Do Primary School Kids Need Homework during the Holidays?
Are school holidays the place for homework? On one hand, this time offers a great opportunity to help kids catch up on important concepts from the school term. On the other hand, kids are kids – and they love their freedom! Aussie teachers typically won’t assign any homework for primary school children over the break, but if you do want to top up your child’s skills then we would suggest making the process fun.
Planning productive school holiday activities
The best way to time to supplement kids’ normal learning routines is with activities that won’t feel like chores. Take advantage of your local museum or art gallery workshops – these are usually free to take part in and will often have some educational value included. Take the kids to the library each week and let them work their way through a pile of their favourite books. Bury some treasure in the backyard and ask them to find it using a map, which will boost their spatial abilities. Bake a cake together and ask your little one to apply their understanding of fractions to measure out the ingredients. Activities like these will apply children’s new-found understanding to practical real-world situations.
Not every learning experience is a planned one
Of course, there are simple ways to encourage your children to keep up with their important literacy and numeracy skills in everyday situations. You can ask your child to help count your change at the shop to develop their skills in counting and recognition of money, and encourage them to strike up a conversation with your friendly neighbour to develop their interpersonal language. Ask them to write a journal entry at the end of each day and share their favourite aspects with the family at the dinner table. Some subtle requests like these can help kids to naturally develop their language, literacy and mathematical skills.
Improving the quality of screen time over the school holidays
We’re guessing most parents of primary school kids will hear about the latest mobile games that everyone is playing, but there’s an educational alternative to the usual repetitive brain-draining games. A learning support system like Learn Primary that’s aligned with the Australian curriculum will provide the essential English and maths concepts in a fun and self-paced way that kids actually enjoy using. It’s a fun and engaging way to learn – much to the joy of parents everywhere! Kids are going to gravitate to their favourite activities, and if you can find ways to add learning into these then you’ll be keeping everyone happy over the school holidays.
