<p>Schools in my district start around August 25 and end on June 22. Kids only have about 8 weeks for summer. Do you think kids should have at least 3 months for summer?</p>
<p>Some kids have less than 3 months - my son went to a year round school in the east bay for middle school. They had 2 weeks off at the end of August. It was a great experience for him and I don't think he really missed long summers. But the school was very flexible - my son took off half days for several weeks during the summers to attend chess camp. The other advantage was that until the kids were in 7th and 8th grade there was no homework!</p>
<p>I think most school have a 180 day requirement. If a school schedule is more compact, and there are no snow or hurricane days, if there are fewer "teacher workshop/teacher planning" days, less days off for minor holidays like president's day and veteran's day, and just a week at winter and sping break, the summer will be longer. If, on the other hand, one has a longer Thanksgiving break ( some take the week now), a two week Christmas/New Year break, a winter break and a spring break, with a few teacher days and holidays thrown in, there is only time for 8 weeks off for the summer.</p>
<p>I really prefer 8 weeks of summer over 12 weeks. I wish our school had more breaks and less summer vacation, or was a year round school.</p>
<p>Three months made sense when kids had to help with the planting and harvesting. In today's world? Three months is insane. What would they do with themselves? And how much learning do they lose?</p>
<p>We never had 3 months when I was a kid - we went until the end of June and started the day after Labor Day. That's 10 weeks, tops, depending on when Labor Day fell.</p>
<p>In a world where there is so much more to learn (technology, etc.), I personally think that summer vacations are too long.</p>
<p>Our HS is as Sunnyflorida states, we start after labor day, finish about the first week of June. Longer school day than some districts - start alittle earlier, get out alittle later. 1 week for Christmas, 1 week for Spring Break, very few "Friday" in-service or term marking type days off. I like it and totally support it. It's silly to have these kids in and out of school this week or that week or this day or that day for whatever combined with school days that end at 2:30 in the afternoon. H & I don't have unlimited weeks off so a couple weeks off during the school year is fine with us. I'm glad my kids are older now so I don't even have to think about that. It's definitely a problem for some working parents. I could also support year round. But for the older teens the longer summer gives them a better shot at summer jobs and for the younger ones, it really doesn't matter too much. The biggest problem our district has is with sports and districts that start up in August and how do you get the kids rounded up and fit in practice time when families are still taking summer vacations.</p>
<p>I would favor year round school with two weeks off here and there rather than 3 months off in the summer. I think kids lose a lot during a long summer break. They would have to air condition the schools here, though, in order to do that.</p>
<p>I think that long summer vacations are great for kids. I was waiting for the first post relegating it to a holdover from farming days, but the fact is it's remained for a reason, because it has other intrinsic values. (I also think that the farming reason is overstated--certainly the great cities of the country did not use that system for that reason, but I digress.)</p>
<p>Anyway, to my mind, the business of being a kid is being a kid; formal schooling is certainly part of that, but to me, far from all of that. School is pressure on kids, all the time. Summer means a true respite from that pressure, far different from the break of a couple weeks vacation.</p>
<p>My kids learn all the time; and much of what they learned which was most important was during the summer. Long stretches of un-scheduled time meant reading, hanging out with friends (being social in an unstructured way, which too many kids can't seem to handle), coming up with projects and carrying them out, studying ants and worms, playing in puddles, observing the world and asking questions about it, etc etc.</p>
<p>We never pushed them to get ahead in schooling, never did academic summer programs (please don't get me wrong; some kids need and thrive on them, i understand that), and yet we didn't raise two cretins, but rather two very smart, educated, capable young adults who know how to keep themselves busy, and somehow stumbled into pretty good colleges, too.</p>
<p>So, from my point of view, hurray for summer vacation!</p>
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Long stretches of un-scheduled time meant reading, hanging out with friends (being social in an unstructured way, which too many kids can't seem to handle), coming up with projects and carrying them out, studying ants and worms, playing in puddles, observing the world and asking questions about it, etc etc.
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<p>That's great, if you have the ability to let your kids have unstructured time. And if their friends also have unstructured time. But many of us work, so have to send our kids to day camps, overnight camps or other structured activities. In much of the country, there is no "unstructured time" anymore.</p>
<p>I like year round school but with three big breaks- instead of 1/2 days and early dismissals, winter break and midwinter break and spring break.
I would like a month of break in Dec, have April off & August.
Of course that would be more school than they have now.
I also think that if we have 7 hour days instead of 6, they could get more done with less time lost to transitions.
Frequent breaks, would give students who needed help a chance to do that over the break,and less time for the kids to forget everything they learned over the summer
As a working parent, having a large break, where plans can be made for days at a time, would be far preferable to this early dismissal crap, that has kids getting out right after lunch ( but it counts as a full day for state funding)</p>
<p>emerald - I second year round schooling. With 3 or 4 scheduled long respites, kids can recharge their brains and souls.</p>
<p>I too really like emerald's idea. It gives kids the chance to take a break without losing everything they've learned, and without the opportunity to get bored!</p>
<p>I went to an international school that had those monthlong breaks. They did it so people could travel to their home countries without being rushed at other times of year than summer. It was fine with me then. We have a 9 to 10 week summer break which I think is plenty. My real complaint is that many summer programs in other parts of the country start before our schools get out. And even the first session of CTY sometimes meant my kid was basically going straight from one kind of school to another. My younger son was fussing that his five week music camp was taking up too much of the summer. But I pointed out he was still going to have a good four to five weeks after it was over to do nothing.</p>
<p>I love long summer vacations! Our school dismisses on June 1 and starts back again on August 20. We have a very long Christmas break (generally longer than 2 weeks) and one week off around Easter. No teacher prep days though
during the school year. I love it!</p>
<p>I wish they still had the 3 months of summer like when I was growing up. For younger children, there is always much to do--camps, free play, swimming, pick up ball games, etc. For the older kid, 3 months is long enough to work in a vacation or a camp and still have a summer job.</p>
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In much of the country, there is no "unstructured time" anymore.
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<p>True, Chedva, and I think it's a huge loss. We made a lot of life decisions with an eye to making sure our kids did get lots of unstructured time, because we thought it was that important (cost me in money and career advancement, but I'm not a "career" type anyway.)</p>