summer workbooks=unhappy SJ

Every summer, I have the boys do summer workbooks.  I usually have them do the Summer Bridge books, which are books that are designed to bridge the gaps between the grade the child finished and the one they will be entering the following year.  They are a great refresher for the kids.  They cover all the subjects that they learned throughout the year.  SJ doesn't really like doing any kind of schoolwork over the summer, but I like to keep him working on skills that he struggles with.  His biggest struggle is comprehension.  His teacher had suggested some workbooks that Scholastic offered.  They focus on different areas of comprehension.  I ordered three:  Main Idea, Inferences and Context Clues.  Monday through Fridays, we will do a page from each book.  Today was the first day of our summer break.  I pulled out the Main Idea workbook.  SJ started to cry.  He said, "But it is summer, Mom!  I don't want to do schoolwork!"  I explained to him that he needs to do a page a day.  I told him he was having trouble with this part of reading at school, and the workbooks will help him be an excellent reader in fourth grade.  I also explained that we could not do anything fun until this was done.  As he read his paragraph, tears were dripping on the page.  I used a ruler under each sentence, so that he would only focus on one sentence at a time.  When he was done reading, he had to answer the questions on the page.  This produced more tears, but eventually he finished.  I had to help him some, but we got through it.  I am hoping with each passing day that there will be less tears and less assistance from me.  More importantly, I am hoping that he realizes that reading can be fascinating when we focus on the details.