Summer school

The schools here have a summer program called Camp Edventure. In the past I have always signed the boys up for it. This year I decided not to. The thing is, they need a break from school. That's the whole point of summer vacation. And there were so many things we wanted to do last summer that we couldn't because they were already committed to Camp Edventure. We've gotten a couple of notices from the school reminding us to sign them up before the deadline. These reminders also make sure to mention that the program is beneficial because continued learning through the summer has shown to improve fall test scores. First of all, my kids are eight and six. Unless Harvard will be looking at these scores, I'm not concerned. Second of all, my kids really need a break. I don't want my kids hating school by the time they get to middle school because they have never had a break from it. Third, my kids learn throughout the summer without school. When Torii's teacher was amazed at his fall math scores, I didn't attribute that to Camp Edventure. Torii's math scores went up from endless games of Monopoly and math workbooks he did during car trips. I think my boys will be just fine without Camp Edventure. Not that it's not a bad program. It's nice for the boys to see some of their friends everyday and they do have fun. They just need a true summer vacation without any school. Recently, Torii brought home one of the sign up reminders and he asked if I was going to sign it. I thought Torii wanted to go to Camp Edventure so I gently told him that I wasn't going to sign them up this summer. "Good," he said, "I didn't want to go this summer." Phew. I was relieved until he added, "I need more time to play video games."