But for Emmanuel and Saul, these booklets are not such a fun activity. “I think summer is for enjoying and resting, and then winter is for work,” the nine-year-old laughs. The ten-year-old, who claims to do so, thinks the same way, but out of sheer boredom: “When no one in my family was home, I took them with me.” Paula is eight years old. He has just finished his second year in a school in Madrid. Alicia, his mother, confirms that they recommended that the education center do homework during the holiday season to compensate for some deficiencies that teachers noticed in the student during the school year. Jesús Salido, president of the Spanish Parents` Association (Ceapa), admits that he came to ask the school to do homework for his daughter on vacation. “I thought it was the right thing to do because they always sold us this idea until I saw it wasn`t the most appropriate, partly because homework creates a lot of tension in families. First with children who do not want to do them because they prefer to play and it is very easy to yell or punish at the end. In addition, the rest of the family is condemned not to leave until they finish or the couple is separated, so that one reviews with the child and the other goes shopping, for example. Eva Bailén, a telecommunications engineer, has three children.

One needed up to three hours a day to do his homework. “Schools send the same tasks to all children and some cost them more. I think it`s unfair after all the time they spend in school. Tired of seeing that the little boy could not play and that it was affecting her health, this mother began a crusade for the Ministry of Education in March to moderate homework. “We want questions to be put on the table, at what age they should do them, of what type, whether they should be proposed weekly, mandatory… ». The brain does not understand days off, so it seems that experts are inclined to stimulate it and motivate children to continue to acquire knowledge of all kinds, but at the same time, ± focus on their time of rest and separation. This does not mean that they have to devote themselves to `nothing` during their holidays,” says the UNITE teacher, but he advises us to move away from the traditional concept of homework and offer activities that will allow them to continue learning and apply the knowledge acquired to everyday life, which will also bring emotional benefits. “When ± children do well in their subjects, a certain self-confidence is created, which improves their self-esteem and their attitude towards learning is more positive,” explains Javier Arroyo.

You read: Summer Notebooks, is it worth sending homework on vacation? Totally agree. At school, they are sent to create a holiday journal that they must hand in at the beginning of the course. They have to do it on their way and how they want: with a drawing, an excerpt from a magazine that catches their attention, a few words. My daughter decided to study butterflies last year and we spent the whole summer with butterflies. When he started the course, he took his butterfly notebook with him because it was his summer journal. He worked on sequences, numbers, literacy, knowledge of the environment, explored in a butterfly house and learned a lot in a very playful way. This summer, he decided to investigate the creation of the earth and the origin of man. I loved the entrance, and I totally agree. I`ve had to fight against the idea of “a little a day” before. They`re on vacation, and they deserve it. “Are we adults on vacation for two hours doing things from our jobs so we don`t lose the habit? Fathers, mothers, teachers, let children be children and stop creating meaningless habits.

This is how Pilu Hernández, who defines herself as a “teacher by vocation and a teacher passionate about opposites”, justifies her position against the popular premise that a child will lose the habit of learning during the holidays. Pilu Hernández, “teacher by vocation and instructor of opponents by passion”, explains, in addition to the terminology, that whatever results they get at the end of the course, children should not have homework during the holidays. Because just as we strive and want our children to be educated and healthy, to be able to eat and not make a fool of themselves in others with gastronomic nonsense, so does learning, because it is the only thing they have to do for their happiness and ours for many years without worrying about it anymore. Eat and learn. For now. How the world is, we`ll see. One day you can put an ornament on the food to make it more attractive, another day you let him take his time and chew reluctantly, okay, but not all life can be like this, and if they do not get used to eating or learning as children, or anything that is not entertaining, What adults will they be? (Well, those who don`t leave mom`s house or, for example, at 45…) Carmen, just an anecdote, I would like to tell you something – I am 43 years old, I work and I am the mother of a 7-year-old boy -: I was never given homework, except in the 6th FOGE, to study rivers and their tributaries or provinces and their capitals, and there were also no summer or holiday books like the, which are now in my childhood, but nevertheless I finished 2 races and I am in 3rd place. My parents never had to force me to learn, I did it for fun. They didn`t force me, they didn`t give me hours of study, far from it, and in the summer I played and went to the beach.

My grades up to 6th place were always excellent, then I always had a remarkable average, I just needed support in BUP and COU with pure science, and it wasn`t exactly homework, but private lessons, where someone with knowledge explained to me what I didn`t understand. All the mathematical, physical and chemical things I learned back then, I never used them, I think only astronauts do, come on. And yes, it`s torture to do homework with a child, I didn`t study to become a teacher, and the math – for example – they teach my son has nothing to do with the methodology they used in my time. There are things I just can`t explain because they learn them differently. Finally, I would like to tell you that most workers, when they have finished their working day, do not continue to work, and when they are on vacation, they do not continue to work either, why should children do it? I think you misunderstood the article, honestly. The trainer is completely against homework “as we know it, to have a child sit down and let him do additions, subtractions, divisions or copies for two hours”. Therefore, the trainer emphasizes that “we can teach other things to the little ones”. The coronavirus has changed our lives; also education. For months, the virtual has imposed itself and opened up new realities: computer screens, phones and tablets have replaced classrooms and blackboards; Teachers in mainstream schools have become online teachers; Parents trying to maintain their daily work with telecommuting suddenly act like their children`s teachers; and students who even missed going to class. After a hasty end to the course, the summer months serve as preparation for the return to school after Covid-19.