Recalibrating expectations in summer

[workingmom]

Anyone try to re/teach study skills or time management skills in the summer? I feel the current school system was disorganized and didn’t really set a solid foundation. But I’m daunted by starting from scratch for my upcoming 5th grader this summer. She has an attitude that “why, I know what to do” and overall not conducive to setting up strategies. But by this time the older two who were homeschooled had learned simple planner and to do lists.

anyone spend time in the summer establishing good habits and how do you get your “child to buy in”

 

also i don’t recall age appropriate steps at age 9. Just a dry erase board daily or a planner?

thanks

 

[vonfirmath]

7 hours ago, workingmom said:

Anyone try to re/teach study skills or time management skills in the summer? I feel the current school system was disorganized and didn’t really set a solid foundation. But I’m daunted by starting from scratch for my upcoming 5th grader this summer. She has an attitude that “why, I know what to do” and overall not conducive to setting up strategies. But by this time the older two who were homeschooled had learned simple planner and to do lists.

anyone spend time in the summer establishing good habits and how do you get your “child to buy in”

 

also i don’t recall age appropriate steps at age 9. Just a dry erase board daily or a planner?

thanks

 

 

Our school started the kids carrying a planner in 4th grade (age 9 for my son)  He's in 6th grade and only this year got better about using it (And we still need to work on WHAT he is putting in it. But at least he writes in it now!)

[SKL]

My kids completely blow off their school planners.  Their excuse is that they don't get enough time to write stuff down.

I have made plans to work on study skills over the summer for the last couple years, but I haven't accomplished much so far.  I keep hoping, and I have some books for the upcoming summer .... 

But honestly, I am not sure the low pressure of summer is the right context for study skills.  I mean, the time limitations and "closed book" nature of b&m school / tests are a big motivation for the kids to develop these skills in the first place.

As far as academic review, I have found that somewhat easier to push during the summer, though it gets harder as they get older.  I find it hard to be militant about it in the summer - we all feel like we need a break from homework, and "creative project" stuff takes too much energy to do all the time when you also work full-time.  What I should do is set a fixed time each day and withhold the cell phones / computers until they get it done.  Will I make it work this summer?  I can hope.

My kids still enjoy read-alouds, so I can sometimes get an academic-themed fiction or non-fiction book into the rotation without too much fuss.

[workingmom]

Quote

Our school started the kids carrying a planner in 4th grade (age 9 for my son)  He's in 6th grade and only this year got better about using it (And we still need to work on WHAT he is putting in it. But at least he writes in it now!)

 

This was so reassuring. DD also got this year in 4th and while she does write things down on Monday (For LA they write all of the weeks assignments down on Monday) she puts it all on Monday even when things are due W/F. So I'm teaching her to write when they're do not when they're assigned. Also sometimes we write in on Wed bring science book home and she doesn't look at that again during the day. So I guess this will take time. She agreed to try a summer planner (they school one doesn't include weekends so in the past we occasionally do checklists on the weekend). But getting a real full week planner will be better.

 

 

[katilac]

My kids enjoyed the How to Become a SuperStar Student video lectures from The Great Courses at around that age. It's a low-key way to address planning and study skills and you don't have to be involved at all. The teacher is engaging and they didn't mind watching. I left it up to them how many notes to take and so forth, because I did want to keep it very low-key and have them open to suggestions. I did not require that they practice or implement specific skills reviewed in the video, this was for exposure and ideas and planting the seed that managing your time and schedule is important. We homeschooled and found it useful - someone in a brick and mortar school would probably find even more that applies. 

I actually found that school breaks were a good time for us to cover planning and study skills, because they were more relaxed and it wasn't 'one more thing' added to the pile. fwiw, they are both in college now and did wind up with very good study skills! 

 

[vonfirmath]

On 3/23/2019 at 1:54 PM, workingmom said:

 

This was so reassuring. DD also got this year in 4th and while she does write things down on Monday (For LA they write all of the weeks assignments down on Monday) she puts it all on Monday even when things are due W/F. So I'm teaching her to write when they're do not when they're assigned. Also sometimes we write in on Wed bring science book home and she doesn't look at that again during the day. So I guess this will take time. She agreed to try a summer planner (they school one doesn't include weekends so in the past we occasionally do checklists on the weekend). But getting a real full week planner will be better.

 

 

 

Ah. My son still puts things on the day he gets the assignment, not the day it is due. I'm just happy if it is written DOWN anywhere.  And we are still working on the other.

I remind myself I didn't have a planner at any time in school -- though I wrote homework down in my notebook with my notes and he isn't taking notes EITHER. So...