Early middle school bell crushing DC

[Anonymous]

To anyone reading this and getting anxiety because of all of the drama, it’s not that bad. I was so worried about the early start time because of reading this forum, but my son adjusted perfectly fine to the middle school schedule. We were at an ES that started at 9:20 or whatever too. He had to leave at 6:50 to get to school on time. He had a small cup of coffee with breakfast most days and that did help to wake him up. He’s in high school now and totally survived those two years of early waking up lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 7th grader has been doing fine - New bedtime is 8 pm. He gets up at 6:40, has breakfast that we make, packs lunch, and leaves home at 7:10. Riding a bike to school saves time. He did mention that some classmates look tired.

It’s the younger siblings that complain about lack of sleep. I switched their rooms on Thursday hoping they don’t get woken up in early mornings. It seemed to work on Friday morning.

While I’m a poster who thinks the kids will adjust and need to go to bed earlier, I don’t think you can compare what other kids endure to a kid leaving the house at 7:10. Your child’s wake up time (6:40) is after most of these kids are on a bus.

[Anonymous]

There are going to be kids who are fine with an early start and others who struggle, that goes for all ages.

There are fewer MS and HS then ES, so those need to go earlier in the day in order to free up the busses for the early and late start times for ES. The size of FCPS probably makes it impossible to send the ES kids earlier because you do need the two runs. That would move MS or HS to much later start times and with a greater chance of missing some class if there is an issue with the busses. It is worse for a MS or HS kid to miss part of first period then it is for as ES to miss the morning meeting.

I think the early ES starts at 8:30 AM and the late ES starts closer to 9 or maybe 9:30AM? I doubt those start times would work well for MS or HS kids who have more activities in the afternoon. Or those activities would move to the morning practices instead of afternoon practices and I am not sure that is a great idea. Not to mention, there are parents who rely on their MS/HS kids to watch the ES kid(s) when the parents are at work. Many of those parents don't have the money for after care. Swapping the start times would be a large financial burden for those families. I am guessing that this is an issue for any ES that is Title 1 or near Title 1.

The kids who struggle with the early start time will end up adjusting or it will be, unfortunately, and crappy couple of years. Realistically speaking, most of the parents on this board had early start times for MS and HS and are fine for the experience. We don't remember the start times fondly but I think many folks did just fine with it. There will be the stories of the people who didn't do well with it but those are going to be in the minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7th grader has been doing fine - New bedtime is 8 pm. He gets up at 6:40, has breakfast that we make, packs lunch, and leaves home at 7:10. Riding a bike to school saves time. He did mention that some classmates look tired.

It’s the younger siblings that complain about lack of sleep. I switched their rooms on Thursday hoping they don’t get woken up in early mornings. It seemed to work on Friday morning.

While I’m a poster who thinks the kids will adjust and need to go to bed earlier, I don’t think you can compare what other kids endure to a kid leaving the house at 7:10. Your child’s wake up time (6:40) is after most of these kids are on a bus.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To anyone reading this and getting anxiety because of all of the drama, it’s not that bad. I was so worried about the early start time because of reading this forum, but my son adjusted perfectly fine to the middle school schedule. We were at an ES that started at 9:20 or whatever too. He had to leave at 6:50 to get to school on time. He had a small cup of coffee with breakfast most days and that did help to wake him up. He’s in high school now and totally survived those two years of early waking up lol.

You allowed your middle schooler to drink coffee daily to deal with the early wake up times? What a bad habit to start! Caffeine daily isn’t good for kids not to mention the teeth staining and bad breath. Gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To anyone reading this and getting anxiety because of all of the drama, it’s not that bad. I was so worried about the early start time because of reading this forum, but my son adjusted perfectly fine to the middle school schedule. We were at an ES that started at 9:20 or whatever too. He had to leave at 6:50 to get to school on time. He had a small cup of coffee with breakfast most days and that did help to wake him up. He’s in high school now and totally survived those two years of early waking up lol.

You allowed your middle schooler to drink coffee daily to deal with the early wake up times? What a bad habit to start! Caffeine daily isn’t good for kids not to mention the teeth staining and bad breath. Gross.

His teeth are very healthy and he’s had one cavity in his whole life. He’s almost 17 now. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a cup of coffee with breakfast. And he brushes his teeth before leaving the house, so no coffee breath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To anyone reading this and getting anxiety because of all of the drama, it’s not that bad. I was so worried about the early start time because of reading this forum, but my son adjusted perfectly fine to the middle school schedule. We were at an ES that started at 9:20 or whatever too. He had to leave at 6:50 to get to school on time. He had a small cup of coffee with breakfast most days and that did help to wake him up. He’s in high school now and totally survived those two years of early waking up lol.

You allowed your middle schooler to drink coffee daily to deal with the early wake up times? What a bad habit to start! Caffeine daily isn’t good for kids not to mention the teeth staining and bad breath. Gross.

His teeth are very healthy and he’s had one cavity in his whole life. He’s almost 17 now. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a cup of coffee with breakfast. And he brushes his teeth before leaving the house, so no coffee breath.

There's zero evidence that the amount of caffeine in a daily cup of coffee is bad for teens. The only concerns would be is if it exacerbated anxiety, insomnia or digestive issues--which are the same concerns at any age.

[Anonymous]

Any of you clamoring for 7 years of early school times for elementary school are out of your minds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To anyone reading this and getting anxiety because of all of the drama, it’s not that bad. I was so worried about the early start time because of reading this forum, but my son adjusted perfectly fine to the middle school schedule. We were at an ES that started at 9:20 or whatever too. He had to leave at 6:50 to get to school on time. He had a small cup of coffee with breakfast most days and that did help to wake him up. He’s in high school now and totally survived those two years of early waking up lol.

+1000. The amount of drama on this forum related to minor inconveniences never ceases to amaze.

[Anonymous]

It’s just 2 year In FC, count your blessings, better this than 4 years of early HS when kids are way busier

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any of you clamoring for 7 years of early school times for elementary school are out of your minds.

I'm not clamoring for it as some sort of torture for kids. Getting up early sucks, but I don't want kids to be or think they should be stuck in school past 2:30 or 3 pm. A later start only means a longer day. After a while kids would complain about that too.

[Anonymous]

A group of principals has advocated for years that ES should be first. We were routinely ignored by the Leadership Team. This needs to come from the community or it ain’t happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A group of principals has advocated for years that ES should be first. We were routinely ignored by the Leadership Team. This needs to come from the community or it ain’t happening.

I’d love it. Especially for kindergarten because it’s such a loooooong day for kindergarteners. Having them get out of school early would be great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A group of principals has advocated for years that ES should be first. We were routinely ignored by the Leadership Team. This needs to come from the community or it ain’t happening.

I’d love it. Especially for kindergarten because it’s such a loooooong day for kindergarteners. Having them get out of school early would be great.

Yes! The late ES time is the worst…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A group of principals has advocated for years that ES should be first. We were routinely ignored by the Leadership Team. This needs to come from the community or it ain’t happening.

No they haven’t. If they did, it would have been a major talking point of the elementary principals association. It’s never been discussed. Ask me how I know.