Summer Work

We're struggling with "Summer Work" here.   We don't want to call it "school" because there is a negative connotation with the term since school is officially out for the summer.   We even asked the children what we should call it and have settled on, "summer work."

Some of what needs to happen are important for the children to do over the summer.  Namely reading for both children and math facts for my son.   They are both good at reading, but repetition is important at this age.   My son does quite well in math, but his basic math facts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are lacking.

For instance, he should just know that six times eight is forty-eight without having to do the calculation in his head.   I remember when I was in school this was called memorizing the times tables (for multiplication) and was something I did in elementary school.  I have specific memories of the classroom I was in in my elementary school, sitting at a desk and working on one of the sheets.

When I was young we had Schoolhouse Rock.   For years for the multiples of eight I would quickly sing the song from Schoolhouse Rock in my head to get to the answer.   They do it a little differently now and there are apps to help, but it's essentially the same thing.

We're adding in fun things for the work portion of summer work which might be a craft, origami, completing a KiwiCo Crate activity, growing crystals or even making slime.   It can't be fun every day, but we're trying to make it enjoyable enough that they won't balk every day.

The final component is chores.   We're targeting a total of two hours every weekday divided up into an hour-and-a-half to reading and summer work and a half-hour of chores.   The problem we were running into was the children would put off doing the work until later in the day but by then, their friends had come over and wanted to play.   Since playing outdoors socializing with friends is important to their social development and physical activity, they ran out of time to get everything done many days.

This week we're starting with a new schedule—one the children suggested with our guidance during a conversation last night.   All work will be completed between ten and twelve each morning with the exception of chores, which sometimes may make more sense to do at night.   Today was the first day and it went well, with the children now free to enjoy the rest of their day, hassle-free from us.

The Big Boy Update:  My son hates family conversations when they're about things they have to do or not do.   Last night I tried to make the conversation go quickly.   When I told them we were done after only a few minutes my son said to me, "Mom, I approve of this conversation."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had her summer Orientation and Mobility meeting with her instructor today.   She was deplorable in attitude and I have warned her if it happens again (they meet every two weeks) that she will be writing a single-spaced, one-page apology letter to Mr. Adam for her behavior.   The second half of the call was lovely though once she offered and he agreed to play Othello with her on the newly made tactile version of her game.  He'd never played before so she told him the rules and then they figured out how to play where he could give her a coordinate of where he wanted his tile placed (4C for the fourth row, third column) and then she would determine how the tiles were flipped.   She loves playing games with anyone who will play with her.