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Chao News Client Reporter Jin Dandan

Half of the summer vacation has passed. Recently, many parents have taken their children out for travel.

Should you bring homework with you when you travel thousands of miles? For many parents, this is a difficult question to decide.

Especially when the assignment submission date coincides with a travel day, and you have to try your best to meet the deadline, that scene is really sour and refreshing.

Walk 20,000 steps during the day and meet homework deadlines at night

"We failed to execute the plan well and ended up having to finish our homework in the hotel. How miserable!" sighed parent Fang Su.

As soon as the holiday started in early July, Fang Su and her son made a summer vacation plan. The most important task was to complete all the homework that needed to be submitted for the first time during the summer vacation before going out for travel in late July.

"There is not much homework in a month of summer vacation, but there are 5 subjects, which are relatively scattered and trivial. We will be away for 10 days, so the homework for these 10 days needs to be spread over the first half of the month." Fang Su said that in the first week, his son was very motivated and not only completed the daily amount, but also did some more.

"At that time, my son said confidently that he could finish all the homework he needed to submit four or five days in advance, and he didn't need to carry homework with him at all."

But plans are not as good as changes. After working hard on his homework for a week, Fang Su found that his son had become lazy.

"In the second week, the homework progress was particularly slow, and I had to urge them every day. In the third week, seeing that we were about to leave, I could only make daily adjustments based on the progress of the homework. Some of the homework required drawing tabloids, which took a long time and required various tools for writing and drawing. I spent two days intensively to finish them. There were also some homework assignments that required one to read the book and preview first, and then do the questions. There was not much to do each day, but it was a bit strenuous to do them all at once, especially when looking at several units of new knowledge in one day. I had not mastered it at all, and I made hundreds of mistakes. My son said every day that his brain was going to explode." With two days left before the travel day, Fang Su and her son looked through the homework together and found that some of the homework that needed to be submitted in the first stage still could not be completed.

"Some homework needs to be memorized, such as ancient poems, which doesn't take much time to memorize every day. There are also some calculation and preview homework, which I plan to do while waiting for planes or buses while traveling, and I should be able to catch up with the homework submission date." Fang Su said that although the teacher said that the submission can be postponed under special circumstances, he is afraid that the homework will pile up and it will be more tiring to make up for it.

Fang Su calculated that they had to go to Shanghai Pudong Airport to catch a plane, which would take one hour on the high-speed train, two hours waiting for the flight, and two and a half hours for a single flight. With so much time to spend on homework, they would be able to finish most of the written homework.

"My son also thinks that this time is perfect for doing homework. After finishing it, it won't affect his fun at the destination." Fang Su watched his son put his math, English and science preview homework into his bag.

At that time, she thought happily that even if her son was not very efficient, most of the tasks could be completed in these 5 and a half hours, and he just needed to use some spare time to make some repairs.

Ideals are full, but reality is skinny.

Picture of people rushing to finish their homework while waiting for their flight at the airport provided by the interviewee

"We took the high-speed train to Shanghai. My son said he was very sleepy after getting up too early in the morning. His mind was not clear and he couldn't do his homework, so he needed to take a nap. He slept all the way to Hongqiao Station and his one-hour homework was wasted. We arrived at the airport three hours early. He said there was no table and it was inconvenient to use a book as a cushion to do his homework. Then he complained that the airport hall was too noisy and he couldn't concentrate on his homework. After boarding the plane, he ate snacks and then said the bumpy plane made him uncomfortable. After landing, he didn't finish any homework..." Fang Su almost exploded on the spot.

Fang Su said that when he arrived at his destination, because his daily schedule was very full, he could only complete the tasks of memorizing words and ancient poems, and he had no time to complete the preview homework.

"The day before the homework submission day, I woke my child up early in the morning to make up his homework for an hour. At 10 o'clock in the evening, all homework had to be submitted. In the evening of the same day, we hurriedly ate something, rushed back to the hotel at 6:30, and took our schoolbags to the lobby to do the homework, because there were tables in the lobby. If you finish writing in advance, you can submit it directly, and you can drink cold drinks and watch TV." Fang Su smiled bitterly, and she also "sacrificed her life to accompany the gentleman". After walking 20,000 steps a day, she sat next to her son to help take pictures and submit. She said that after this anxious and hurried night, her son set a flag: "I am very tired after walking outside all day, and it is really too hard to rush homework. The quality is not high. I don't want to experience it again."

Making a cup of tea while catching up on homework in the hotel lobby. Photo provided by the interviewee

Taking homework with you on a trip has become a standard for many family trips

In recent years, taking homework when traveling has become a "standard" for many family trips.

Some parents said that it is difficult to travel light, and although it is often useless to bring homework, the act of bringing homework itself has a kind of "deterrent effect" and psychological comfort that "we have to stay in learning state every day."

Some parents also said that they wanted their children to learn time management during the holidays, try to make use of fragmented time such as riding and waiting for the bus during travel, and develop the good habit of "finishing today's work today". Meeting deadlines is also a way to fulfill promises to themselves.

When the homework submission date coincides with a travel, some parents choose to explain the situation to the teacher and not submit it for the time being, but will make it up later. However, many parents said that although they can apply to submit homework later, they still choose to meet the deadline. A big reason is that they don’t want their children to think that they can "procrastinate" and should make arrangements in advance, leave enough room, and complete it ahead of time.

Parent Xu Min told reporters that the whole family had just experienced a scene where his son was rushing to submit his homework.

"It's Saturday night, we just got off the plane after traveling, and there was still half an hour before the deadline for submitting the homework, so the whole family helped him take photos and submit it!" Xu Min said that his son had drawn most of a famous book reading tabloid, but had not yet colored and decorated it, and it was really too late. At this time, he didn't care about the quality, he just wanted to finish it first and submit it on time.

"The more anxious I am, the more confused I am! There was a homework assignment, and in the evening, my son was the only one in the class who hadn't submitted it. In fact, we had finished it before we went on the trip, but we didn't have time to take pictures. We rushed to take pictures as soon as we got back, but we didn't expect the phone to freeze and the pictures couldn't be uploaded..."

Do you have any trouble with your child's summer homework? Do you have any tips or tricks? Please leave a message and share with us.