At first glance, it might look like pushy parenting, but it’s easy to forget stuff!
We all forget things if we don’t do them regularly. Can you remember passwords for websites that you rarely use – no me neither! PIN numbers for accounts you don’t use very often – yep guilty!
Kids are no different, they forget things.
It’s long been recognised by teachers that kids learning can take a backward step over the summer holidays, but is this true or an urban myth? Take a look at the research.
Many of our teachers who work as private tutors in Ely and Cambridge area report that without repetition children can forget things that they’ve learnt the prior to the holidays. Many of our private tutors work through the school summer holidays to keep the children’s learning active over the holiday.
I teach a day a week at a local school in the Ely area. The year before last, I kept the same class as they went up a year. (They left me in August as year 3s and re-joined me as year 4s in Sept). I was quite surprised by how much they had forgotten from the end of July to Sept. It’s rare you get the opportunity to experience the effect so directly. Hardly surprising when there’s so much going on in the holidays. All those ice-creams to be eaten, friends to see and places to visit.
Does it really matter?
For many kids it doesn’t matter that they forget things because topics will be covered again in the next academic year. The education system is designed to allow for this. Also, you’ll most likely be reading with them or they can read independently and they’ll be experiencing other things whilst on holiday or out for day trips
What are the problems with this?
With increased focus on covering more topics in the curriculum, it does mean that it can be at a pace which is too quick for some children.
For many kids little and often work well to keep ideas fresh. High degrees of repetition help to keep ideas and way to solve problems front of mind. Our tutors in Ely, Huntingdon and Cambridge, are aware of this and generally plan to repeat areas to ensure retention.
Shouldn’t kids have a rest in the holidays.
Absolutely! Kids should have downtime to chill, be a bit bored and enjoy time with family and friends. I think our children do need to have this time to relax and recuperate. In fact, I’d recommend not planning too many organised events so kids can make up their own play, games and do all that lovely old fashioned stuff like building dens in the garden. Limit screen time and get them outdoors.
But, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s still possible to do this and incorporate 4-6 hours tuition over the WHOLE of the summer holidays, a 1 hour, weekly session without impinging on this time.
Do I need a tutor? Can I do it myself?
At Tutor My Kids our tutors are qualified teachers, which we feel is important, especially at primary level, because the ways in which maths and English are taught in school is entirely different to the ways in which most parents were taught.
However, there are things you can do to help your own kids, without question. The main things are to read with your kids regularly, practise handwriting, play some maths games and get them to write a journal, diary or letters to keep these skills up. Take a look at our news to see various blogs on how to help your kids learn.
For more information about Tutor My Kids or private tuition in Cambridgeshire, please click the links.
If you’re a teacher who’d like to find out about Becoming a Tutor My Kids tutor, click the link, email Rachel or call Rachel Law on 01223 646421 for a friendly and informal chat.
Thanks for reading. Speak soon,
Rachel.
