How much can we stop for summer without losing skills?

[ExcitedMama]

I wanted to do more fun suff this summer but I'm not sure how much DS can stop doing at 6 without losing skills. He's about 1/4 of the way through AAR4 so I'm planning to keep that going but maybe less days a week. We've been doing AAS2 slowly and a large part of his writing comes from doing the dictation for that. Given that he doesn't do all that much writing and I don't want him forgetting what he's learned should we keep that up too but maybe just do it a little less per week?

 

What about ETC? He's starting book 5 and so far these books are more of a writing exercise than a challenge for him. He's finally caught up closer to what he's learned in AAR so they've been getting more interesting to him but overall he only enjoys the silly questions and the fill in the blank sentences. Is this something that could be dropped until the fall? Or does that risk forgetting stuff?

 

He's been doing MIF and I paused that to finally dust off Miquon which had been ignored. I am not good at juggling so I thought he would go through Miquon until he caught up closer to where he was in MIF but it looks like they are very different. Miquon is going to have fractions and multiplication coming up so I don't know if he should go back to MIF. Since he is young and just learning these things how much math should I keep up over the summer?

 

I know he's ahead of where he would be if he was going to school so I'm not worried about doing more if that makes sense but of course I don't want him to lose skills. I'm trying to figure out how to schedule things now and what summer could look like. He really wants to do more science and history. I also want to do more art and music studies which get neglected during the year to hopefully do a better job of keeping it up next year. He's in a virtual charter school for the funds so it will be nice to have a summer break from feeling like we have to report on a checklist of subjects but he's young and I don't know how to balance keeping up newly acquired skills.

Edited May 21, 2016 by ExcitedMama

[abacus2]

I personally believe there is academic and personal growth benefit in taking a summer break. Getting out of the regular routine is great for creativity and imagination. Children naturally learn through play. Also, taking a break from regular practice of skills and then coming back and being asked to remember helps to get said skills into longer term memory.

 

My children actually have had no loss of skill that I can remember by taking summer breaks. They tend to use many of their academic skills in their play anyway.

 

Art and music are great things to do more of in the summer. We spend a large amount of time at the pool.

[HomeAgain]

I have a 6yo.  Our summer is a vacation.  :)  We'll do a lot of fun stuff: library reading program, hiking (and taking a nature journal along), swimming, and local concerts/events.  The break is nice.  The middle of August comes all too soon, and I'm good with spending a few weeks of light review before plunging into new work in September.

[rebcoola]

 It depends on the kid my younger would be fine with any break.  The older can't take more than a week without significant cobwebs you can see this in other things to bike riding, swimming, knitting if she doesn't do it for awhile it takes work to get it back,

[Hobbes]

We've been taking our summer breaks from the end of May to the beginning of September and I haven't yet noticed a loss of skills. They are generally ahead of where they were when we start up again. I attribute this to maturing minds, plus the benefits of free play, exercise, and read-alouds. My mom says the same thing - we always had at least three months off as kids and it never negatively impacted our academics.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

If we take a "real" summer break, it means at least a month of review for my dd, and at least 2 weeks of review for my ds.  It drives me nuts.  So I try to do some minimum amount of work.  Maybe the review books from Math Mammoth, plus some other little things.  

 

But at 6, I would definitely keep up reading instruction.  I would say you can choose ONE thing, probably AAR out of your list, and keep going with that.  Personally, I would drop ETC altogether, as it's unnecessary if you're doing AAS.  At 6, I would probably also keep up with a very short copywork passage daily.  I would not worry about Miquon's different scope and sequence.  Doing a bit of miquon in the summer is probably a great choice to keep math fresh without it being more of the same.

[lmrich]

I think spending 1 hour on academic work a day in the summer is not a big deal. My kids always did math in the summer and always had to read. They got used the summer routine and never really complained about it because it was what we always did. 

[MerryAtHope]

If you want to do something over the summer, I would work in more game-like review. Go to the library to get books to read, use some of the review card or fluency page review ideas:

 

Reading Review Card ideas

Fluency page ideas

Free Activity Downloads for both reading and spelling

Spelling Review Card ideas

 

My kids definitely lost content over the summer. I had one forget how to write many letters between first and second grades, after having done them for 2 years! We spent 2 months reviewing. That was the last time I took a 10 week break. Usually we took a 6 week break after that. We still did some review when we started back, but usually just a couple of weeks. Breaks were important for all of us to recharge, even if it did mean some extra review. But if you are able to keep up with some skill areas without them or you feeling burnt out, go for it!

 

 

 

[fourisenough]

YMMV but with my DD-brand new 7-year old we'll do a "Power Hour" of school work about 3-days per week over the summer: AAS; MM or SM CWP; & a bit or reading & narration.

 

If I were you, I'd probably continue with AAR, AAS, and Miquon through the summer, aiming for 15-20 minutes of each at least a few times per week.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I've always schooled year round, but summers tend to be much lighter.  I focus on math and reading when I'm doing the minimum. 

[sweetpea3829]

We also school year round. Taking an extended break would be disastrous for DD10, due to her LDs.  

 

Even if that weren't the case, we'd still school year round, as I personally believe we set our kids up when we tell them for 12 years that their "job" (aka, their schooling) can be on hiatus for an entire summer.  That's not the real world.

 

Don't get me wrong...I'm not a task master, and my kids get breaks...we typically do three weeks completely off around the holidays, two weeks completely off at the tail end of summer, and a whole week here and there.  

 

Plus...our summer schedule is very light, and primarily is review.  They're done by midday, so they have plenty of time to pursue other interests.  

[Rosie_0801]

Miquon doesn't have to be used in the order you find it in the book. Use the easy sheets for maintenance and leave the fractions and multiplication until later. My dd is using some pages from the Green book even though she hasn't and can't finish Orange yet.

[Freedom]

We also school year round. Taking an extended break would be disastrous for DD10, due to her LDs.

 

Even if that weren't the case, we'd still school year round, as I personally believe we set our kids up when we tell them for 12 years that their "job" (aka, their schooling) can be on hiatus for an entire summer. That's not the real world.

 

Don't get me wrong...I'm not a task master, and my kids get breaks...we typically do three weeks completely off around the holidays, two weeks completely off at the tail end of summer, and a whole week here and there.

 

Plus...our summer schedule is very light, and primarily is review. They're done by midday, so they have plenty of time to pursue other interests.

This! :)

[Wheres Toto]

I like to do year round with a lighter load in the summer.  Usually just one page of math and reading, but this school year has been really chaotic and they haven't done as much school as they should so we will be doing slightly more this summer. Nothing crazy and we will still be spending almost every afternoon at our lake. 

[visitor]

We do the same as Freedom . During Summer only light schooldays .

[Heart_Mom]

I like to keep up math and writing in some form. So in the summer, my children will do those things about 3 days per week. I'm not really looking for them to progress, just not lose skills. I know for child who is finishing K, that if we don't do a bit of reading and writing over the next 3 months, that it will be like starting over in August. 

 

I hope to add some games in there too! :)

[Arcadia]

My kids forget foreign language grammar and vocabulary over summer unless we review every few days.

 

For Art and Music, my boys go to weeklong summer classes for those as they prefer weeklong to once a week lessons during school term.

 

My kids did 10-20mins of math on weekdays and an hour of leisure reading everyday for summer leaving plenty of free time to explore.

[Sk8ermaiden]

She still has to read out loud to me, and do some math review. It probably happens 2-3 days a week. With the difficulty she had getting back in the swing of things after our one week vacations this year, even she supports the idea of keeping skills up over summer. We blow it off if we have anything even remotely more fun to do. 

[mtomom]

I school in the summer just as if it is more of the year. I have always done it that way, and my oldest is in middle school now so it's worked for us. My kids have time to read and play and pursue hobbies year round.

 

We take vacations, though often in the off seasons. We take weeks off in the summer for camps, my son took a whole week to work with robotics team mates before their final competition, we take a day to visit friends, etc.  I guess if we lived in a subdivision with kids out of school for the summer playing outside all day I might have decided to do shorter days or something. I think I would still do something year round though.  I like the schedule and day to day freedom I feel knowing we have plenty of time in our year. Have a routine helps us be productive day in and out. I can take time to delve into topics or shore up weaknesses without losing grade level progress. My kids like school--or at least parts of it--and I like teaching, so it's never felt negative to any of us.

 

 

[RKWAcademy]

My kids are in the same spot in AAR4.  We're stopping that for the next month or so, along with most everything else, as we pack up to move since our house sold faster than planned.  I think they'll be fine as long as we read a ton of library books all summer long.  At least that's the plan here.

[kirstenhill]

I have my kids read and do just a bit of math in the summer. My DD would read whether I asked her to or not, but I motivate the boys with summer library/bookstore reading programs. We tried doing no math in the summers a couple times, but we usually regretted it. We just do review/practice for math over the summer and keep it fun with things like math games, life of Fred, iPad math games or games on the computer like prodigy, etc. Sometimes I have given the kids a packet of practice problems (for example, DD had a long division packet last summer), with some kind of reward when they finish.

[Holly]

We do math year-round.  When we are in "light school mode" I am for at least 3 days per week of schooling.  We generally continue with phonics and some light writing (like suggestions from Bravewriter Lifestyle).  We also continue with read alouds and some fun subjects like art or science projects.  We also tend to do more nature type things like gardening, fishing, or canoeing.  

[Garga]

My kids start to lose skills after about 2 weeks. :).

 

We're going to do math through the summer around here. We'll take a three week break starting next Monday, and then it's back to daily math.

 

For a little guy your age, I'd do a little school, but keep it light and fun. I'd do it only 2-3 days a week for a little one.

[My3girls]

We school year round so that we can take mental health days as needed, field trip frequently, and to accommodate "music Fridays".  Our summer schedule is a bit lighter as we concentrate on wrapping up what's not done and don't really start anything new until August.

[ExcitedMama]

Thanks so much everyone! It's so helpful to hear what everyone else is doing and what's worked or not. I'm looking forward to changing things up.

[greyseal]

We have done different things; we've schooled in the summer, and we've taken 4 months off due to my father's cancer and subsequent death last year. I noticed math skills slide pretty significantly, and we got back to school late last year, so DD hasn't finished her 3rd grade math books yet. We're planning "fun" science (Mystery Science), 2 pages of BA, and Prodigy/Dreambox at least 3-4 days per week to keep her skills up (and finish 3rd grade up). My DS will read me something each day, do his Prodigy/Dreambox, and work on his handwriting (he's behind on fine motor, and needs to keep plugging away at coloring/writing/etc). 

Edited May 24, 2016 by greyseal

[MeghansMom]

Meg will be working on her math and starting French this summer. She will also be doing literature (which she LOVES) and science (she loves it too).

 

We may be going to Atlanta late summer and she will be involved in horseback riding, guitar lessons and volunteering.