This is just WRONG! Big vent

[Planogirl]

We don't get extra work over breaks here, at least not so far. I wouldn't mind a little but I'd hate a large amount. It's called a break for a reason IMO.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

As the parent--is there anyway you can make it less a yucky school assignment and make it a more positive experience.

Sometimes that can go a long way for a students perception.

As far as the IEP if he has one--while I don't think it is right for a complete ommission of the assignment--if you can work with whomever you do for a modified schedule--be it extra time to complete it so that the individual tasks are shorter---less writing...or an alternate activity that accomplishes the task of reading the book--but handles the documentation of it in a more appropriate way for his ADD.

(like maybe--completed by the first quarter of school--so he has twice as long to do the task and has half the daily task time).

 

[Wishing on a star]

Somebody mentioned countries like Japan, where they are supposedly so far ahead of us in academics.

Just wanted to put out a heads up here... Have most of you not seen how school in these places is like freaking boot-camp. And how they have ASTRONOMICAL child/teen suicide rates? These kids actually join web-sites where they hook up and coordinate group suicides.

Is this what we want for our kids, for the sake of 'scores' and 'competition'?

This is a true story....
I know somebody who who hosted an exchange student from one of these countries for a summer visit. It was the boy's birthday, and a package arrived. A birthday present!!! When the boy opened it, his joy turned immediately into anger and frustration. The boys father had sent him a book. Apparantly an academic book. He ranted and cursed in his native language, and hurled the darned book into the swimming pool.

 

[JuliaEeyore]

I'm 29 and this summer reading program described in the OP is exactly the same thing I had growing up from the time I was in 3rd grade... And the number books we had to read increased as we got older. Worksheets and all. Pop quizes too.

By the time I was in high school it was 5 books...and we were tested on them on the first few days of school. I hated the testing, only because I still hate the idea of testing me to make sure I actually read it... questions like "What color shirt was John wearing in the start of Chapter 2?" Totally not fair to the kids who genuinely read and walked away with a complete understanding of the story but didn't memorize the text strictly to be tested on it.

So it doesn't sound unusual to me! Sorry you're so upset. But I did it and survived. And I don't think it took away anything from my childhood. I still ran around, swam, went to the beach, ran thru sprinklers, and went camping with my parents, every single summer for weeks at a time. It was just something else that kept me busy!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I don't know what the project is because all I know is what was in the minutes.

I don't know when they are planning to spring this one the parents at large, so I am assuming I won't be able to request an exemption until the program is formally introduced. I have no clue at this point whether DS could or couldn't complete the work in a reasonable amount of time, which is why they better hurry and get this out there so parents who are going to protest will have time to do so. DS is a smart kid - he makes B's for the most part with the occasional C in math. If this assignment is a blanket grade level assignment it will have to be simple enough that the least advanced student can complete it, which means DS will be capable of doing it but it may take hours out of every day for him to finish. I don't want him to sit around all summer with his IQ dropping like a rock, but I still don't think assigning a single book and a bunch a worksheets is the approach I would choose to keep his mind sharp.

 

[Miller1412]

That was my assumption as well.

Leave it to the teachers to use this as a chance to make more demands on parents, and to control our time outside of school. I mean, hey, it has to be 'academics' 24/7, right. And, us lowly parents are not capable of caring for our children and being busy with worthwhile activities during our precious time off.

HA HA HA HA HA It's all part of our diabolical plan to take over the world. And we might have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you meddling parents!

 

[goofy's friends]

The IEP is going to be your key here. You say he has accommodations, right? Go in and get exemption from this assignment written into his IEP. Done.

I personally think the summer assignment is a terrific idea because it provides some educational consistency, particularly valuable for kids with ADD. I don't agree that worksheets are busywork by definition. Can you define the major project? If it's something that he and Dad can work on together, is there any chance he can "slam it out of the ballpark" and have a great school-related experience, which it sounds like he could sorely use?

This is exactly what I was going to say. I used to teach, and I think for most kids it is a great idea---no schools around here do this, never even heard of it, but love the idea. Kids have a hard time with retention of skills, so I do things like this with my kids on my own.

That said, your DS is on an IEP? Then, this would be covered under that. I wouldn't worry about it anymore--just find out what accomodations are going to be made for him and you should be set. Good luck!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Lisa loves Pooh -
Of course this will be much easier to figure out when I have SEEN the assignment!
The problem with the IEP is this:
They have NO CLUE who his teacher will be next year. I literally have no one to go to and talk about modifying the requirements. His teacher this year might be able to make some suggestions, but that would only be if she was familiar with the content of the 5th grade packet. She teaches 4th grade, so the packet she develops will be for a different book! The more we all discuss this the more glaring the issues become. There won't be any sort of "go to" person for ANY of the parents because all of the teachers will be shifting around. When school resumes in August the best we can do is show up with whatever the kids have completed and let the teacher (whoever it turns out to be) sort it all out.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

HA HA HA HA HA It's all part of our diabolical plan to take over the world. And we might have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you meddling parents!

If we let you take over the world will you leave our kids alone for the summer?

 

[Miller1412]

If we let you take over the world will you leave our kids alone for the summer?

You've got yourself a deal! And maybe some days, you can have my personal kids too if you want 'em!!

 

[Wishing on a star]

An IEP is a team effort. The teacher is only one part of that team. It is not the teachers role, alone, to make any specifications to an IEP.

Since there is no teacher assigned, then the Principal should probably fill that role? Or perhaps his current teacher?

Maybe you can request an IEP meeting with the school psychologist, and the Principal, and perhaps any other involved person. Just because there is not a teacher assigned does not mean that you have no rights and no avenues.

 

[mylilnikita]

I mentioned Japan Korea or even the countries in Europe. You can't have a great education when you are out of school for 3 months out of the year and also out every little holiday that comes around. My DD has essentially 3 and half hours every wednesday then comes home. She was accepted into a magnet school for kindergarten, but they didn't offer a full day of it so I put her in a school that was full time. I don't care about scores, my child's education is way more important as for competition, well we all do it, we try to keep up with "the Jones'" buying homes and cars we can't afford. My friend's child goes to a school in Hawaii and I recently realized that all schools are different, her son is learning stuff there that he learned in 1st grade here. They will be there for 3 years then move some place that might have a advance learning system and he will be behind. don't our kids, stab, shoot or go to their schools and try to take everyone out? We are no better. I don't want my child to go to a boot camp, but at the same time there has to be discipline and consistancy, the only reason children off for summer is because a long time ago the children had to work the fields during the summer as another poster wrote.

 

[lsyorke]

While I'm an avid reader and so is my ds(18). I never forced him to read, sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't. Today as a young adult he loves it... his choice. I can't understand the forced reading programs over the summer. Somehow we managed to succeed years ago with no "work" over the summer. We were encouraged to go to the Library and pick out a book and just plain read. No worksheets, no book reports, just read something that we wanted to.

I have to wonder what we are doing to our childrens natural love of learning when we wrap in up in mandates. Would the OP's child benefit more from reading a book and doing worksheets or maybe planting and growing vegetables, going to the beach and collecting shells, or learning how to fish. Learning takes place everywhere, everyday. There's alot of world out there that will contribute to a child learning, it doesn't have to be sitting with a book in your hand.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We are brand new to the IEP arena - DS was just diagnosed in March although we have suspected the inattentive ADD for quite awhile. At our 504 meeting we had the guidance counselor (we don't have a school psychologist - we had DS tested privately) two teachers, DH and me. The guidance counselor filled out the forms and made copies of the letter of diagnosis and so forth. She documented the modifications indicated by the diagnostician and made notes that the modifications had been discussed and agreed upon by the teachers and the parents. Those modifications are in place for 3 years, so no matter who the teacher is we can always refer back to that and say "Well, under this modification..."
Our school isn't very well versed in the legal mumbo jumbo of special needs kids. The guidance counselor said she wasn't aware of half of this stuff until she read the paperwork in preparation for our meeting. And I am assuming she meant she read it that same morning.
I don't want DS to purposely opt out of things he is capable of doing, but I know that this year has really burned him out and our mantra has been "Get out of 4th grade, get out of 4th grade". We want to get his ADD under control if we can so he can start fresh in 5th grade with more confidence. I never thought that there would be some long assignment over the summer that would derail my plans to let him have the summer to forget about structured academics for awhile.

 

[clh2]

The PTA mandating this would tick me off. It sounds like this is going to be an on-again/off again type of project, based on funding. DON'T DO THE PTA FUNDRAISER NEXT YEAR!!!! (I don't want to get flamed or anything, just trying to be humorous.) The PTA has overstepped their bounds.

I don't know too much about IEP's, but can you have a modification for your DS to read a couple (i.e. 2) books this summer, and write a paragraph or two on each? No project, no worksheets, and him picking the book or two of his choice? A different poster had suggested getting the IEP adjusted to allow him extra time to get this done - think hard before you go this direction. If your DS has the opportunity to finish this in late September, he not only will have this "mandatory" project to complete, he'll also have regular homework to manage too.

Another question about medication. (Disclaimer - I really don't know what I am talking about.) Will you be medicating your son? Don't some people with children on ADD meds or ADHD meds take their children off the meds when school is not in session? Another thing that I seem to recall with ADD and ADHD meds is the dosage adjustments or different meds if it appears that they aren't working as expected. I don't know if this is something you are considering doing, but it may be something that needs to factored into the discussions you are having.

It sounds like your DS has been through the school wringer. I personally do not see anything good happen with the state tests. The only thing they test IMHO is the schools~ not the kids.

I'm going on a tangent here - my DD gets tested in the fall, approximately in the 8th or 9th week of school. Yep -they get their grade level test after they've completed 1/4 of the year. What's with that???

Good luck with this!!!

 

[justhat]

I really don't think this is that strange or bad for kids to do over the summer. I'm 25 and since I was in 2nd grade we have had packets of work to do over the summer and some books to read-and everyone in the class had to read the same books too. By the time I was in high school the books were pretty substantial, there were several of them (at least 2 for English, 1 for history, and 1 for Spanish once I got to level 4 and higher) and we were either quizzed on them when we got back to school or had to write reports or fill out worksheets. Only difference was at that level you got books assigned according to your classes-like all honors English kids read the same 3 books, B track kids read a different couple of books, and C track kids read yet another set of books, though usually there was 1 that was common across all 3 levels. It just seemed like standard protocol to me, as this was the case in both my elementary and high schools. And we also had work assigned over holidays, breaks, and most definitely weekends.

I really think it's good to have some continuity over the summer for kids, and I really doubt that the packet your son has will take up everyday of the entire summer so I wouldn't stress about it too much (and I have ADD too, though fairly mild, and I especially feel this is good for kids like me who had difficulty focusing after returning from summer break). Instead of seeing the bad in it (which I know is easy when you're not happy about the plan), I'd look for ways to make it fun and help him complete it in as short an amount of time as possible. Or if you think he'd be better off splitting it up, maybe set aside 30 minutes after he wakes up to work on the workbook and then he's got the rest of his day free, or something like that. It really won't be that bad and I would guess that as he gets older this will be more and more common so might as well get him used to the idea now.

 

[Nancy]

He has been going to school for 3 hours on Saturdays since December for tutoring - it isn't mandatory but strongly suggested so he will pass the TAKS on the first try. This Saturday SHOULD be the last one because the TAKS starts the week after Easter. You can probably see how he has had entirely enough school and is ready for a summer without mandatory assignments.

Yep, I can totally see it. Hopefully it will all come to nothing....afterall those were just PTA minutes and if more parents complain to the school it might not go anywhere. My kids got work over weekends, breaks, whenever they could send stuff home they did. Highschool is actually eaiser in the homework department than elementary and middle school was for them. My 7th grade DD gets way more than my sophmore DD does.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We are in the process of trying to find meds that will work. DS is very small and never eats much, so I didn't want to start off with a stimulant based med. We tried Strattera but it didn't work - there was NO difference after 4 weeks of full dosing. Dr. said we could try upping the dose to the maximum for DS's weight but that scared me, so we are changing meds. He will start Concerta on Saturday. If that doesn't work we will keep trying other things. I do hope we figure out what works before school is out because you are exactly right - we did NOT want him on meds over the summer. He doesn't have behavior issues and he isn't hyperactive so he really has no need for meds during the summer. That will give him the opportunity to gain some weight (hopefully). So expecting him to work tasks all summer means he will have to be on meds (if we find one that works) or he will have to struggle like he has done all year. Not much of a choice there, huh?

 

[Marseeya]

Here's my opinion on it.

I'm more about student choice and positive reinforcement. If they want kids to read all summer, they should let the kids read what they want, then let the kids pick their own ways to report it -- paper report, creative project, artwork, etc. If they do the project, they get something positive. Maybe a day off for a pizza party with a DJ? If they don't do it, nothing negative happens; they just don't get to attend the party.

I remember one year, my DD's school sent home a packet of activities. They weren't mandatory, but we went through and chose some to do. I think the key element there was choice.

I'm just astounded that the kids all have to read the same book on their break. That could turn into a punishment for so many kids and not just your son.

Has anyone spoken with the school's reading specialist to see what he/she has to say about it?

 

[jfulcer]

So expecting him to work tasks all summer means he will have to be on meds (if we find one that works) or he will have to struggle like he has done all year. NoT much of a choice there, huh?

To me, it sounds like you've gotten all up in arms over a plan that the school (and the PTA) is trying to implement without knowing all the details. You are 'so angry that you can't see straight'. I understand your concern for your special needs child as I know what other friends have gone through with their children.

But wouldn't it be more constructive to find some way to work *with* the system instead of against it? I assume that you hope your child can become a normal, functioning part of society - I just don't believe that would happen when you take away all the challenges and try to get allowances and changes for him like this.

You've been psyching him up "just finish 4th grade, just finish 4th grade" and don't want to think about the fact that the school wants him to read one book over the summer but yet you say he reads every day. Why cannot 5 minutes of that 'every day' be for a book the school chose? Maybe he'd like it - you don't know. I tend to think they will pick something age appropriate that is not too hard for the kids to be able to read.

I suppose I just don't get why a plan that is designed to *help* your child and others to better themselves can be anything but good, even if it is required.