Holiday workbooks: how to bring playfulness into summer’s revision?

 

The sun is shining, school is over, there is a vibe of the holiday season in the air: what a perfect time for students to take a well-deserved break! Though summer time rhymes with lazing about, resting and playing outside, some parents worry that this long period away from school might rub off on their children’s newly acquired school knowledge. The solution to it? The plethora of holiday activity books that we can now see in any supermarket and bookstores. Yet, are these activity books really useful and how to choose them?

Holiday workbooks, a replica of traditional homework?

EduGraal project’s philosophy is to bring playfulness into learning to enhance students’ motivation, an approach that is reflected in holiday workbooks. However, in spite of their playful dimension, these workbooks, like homework, can easily be perceived as a constraint by pupils. Worrying that the exercises won’t be done on a regular basis, parents tend to adopt a teacher’s position which prevents the children from enjoying the task. In addition, children may feel restrained by these workbooks that are a replica of traditional homework during their summer time. Very often, the workbooks are quickly abandoned and their benefits are reduced to nothing. They, therefore, might replicate the motivation loss felt by some students during the school year and fail their initial purpose.

Good practices to enhance holiday workbooks benefits 

To avoid falling into the restricting schema of school, adopting some good practices and the adequate attitude regarding these workbooks contribute to the enhancement of their benefits. Here are some good practices to keep in mind inspired from EduGraal’s approach:

• Let the student choose their activity book. They will be the ones using this item, so they need to engage with the content and topic. Even though you wouldn’t choose this topic, the most important is that the pupil is interested in the content of the activity book.
• Choose the appropriate age group: if choosing a level that is too easy or too difficult, the child will definitely lose interest and motivation. The aim of these workbooks is to encourage pupils to maintain their knowledge in a playful and encouraging way, and not to anticipate next year’s entire curriculum. There should be no pressure.
• Playfulness is central: summer holidays are meant to provide a break from the seriousness and the strict frame of school. A break is crucial for the child to recharge their batteries before the start of the school year.
• Do not force anything: if the child doesn’t want to fill a holiday workbook, it is also completely fine. Pressuring them would be counterproductive and would prevent them from benefiting it. Instead, offer alternative solutions, such as reading, board games, writing, outdoor activities. Summer vacations are also the perfect moment for your child to adopt alternative learning formats that suit them best, even if it doesn’t look like a traditional schooling format.

EduGraal homework adventures

One of EduGraal’s main resources is the creation of 18 ready-to-use homework adventures addressed to different age groups of students between the ages of 10 and 15. Their aim is to promote a playful and gamified approach to homework. They offer participative and interactive stories addressing different topics studied at school. Their potential is their combination of learning and playfulness that is presented under the form of interactive reading. Not only do they offer a school curriculum revision, but they also work on reading skills. These stories can be used as an alternative format of holiday workbooks.

Free and easy to reproduce by yourself and thanks to the e-learning module, they can also be created by teachers who are willing to create their own materials. However, if you are more in a time-consuming period, you can use the existing stories created by the partnership.

Printed version of EduGraal’s homework adventures

Overall, how to bring playfulness into summer’s revision?

In conclusion, holiday workbooks, like homework, have some interesting potential. They promote independent learning, they offer a revision of the curriculum, and they develop various skills, such as reading and writing. The key is to adopt the appropriate behaviour to enhance their benefits. Highlighting EduGraal project’s approach, the pupil’s interest and needs must be at the centre to engage with this activity. And the most important is to keep in mind that these school related activities should not be perceived as a constraint, but rather as a playful moment.

To go further

 

Bordia, D. (2022) Advantages of Workbooks. Available at: https://blog.teachmint.com/advantages-of-workbooks/(Accessed 08/06/2023).

 

PediAct, Cahier de vacances : est-ce utile pour préparer la rentrée ? Available at:

 https://www.pediact.com/blog/cahier-de-vacances-est-ce-utile-pour-preparer-la-rentree (Accessed 08/06/2023).