Summer homework

To my children’s teachers…

My daughter made me sad today.  She told me that this is the first year she’s not looking forward to school starting.  This is her Junior Year, and she has always been excited to go back.  She is excited this time, too, but she’s more worried about her Summer Homework.

I am telling my children now, not to worry about their summer homework.   I don’t care if their first quarter grades are lower because they have several missing or late “homework” assignments. It’s more important to me that they spend the summer doing what children should do.

I am not a strong believer in homework to begin with.  In grade school, I’d sit them down to do homework, and when they hit the appropriate time limit by grade, I would stop them, and mark the paper.   I refused to let my children do more than the appropriate amount of homework for their grade!  My children are good students, and if they can’t do the homework in the appropriate amount of time, I don’t know how the others would be able to, either.

I don’t believe there are limits on homework in middle school and high school.  I’ve tried to teach my children to do reasonable amounts of homework, and skip it if there is too much.  This is a life skill that they will need, as they will have managers who demand that they put work ahead of family, and they will need the skills to say no.

Children should be free to learn.  I believe that giving children opportunities to learn in a natural manner is far more important than giving specific tasks.  They need the chance to explore their own interests, choose their own books, and find out what they love to learn.

This summer, our family made a trip to Massachusetts and visited Plymouth.  We saw Plymouth Rock, read all of the plaques around the town.  We visited Plimouth Plantation and learned a great deal from that visit.

The Boy spent two weeks at Maine School of Science and Mathematics summer camp.   His courses were about Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse (which discussed the brain and infectious diseases), Evolution (where they dissected a squid and an alien!), Computer Programming, Welcome to Mars (where he used Minecraft to simulate planetary colonization), CSI, crime scene investigation, where they used forensic science, and cryptology.  He came home with a gas mask, a scytale cipher roll, and other interesting souvenirs.

The Girl went to Las Vegas with her Latin advisor and the Maine delegation to the National Junior Classical League convention.  She participated in Olympika (returning with ribbons!) and performed very well on the tests that she took.  The Maine group also won the Spirit competition one day.

The Boy spent time this summer writing.  He’s written several stories that are published on fanfiction.net.  He has also used Google Sketchup to create 3-D models, and taught himself how to use Photoshop to alter photographs.  He’s made videos and posted them on YouTube, including video reviews of transformers, and opinion videos about spiderman movies.

The Girl has been playing her clarinet in our church choir, learning skills in transposing and harmonizing.   She has played our piano (now that her Uncle Kevin has tuned it!), teaching herself songs from Les Mis and from Billy Joel. This visit north she has learned some interesting piano playing techniques from Uncle Kevin in his Piano Barn.

The Girl has worked on her summer homework - she read the Crucible, which she enjoyed, and is working on Huck Finn.  She’s not enjoying that, she has to “decipher” it, as she’s not comfortable with the style.  She’s found an audio version to listen to in an attempt to complete the assignment.   (I’m about to suggest Cliff Notes!)  She normally reads book after book during the summer, but this year when she’s been reading, she has been trying to get through her assigned reading first, and has not read as much for pleasure as she normally would.

I’ve listened to her trying to recite the Gettysburg Address, and she nearly has it memorized. She’s also supposed to read several chapters and write notes on them, to be passed in the first day of school whether or not she has History that day.  I don’t believe she’s worked on that, and quite frankly I don’t care.

I know she’s examined the periodic table for Chemistry, but I don’t believe she has it memorized yet.  At the beginning of the summer I discouraged her from doing memorization in June that she’d have to re-memorize in August.   She’s done some of her Calculus, but again, there is still more on the list.

The Boy has worked on his summer homework, too.  He only has Geometry homework, and he’s worked on it several different times this summer, and we thought he was going to complete it.

However, this past week has been gorgeous weather, and I decided that we’d make an unplanned trip to visit my parents at their camp on a lake.  This has been a fabulous weekend, and we have been for a ride on the pontoon boat, been swimming 2 or 3 times a day, gone kayaking together one day and the kids went kayaking with their cousins the next day.

In the grand scheme of things, this will matter more to them than their grades on their summer homework.  I don’t know what next summer will hold, but the Girl is looking into a 10-week internship that would be an amazing opportunity for her - but will not allow for the level of summer family time that we have had this year, or for summer
homework. 

We never know what life will hold…   Two summers ago, we spent August going back and forth to Massachusetts as my father-in-law was sick and passed away, and the children missed the first days of school because of their grandfather's funeral.  In a few short years, they will be working jobs that require their time 50 out of 52 weeks.  These years are precious, and I will not allow them to spend their summers doing work that can be done during the school year. 

I would like to see a change in policy so that other students and parents can be spared this in the future.  I believe that students should continue learning during the summer, but naturally, based on their own curiosity and interests.  They should read, explore, and think.  A summer reading list or reading log is a great guide, helping them to make good choices.  But math problems and textbook reading should be done during the school year, when they have the support of the teachers for questions.

I hope that you understand.