In less than a week, I will no longer have to drive anybody to swim class, make anybody clean up their dishes from lunch or answer endless strings of inane questions. Most importantly, however, I will be able to watch whatever I want on television with no interruptions.

No longer are the days of waiting until the kids go to bed so I can watch True Blood. Gone are the afternoons of pretending to care about what my kids are watching so they can think I’m interested in their lives. Banished are the constant interruptions caused by one child “looking at” the other one.

I don’t expect everyone to understand what this freedom means. There are few of us who truly understand how valuable peace and quiet can be. After spending the entire summer trapped in a house with my kids, the mere thought of being able to watch TV, take a nap or even poop without fear of interruption, makes me so excited I can hardly contain myself. Add in the fact that the new fall season is only weeks away and I feel like I’m on top of the world.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to cut this short and go reprogram the remote.

Hear more from the King of TV on The Paul Goebel Show podcast and at his website, www.TheKingofTV.com. You can also follow Paul on Twitter @PaulGoebelShow.

• 5 of the 7 parents said their children were assinged summer work by their local school district.
• 4 of  those 5 said they felt the schoosl’ assignments were poorly designed.
• 3 of the 5 called the schools’ assignments “not worthwhile”.
• Only 1 of the 7 parents said they planned to have their students do any formal academic work beyond the summer assignments given by their local school district.

Apparently families are not buying into the “use it or lose it” mantra when it comes to academics.

Unfortunately, there is little consequence for taking the summer “off” or not coming into school at your peak form. Most schools spend quite a bit of time shaking the rust off, and all it takes is a small group of unprepared students to hold the whole class back.

Educators we spoke to mentioned concerns about trying to enforce summer work, and several said they were required by their districts to provide an adequate amount of September time for students to complete any required summer work.  Still others say they are told not to grade the quality of the work, only whether it is completed or not.

We wrote earlier about the wasted time at the end of the school year. Here too, we are seeing a chance to improve student understanding and achievement that is not being well utilized.

There has to be a better way.

What were your experiences with summer work?  Please share your thoughts below.

I love summer and I love summer vacation. Unfortunately I’m not a student, nor do I get summers off from work. As a result, the summer vacation phenomena is quite a disruption to our normal family routine.  Where my kids will be out of school for 2-3 months, I will be lucky to take a week off during this time.

I work from home. When the kids are at school,my “office” is fairly quiet. However when the kids are home it’s sometimes difficult to maintain the boundaries between Mom and Career Woman. If I hear the kids argue my first reaction is to intervene as Mom.  And, if they need something their first reaction is to come into my office and bug me.  “Mom, can I go to a friend’s house?” “Mom, can I watch a movie?” and so on…  I’ve learned it takes approximately a week to re-establish boundaries so my kids understand my working time vs. Mom time.

Another adjustment required during the summer vacation is overcoming boredom.  Last year, it took 4 hours after my daughter was out of school before she said, “Mom, I’m bored”.  Ugh. I try to instill that they need to work on entertaining themselves, but I do feel for them – we aren’t wealthy enough to do something extravagant every day and finding something inexpensive to do (or better yet – FREE) is difficult.

Then there’s the reminder of the upcoming school year. Children forget the lessons learned, and it’s a difficult battle to explain to my kids on why I’m having them do homework during their summer vacation.  Educators say it can take up to two months in the fall for teachers to review old lessons and bring students up to par. By providing them a little homework throughout the summer I’m attempting to minimize the re-education process and also combat summer boredom.

There will be time to spend with family, friends, and maybe go on the occasional trip during the summer. But for those of us parents who work during the summer it’s difficult to balance work and family life, especially when the children are not attending school during the day.