Do any of you send your kids to summer school just to have things stay somewhat fresh in their heads before they go into the next grade?

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Mary

Nope - not even if it were free. Their grades thankfully were always good. I always had a really hard time getting them up and moving to make the bus on time so I looked forward to the lazy days of summer.

my daughter would be really angry if i sent her to summer school when the school didnt require it . i wouldnt - i dont think they will forget that much in 3 months

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Wife to Marc , Mommy to Kayla

I don't even think they could go without teacher recommendation? My kids are all at the top of their class so it hasn't been an issue for us.

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~Happiness is a large family~

Ditto. Luckily my children do fairly well in school and haven't needed summer school. My dd in high school has lots of friends who take summer school classes, but I've always discouraged that (except for drivers ed) because I like her having a break. School is soooo stressful for her...she takes honors and AP classes, and runs cross country and plays in the top of 5 orchestras and I just feel she needs the break. I suppose if I had a child that had struggled in school then I might consider it so that they would have a leg up when school started. So I guess every family just has to look at their own circumstances to decide what's best for their family & child. But I look forward to the break and so do they.

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The kids can't attend here either unless their grades warrant attendance. Adam was a Sylvan student for over a year for deficiencies in math. Brandon takes all advanced classes and is an honor roll student. Tommy is the average student who makes good grades and is an incredible socialite. I advocate year-round school with longer breaks in between for each of them, and for different reasons for each of them.

Adam unquestionably needs the repetition to retain what he's learned. Brandon will become lazy and not perform to his full potential when he first starts back to school. He perfoms his best, and appears happiest, when challenged. Tommy thrives on having that face-time with the teacher and other students, absorbing nearly everything that is said to him. In an unstructured and/or one-on-one environment, he tends to tune out, kind of floating off into a black hole somewhere. Side note- I have for a long time advocated learning style testing as a way to group students in a classroom rather than the random selection that is currently used, particularly in elementary. Sylvan does this for a reason.

Over the summer we always do the online and CD tutorials that are provided by the school system so they have some level of continuity, while still being able to enjoy their break. They also each have summer reading requirements; the middle and high schoolers being tested on their 2 books upon their return to school each August. Tommy generally just has to record a reading log over the summer and gets some kind of incentive from the school if he reads so much.

I don't underestimate the value of downtime. Having time to just climb trees, go fishing, blazing new trails through the woods, learning how to change a bike tire on their own, catching lizards and frogs, little entrepreneurship activities like mowing lawns and selling homemade popsicles for extra money , etc...all these things are immeasurable. But when my kids are screaming of boredom and itching to go back to school those last few weeks of summer, I know there has got to be a better balance. LOL

I think I just went off on a tangent. My aplogies for being the flighty person I am.

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Sheri~ Wife to Steve, Mom to Adam (14), Brandon (12), and Tommy (7)

This is us too...

I do ask them to spend a few minutes each weekday during the summer on websites like aplusmath or multiplication.com to just keep those math facts fresh. I think it really makes a difference for my kids. They don't complain about it, it's such a short amt of time, it's really no biggie.

Other than that...they read. My younger son is really getting into reading, which I think is fabulous. My older son is a voracious reader. Reading is so important IMO!