Surviving the Summer

For the past few years I've notice the trend that about 1/2 of my students take the summer off.  I usually pick up a couple students during the summer and some of them will continue in the fall. The students who do continue during the summer usually have vacations, so my summer income is rather lean.  What do you do to survive the summer?  Do you "require" you students to take summer lessons?  Do you take on another job?

Economy and Money

I'm wondering, fellow music teachers, how has the economy affected you?  I have had one student discontinue lessons in part because of parent job loss.  I have another family that has had to cut back to every-other-week lessons because of job loss.  What have you seen?

On an another note related to money - I have a student who has not paid for a month of lessons (actually the same student who is not longer studying with me).  In my last discussion with the mother, she said she would drop of a check, but did not follow through with that.  I'm guessing I'll probably "forgive" the debt in this case.  What would you do?