Summer is so long and it’s the worst for kids and parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does middle schooler do in summer break? Camps or stay home? I don’t think they are old enough to work, but summer break is too long to stay at home. They have no transportation, so how do they spend time over summer if parents are out working?

They can "work" in the neighborhood. Dog sit, cat sit, yardwork for neighbors, volunteer in the neighborhood, etc.

That sounds like a lot of work for the parents. Let’s face it, we don’t live in Andy Griffith land where kids can walk around and solicit long-term jobs easily.

I can afford to send my kids to fancy sleepaway camps which is the only reason I love summer vacation. Otherwise I would hate it and be stressed out.

Wow you’re pathetic

Yes I am pathetic for giving my kids a summer completely in nature, screen-free, where they can be active and pick up new skills and make friends from all over the country. So sad for them

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher and they'd have to air condition all of the schools (and make sure the a/c actually works) before this was even on the table. I'd prefer a week or two in October and 2-3 weeks at Christmas, a week in mid winter and two weeks for Spring Break rather than what we have now. Too much learning loss and summer is so expensive to travel. I'd love to be able to go somewhere in October. My dream trip is to Japan during cherry blossom season in the spring. I can't do that now. One week just isn't long enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does middle schooler do in summer break? Camps or stay home? I don’t think they are old enough to work, but summer break is too long to stay at home. They have no transportation, so how do they spend time over summer if parents are out working?

They can "work" in the neighborhood. Dog sit, cat sit, yardwork for neighbors, volunteer in the neighborhood, etc.

That sounds like a lot of work for the parents. Let’s face it, we don’t live in Andy Griffith land where kids can walk around and solicit long-term jobs easily.

I can afford to send my kids to fancy sleepaway camps which is the only reason I love summer vacation. Otherwise I would hate it and be stressed out.

So you love summer because your kids are gone? At least you're honest...

Well sleepaway only started a couple of years ago when they hit upper elementary. Before that it was fancy day camps + nanny to do the drop-offs and pick-ups. But my point is that summer is hard for working parents who don’t have these luxuries.

i can see how summer would be hard for working parents. that said, you knew that there is no school in the summer when you had children. did you expect something to change?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does middle schooler do in summer break? Camps or stay home? I don’t think they are old enough to work, but summer break is too long to stay at home. They have no transportation, so how do they spend time over summer if parents are out working?

They can "work" in the neighborhood. Dog sit, cat sit, yardwork for neighbors, volunteer in the neighborhood, etc.

That sounds like a lot of work for the parents. Let’s face it, we don’t live in Andy Griffith land where kids can walk around and solicit long-term jobs easily.

I can afford to send my kids to fancy sleepaway camps which is the only reason I love summer vacation. Otherwise I would hate it and be stressed out.

So you love summer because your kids are gone? At least you're honest...

Well sleepaway only started a couple of years ago when they hit upper elementary. Before that it was fancy day camps + nanny to do the drop-offs and pick-ups. But my point is that summer is hard for working parents who don’t have these luxuries.

i can see how summer would be hard for working parents. that said, you knew that there is no school in the summer when you had children. did you expect something to change?

It’s attitudes like this that cause birthrates to fall.

Things can change. Maternity leave can become universal and long-lasting. Early childhood education can be subsidized. Summer break can be shortened. No need to hold ourselves to old standards just because we always have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WHO benefits from 10 weeks off in summer??!

Not teachers: we would much prefer a year round schedule with frequent breaks.

Not kids: it’s too long without friends and work

Not parents: it’s too long to find childcare

It’s just crazy long. Why has the USA not adopted a year round schedule yet?

Child's school had 3.5 weeks this summer, absolutely perfect. Then there are several weeks later: Sep, Nov (Thanksgiving), Dec/Jan (2 weeks plus a day for Christmas/New Year's), March, April. They also have 4-5 days weekends, maybe 6 or 7 total? No summer slide, just getting over the excitement and into boredom, perfection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m shocked that your school doesn’t have air conditioning?! What?

I'm from rural midwest and none of the schools are air conditioned.

Our local early elementary only has one window unit per classroom, nothing else in the other rooms. The only reason it even has those is because a wealthy(ish) set of grandparents were worried about their asthmatic granddaughter, and when they wanted to do just her classroom, they were told they'd have to find enough funds to do all the gen ed rooms. So they wrangled up just enough for the most basic models for every room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's too long. I feel like we should have 6 weeks like most of Europe does, and maybe longer/more frequent breaks during the year.

This would be perfect. Few weeks of camp, few weeks of travel . . . back to school!

More breaks are good, too. Everyone gets burned out with the grind during the year.

I posted above that I like summer. I also would not mind a yearlong school year with longer breaks throughout the year like a month winter break, month spring break and a 6 week summer vacation.

This would be heaven. Day cares would adapt if this became the norm. Families could take vacation in months that aren’t sweltering. Typically in America we are doing everything or nothing. There is no balance. Kids would be physically and mentally healthier and there would be less learning loss. But as with the start times no one wants to do anything that is actually good for kids.

I posted upthread, DCPS tried this already. It may be good for kids, but unfortunately those same kids did not show up in the summer. They wanted to help kids with learning loss over the summer and the achievement gap but even then...kids just did not attend in the summer. Year round school would be a huge cultural change in the US and I'm not sure that would work. I'm not strictly against it...just don't see it happening right now.

They tried it with one small group. That group knew that the rest of DC wasn't doing it, MD and VA weren't doing it. They wanted to do things with other people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's too long. I feel like we should have 6 weeks like most of Europe does, and maybe longer/more frequent breaks during the year.

This would be perfect. Few weeks of camp, few weeks of travel . . . back to school!

More breaks are good, too. Everyone gets burned out with the grind during the year.

I posted above that I like summer. I also would not mind a yearlong school year with longer breaks throughout the year like a month winter break, month spring break and a 6 week summer vacation.

This would be heaven. Day cares would adapt if this became the norm. Families could take vacation in months that aren’t sweltering. Typically in America we are doing everything or nothing. There is no balance. Kids would be physically and mentally healthier and there would be less learning loss. But as with the start times no one wants to do anything that is actually good for kids.

In reality, daycares can’t and won’t be able to adapt to a year round school schedule. Summer camps struggle to find employees when the summer is 8 weeks, can you imagine every 9 weeks finding employees that work full time for three weeks? It’s a logistical nightmare.

OP. schools don’t have the budgets to go year round, plus there isn’t any research to support year round instruction has any educational benefit. Does it benefit the parents? Perhaps, but ultimately it does nothing for children.

As a side note, there is also an impact on testing, such as AP testing when the schedule is dragged out into the summer, and breaks within the school year are disruptive.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP. I love the magical thinking on how camps will just adjust. Really? So where will they find people now that the schools are doing breaks sporadically throughout the year rather than clustered together when the college kids are home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's too long. I feel like we should have 6 weeks like most of Europe does, and maybe longer/more frequent breaks during the year.

This would be perfect. Few weeks of camp, few weeks of travel . . . back to school!

More breaks are good, too. Everyone gets burned out with the grind during the year.

I posted above that I like summer. I also would not mind a yearlong school year with longer breaks throughout the year like a month winter break, month spring break and a 6 week summer vacation.

This would be heaven. Day cares would adapt if this became the norm. Families could take vacation in months that aren’t sweltering. Typically in America we are doing everything or nothing. There is no balance. Kids would be physically and mentally healthier and there would be less learning loss. But as with the start times no one wants to do anything that is actually good for kids.

In reality, daycares can’t and won’t be able to adapt to a year round school schedule. Summer camps struggle to find employees when the summer is 8 weeks, can you imagine every 9 weeks finding employees that work full time for three weeks? It’s a logistical nightmare.

OP. schools don’t have the budgets to go year round, plus there isn’t any research to support year round instruction has any educational benefit. Does it benefit the parents? Perhaps, but ultimately it does nothing for children.

As a side note, there is also an impact on testing, such as AP testing when the schedule is dragged out into the summer, and breaks within the school year are disruptive.

Jeez if it’s so impossible, I wonder how other countries are able to do it.

[Anonymous]

Summer is hard when kids are young and both parents work. But now that my kids are teens, we all love summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's too long. I feel like we should have 6 weeks like most of Europe does, and maybe longer/more frequent breaks during the year.

This would be perfect. Few weeks of camp, few weeks of travel . . . back to school!

More breaks are good, too. Everyone gets burned out with the grind during the year.

I posted above that I like summer. I also would not mind a yearlong school year with longer breaks throughout the year like a month winter break, month spring break and a 6 week summer vacation.

This would be heaven. Day cares would adapt if this became the norm. Families could take vacation in months that aren’t sweltering. Typically in America we are doing everything or nothing. There is no balance. Kids would be physically and mentally healthier and there would be less learning loss. But as with the start times no one wants to do anything that is actually good for kids.

In reality, daycares can’t and won’t be able to adapt to a year round school schedule. Summer camps struggle to find employees when the summer is 8 weeks, can you imagine every 9 weeks finding employees that work full time for three weeks? It’s a logistical nightmare.

OP. schools don’t have the budgets to go year round, plus there isn’t any research to support year round instruction has any educational benefit. Does it benefit the parents? Perhaps, but ultimately it does nothing for children.

As a side note, there is also an impact on testing, such as AP testing when the schedule is dragged out into the summer, and breaks within the school year are disruptive.

Jeez if it’s so impossible, I wonder how other countries are able to do it.

Americans like to pride themselves on being innovative but this is always the response when anyone suggests making a major change that could have lots of benefits. Same response when we talk about changing city infrastructure to make us less car dependent. And if you point out that our countries and cities have done exactly what is proposed, they’ll say “well they have a different culture.” Yeah— one where they are actually willing to deal with change in order to make things better!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's too long. I feel like we should have 6 weeks like most of Europe does, and maybe longer/more frequent breaks during the year.

This would be perfect. Few weeks of camp, few weeks of travel . . . back to school!

More breaks are good, too. Everyone gets burned out with the grind during the year.

I posted above that I like summer. I also would not mind a yearlong school year with longer breaks throughout the year like a month winter break, month spring break and a 6 week summer vacation.

This would be heaven. Day cares would adapt if this became the norm. Families could take vacation in months that aren’t sweltering. Typically in America we are doing everything or nothing. There is no balance. Kids would be physically and mentally healthier and there would be less learning loss. But as with the start times no one wants to do anything that is actually good for kids.

In reality, daycares can’t and won’t be able to adapt to a year round school schedule. Summer camps struggle to find employees when the summer is 8 weeks, can you imagine every 9 weeks finding employees that work full time for three weeks? It’s a logistical nightmare.

OP. schools don’t have the budgets to go year round, plus there isn’t any research to support year round instruction has any educational benefit. Does it benefit the parents? Perhaps, but ultimately it does nothing for children.

As a side note, there is also an impact on testing, such as AP testing when the schedule is dragged out into the summer, and breaks within the school year are disruptive.

Why would the school budget be different? The number of days in year round school is the same as a traditional calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does middle schooler do in summer break? Camps or stay home? I don’t think they are old enough to work, but summer break is too long to stay at home. They have no transportation, so how do they spend time over summer if parents are out working?

They can "work" in the neighborhood. Dog sit, cat sit, yardwork for neighbors, volunteer in the neighborhood, etc.

That sounds like a lot of work for the parents. Let’s face it, we don’t live in Andy Griffith land where kids can walk around and solicit long-term jobs easily.

I can afford to send my kids to fancy sleepaway camps which is the only reason I love summer vacation. Otherwise I would hate it and be stressed out.

So you love summer because your kids are gone? At least you're honest...

Well sleepaway only started a couple of years ago when they hit upper elementary. Before that it was fancy day camps + nanny to do the drop-offs and pick-ups. But my point is that summer is hard for working parents who don’t have these luxuries.

i can see how summer would be hard for working parents. that said, you knew that there is no school in the summer when you had children. did you expect something to change?

It’s attitudes like this that cause birthrates to fall.

Things can change. Maternity leave can become universal and long-lasting. Early childhood education can be subsidized. Summer break can be shortened. No need to hold ourselves to old standards just because we always have.

I think it’s also important to remember that part of the reason that summer is so hard for working parents, is that the school year, with all of its breaks, random days off and early dismissals, and special events at the end of the school year is hard for working parents. You have no idea how hard it is to manage unless you have done it. By the time you get to summer breaks, you feel exhausted and on the verge of wearing out goodwill at work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speak for yourself. My kids love summer. We have gone on vacation. They have done a few camps. We go to the pool. I don’t work though.

Super helpful.

Damn