[pbhjpbhj]

>We can't expect children to practice and maintain skills they don't even understand the value of over breaks. //

Why not?

My eldest is 7 and I've done regular reading, spelling, writing and arithmetic with him over summer. A little science, lots of nature study, etc.. Sure the motivation hasn't really come from him, though he does like to read. One spends most of the time at parks or in the woods or whatever (for us it has to be anything free) but education doesn't end - or at least isn't somehow disallowed - when the school bell rings.

Schools are a service that you use to aid education (though some would say otherwise!) and not a place you go and have an education handed to you. I'll take one education please, make it snappy.

I wonder whether the break serves a function as far as spaced repetition goes?