Summer & Schoolwork

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I know, I know, that doesn’t sound fun at all.

BUT. I have always had my kids doing some sort of workbook pages during the summer.

Here’s my why:

Everything they learned that year in school… it FALLS OUT OF THEIR BRAIN DURING THE SUMMER!

It really does.

I have let them off the hook some summers and inevitably, when they go back to school, they are behind and have to relearn some subjects.

My kids absolutely hate when I buy the workbook right before the school year is over. Now go back about 4 years and my then 4th grader and Kindergarteners LOVED when we got a new workbook… but now that we are going into 5th and 9th. Not so much.

My son is going into 5th grade. He just came off of a school year that was partially done online via Zoom and Google Classroom because the School District had to close on governers orders due to COVID-19.

I had to help him with school. Folks, let’s just say this… I don’t remember much from school. And you REALLY DON’T use any of that stuff once you’re out. You know what I use the most? The alphabet.. to alphabetize files and such. Seriously. Some math, but we’ve got calculators for that now.

So here I am in March, April, & May… helping my son with schoolwork. It was a STRUGGLE. He treats me differently than a teacher. Meaning he will whine and cry until he hopefully gets his way. I’m a mean mom y’all… I don’t let him get his way much. There were “optional” assignments. Nope, no assignment was optional for my kid. I made him do them all.

And here’s why: He struggles to learn. STRUGGLES. It’s a challenge for him, his mind thinks differently, it wanders, he can’t focus for long periods of time. HE NEEDS ALL THE SCHOOLWORK to try to keep SOME of it in his brain. He forgets it as soon as he’s learned it.

When my daughter was born back in 2006, I REALLY thought I would do homeschooling. I did. But then it was time to enroll her into Kinder, I was working full time, there was no way I could have homeschooled her too.

We found a great school that she LOVED and got to stay in from K-8. She has found some amazing teachers that have been HUGE influences in who she is today. She’s got great friends. She has excelled at school every year.

I didn’t have to help her with schoolwork when we were suddenly all stuck at home. She left 8th grade with all As and 1 B which should have been an A with an 89.94% but whatever.

School ended, but the schoolwork did not!

My daughter doesn’t really have too many options for workbooks for 8th grade, so we opted for Khan Academy. You can sign up for free and there are lots of different courses you can opt into for your student. This has worked well, there are assignments, videos actually teaching. She had a tough time in Algebra this last year, so she is retaking it and actually learning it properly.

For my son, I get him this workbook. Even though he is going into 5th grade, I buy the workbook of the year he was just in, 4th, so we can keep working on all those things he just learned, hopefully keeping them in his head.

I like these workbooks because they have English, Reading, Writing, Math, & Reading Comprehension. It’s a nice mix of subjects. I have him do 6 pages Monday, 6 pages Tuesday, 5 pages Wednesday, 4 pages Thursday, and 3 pages on Friday. I make sure every morning, before we play video games, watch YouTube, whatever, the pages are done for the day.

He still struggles, but I’ve also seen things CLICK! We worked and worked on division.. tears were shed, papers crumpled in anger. But then one day, he did all the questions BY HIMSELF. He finally got it! Things take him a bit longer, but perseverance paid off and he finally got it! I am so proud of how much he’s accomplished and how much he’s learning/remembering by doing these workbook pages.

I only ever want to set my kids up for success. I want the very best for them, and being behind in school when you already struggle, is not an option.

I know it’s not the cool mom thing to do, and I know they don’t LOVE doing the work, but I also know, it’s going to help them in the long run.

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