too. It is a very competitive mentality so parents will do a lot to give their kids an edge. I see that a lot of the extracurriculars that kids follow are so that they can enter competitions rather than for the love of the activity itself, although the kids do often end up loving the activity itself. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luuknam Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Last summer the school sent home a "summer journal", that they recommended he write in daily. He wrote about 1-2 sentences per day and we ran out of pages after 2 weeks or so... clearly they weren't expecting kids to actually write in it every day. I don't think they wanted kids to hand it in after the summer either. They also gave us a list of spelling words kids need to know by the end of 2nd grade (this was the summer between 1st and 2nd grade), so kids could start practicing, but again, not any expectation of kids actually doing that. IIRC the year before that they gave a list of sight words kids needed to know by the end of 1st grade, but I could be wrong - too long ago. For the upcoming summer I won't know for another 3 weeks or so, as school isn't out yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 No. Holidays are for relaxing or when older for working. But our summer holiday is only six weeks long. As I parent I would find it a gross intrusion and a definate overstepping of bounds. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Our grade school asks that kids sign up for a summer reading program at any of the nearby libraries or read a certain number of books or minutes on their own over the summer. It's encouraged but not a requirement. The first Friday of school, all the kids who successfully completed a summer reading program or submitted a reading list/log get to attend a swimming party at the local pool (with parental permission, of course). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted June 5, 2015 Author Share Posted June 5, 2015 We got the package from the teachers. It does recommend that they join the library summer reading club. Thing is, I haven't been that impressed with the summer reading club in the past. I guess we could try it again. My kids would enjoy going to the library over the summer, though to me, it's one more thing to keep track of that we really don't need. (We have thousands of books for them to read at home.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 We got the package from the teachers. It does recommend that they join the library summer reading club. Thing is, I haven't been that impressed with the summer reading club in the past. I guess we could try it again. My kids would enjoy going to the library over the summer, though to me, it's one more thing to keep track of that we really don't need. (We have thousands of books for them to read at home.) That is my frustration with the summer reading program as well, but here they've tried to really make it more cultural since most of the kids doing it finish the reading in the first week anyway. I feel like it tries to incentivize kids to read, but there is a mismatch between "kids who need to be incentivized" and "kids who are participating int he program" which causes incentives to creep to the interests of kids who don't need incentives to read. They need to host the summer reading program at McDonald's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 You know what...that is actually not a bad idea. I bet McDonald's could do it, too. They have buttloads of money and need all the good publicity they can get. I'm going to write a letter. ETA: This is the kind of irritating person I am. I just wrote my letter. Who knows? I had to give them my name, address and phone number. Maybe they will call me. I still think reading promotional materials from McDonald's would be better than nothing, which is what some kids do. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Our school wants the kids to continue reading every day and work on math facts. No assigned homework this year. They make suggestions for how one might achieve that reading, including joining summer reading clubs. But there are LOTS of clubs available if you don't wlike the library one. 2 Different Local Library Systems (And I'll have to look and see what Round Rock is doing. That could be a third) Half Price Books Local book store BookPeople Barnes & Noble Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge: http://www.scholastic.com/ups/campaigns/src-2015 Pizza Hut Book it Program http://www.bookitprogram.com/ Sylvan Learning Center Book Adventure And you can even "make your own" -- http://workathomemoms.about.com/od/readingactivities/a/Summer-Reading-Program.htm http://blog.al.com/bargain-mom/2011/05/frugal_living_8_tips_for_creat.html PBS Kids helps you make your own: http://www.education.com/summer-reading/ Kids Reading Scavenger Hunt http://www.modernparentsmessykids.com/2014/07/free-printable-reading-scavenger-hunt.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted June 5, 2015 Author Share Posted June 5, 2015 I had a chance to look over the summer homework binder. Aside from daily reading and math facts, they have 47 "optional" items, of which they want everyone do do at least 40. Now some of those are not happening for us, like ask Dad if you can help (no dad), and go to church with a friend, and put on sunblock. So that narrows down the opt-out choices. ;) They are a mixture of quick review stuff, writing, religious stuff (Lutheran school), and one or two projects. And a handful of fun things just to give the kids something easy to cross off. (Go swimming, ride your bike, go to the park.) Not a big deal. We do have a really packed summer, so with all the unfinished workbooks from school and afterschooling, materials I bought for the summer, summer camps, evening classes, scout badges, travel, house remodel (girls are getting new bedrooms), etc., I need to reconfigure the plans I had in my head. Now here's a little tiny peeve I have. Why do schools wait until the last week to send home flyers for summer camps? Don't they know that working parents have to solidify the summer camp schedule a lot sooner than that - like, starting in February? I just got a flyer for chess camp. I would have made time for that if I'd known about it earlier. Oh well, there's always next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 I had a chance to look over the summer homework binder. Aside from daily reading and math facts, they have 47 "optional" items, of which they want everyone do do at least 40. Now some of those are not happening for us, like ask Dad if you can help (no dad), and go to church with a friend, and put on sunblock. So that narrows down the opt-out choices. ;) Ask Dad if you can help what? I'd honestly make the parental decision to adjust this to your family either by letting them ask Mom to help or a grandfather/good neighbor type. My son had a spelling pc to do this year to "Write the words with sidewalk chalk" We don't have sidewalk. I gave him paint and water and had him do it that way instead and signed off on it. We go summer camp stuff starting after Spring Break. (so nothing as early as February.) The schools here send it out as they get it in. Maybe the chess camp people were late sending their stuff to the school? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted June 5, 2015 Author Share Posted June 5, 2015 Oh, and the package specifies public library book club. Which I prefer (over other book clubs), as it does not involve spending any money or eating junk food .... There is a public library next to one of our favorite parks, down the street from where the girls swim several times a week, so it is not a huge deal. My kids will enjoy it. It's just that right now I would rather not have to keep track of library books and due dates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted June 5, 2015 Author Share Posted June 5, 2015 Ask Dad if you can help what? I'd honestly make the parental decision to adjust this to your family either by letting them ask Mom to help or a grandfather/good neighbor type. My son had a spelling pc to do this year to "Write the words with sidewalk chalk" We don't have sidewalk. I gave him paint and water and had him do it that way instead and signed off on it. We go summer camp stuff starting after Spring Break. (so nothing as early as February.) The schools here send it out as they get it in. Maybe the chess camp people were late sending their stuff to the school? I'm sure they would accept modified stuff for some of the items. I could do the Grandpa thing. I thought about doing that on Father's Day when we go out there. But the thing is, I hate rubbing it in that my kids don't have a dad. If they don't have to do it, and don't care to, we'll probably skip it. As for the camps, they also sent out all the sports camp stuff in the past week or two. I dunno, maybe they just got it, but I get camp flyers in my mail a lot earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessc Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Last summer my rising first grader had homework for almost every subject. It was a calendar for the two months of summer with all the weekdays filled in with assignments. A daily journal prompt to write. Math worksheets, ELA worksheets, she had to create a science journal where she explored different topics like properties of matter, she had to create a shoebox diorama about an animal habitat and some Mandarin work. She also had to make index cards for her Dolch sight words. I thought that was a lot for a 5/6 year old. And they actually check it when the students return and give a grade for completion or not. In the higher level grades they get a zero if their summer homework isn't complete. There's nothing "suggested" about it. They also give homework for Christmas holiday break, mid winter break and spring break. It's kind of a bummer. Who knows what we'll have this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kessepha Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 My son has to work on "The Science Project of DOOM" this summer. Seventh grade is all about TSPoDOOM! And just when parents breathe a sigh of relief, the "continuation plan" comes out and it turns out they have to carry it over into eight grade with deliverables over the summer too. *beats head on keyboard* Other than that, our school assigns summer reading (two books for each grade and projects due the first day of school) and some science thing or another (project o'Doom, for seventh and eighth graders) over the summer. They assign too much homework there, but my middle child does best with less free time on his hands, which is why he's the one I no longer homeschool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 I had a chance to look over the summer homework binder. Aside from daily reading and math facts, they have 47 "optional" items, of which they want everyone do do at least 40. Now some of those are not happening for us, like ask Dad if you can help (no dad), and go to church with a friend, and put on sunblock. So that narrows down the opt-out choices. ;) They are a mixture of quick review stuff, writing, religious stuff (Lutheran school), and one or two projects. And a handful of fun things just to give the kids something easy to cross off. (Go swimming, ride your bike, go to the park.) Not a big deal. We do have a really packed summer, so with all the unfinished workbooks from school and afterschooling, materials I bought for the summer, summer camps, evening classes, scout badges, travel, house remodel (girls are getting new bedrooms), etc., I need to reconfigure the plans I had in my head. Now here's a little tiny peeve I have. Why do schools wait until the last week to send home flyers for summer camps? Don't they know that working parents have to solidify the summer camp schedule a lot sooner than that - like, starting in February? I just got a flyer for chess camp. I would have made time for that if I'd known about it earlier. Oh well, there's always next year. I have the same peeve here. No point sending me info about stuff when I needed to organise care a month earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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