Almost summer vacation

DS1 came home from school yesterday with his usual randoseru (randsel or school backpack) filled with papers and crap. It was the second-to-last day before summer vacation and so lots of it was regarding the summer break. Here's a laundry list of what I found:

1. An envelope with all of the required assignments during the 5 week break, including:

• Summer 16, a 32 page workbook with Japanese and math exercises.
• Diary sheets for 3 days worth of "what I did on my summer vacation" (hmmm, maybe a boatload of homework?)
• Two 200 character writing sheets for essays about books or science projects he does.
• A "free research" project. During the "long" vacation he has to make something to display.
• Take care of his morning glory plant that we forgot to bring home this week. Oops.
• Do his "normal review" tasks including mandatory reading, writing, addition and subtraction flashcards.

2. A paper titled "Fun Summer Vacation" which lists everything he SHOULDN'T do. It also tells him to get up early, help out around the house and do his homework promptly.

3. Pool schedule for the elementary school. Parent or guardian must watch their child, since no lifeguard is on duty.

4. Contest list. Since you already have to write essays and do projects, why not enter them in one of 8 contests available to elementary school children? My personal favorite is the "internationalization" one. Maybe he should write an essay about how American kids go to camp and goof off all summer.

5. And my personal favorite, the "radio exercise" card. He's supposed to go the community center everyday at 6:30 a.m. to exercise for 15 minutes. He gets a stamp on his card. Bwa ha ha ha! That ain't gonna happen.

Secretly, my geeky side likes all the homework he has to do. I really want him to enter all the contests even if he has to write 4 essays and draw 4 posters. Besides, DS2 is in daycare all day, so he'll have lots of free time to do them. Ooh. Now I think I'm turning Japanese, except for the waking up early and exercising part.