Reply to Anyone else's kid have Spring Break homework?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]it was a 10 day break! One of my HS aged kids had a lot of homework, the other had only a little. They have time to complete HW

Both kids requested to go away for a shorter period of time. We still went on vacation for 4 days and had time for family, friends, hanging out, and school/work responsibilities the other 6 days.[/quote]

So if you take a 10 day vacation you’re fine working part of it?

When you factor in all the time your kids spend in class, doing homework on school nights and regular weekends, do you really think the homemade they did over break had more than a negligible effect on the amount they will have learned this year?  It’s great that a 4 day trip and 6 days of hanging out worked well for your family.  Other families may have different plans.  Their plans should not be dependent on what works for your family.

The school sets the calendar.  It doesn’t have to be 10 days.  However, I think it’s a bit disingenuous to declare a 10 day break but then assign work to intrude on that time.  If they feel that it is necessary to the educational process to do academic work during that time, then let them be honest and include it as part of the calendar.  It would be a lot better for the MCPS to say that break is 9 or 9.5 days and then actually give families the full length of time for their break.

Moreover, as you yourself indicated, the amount of homework assigned over break can vary - one of yours had a lot, the other had only a little.  I’ll never forget the time my high schooler told me that she’d looked at her schedule and decided she could probably take a whole day off to celebrate Christmas with the family, but that she’d have to work the rest of  the break.  There was also the time my 2nd grader came home with a very thick packet of test prep, a CD of lectures, and instructions to have  their parents teach them multiplication  - all to get ready for a test to determine if they would be ready for the test the following year to determine if the schools were doing a good job of educating the kids.

Education is important, but it is not the only thing important to a child.  They also need time for family, friends, pursuing their own interests, wasting time, and being bored.

I  value and respect school.  My kids did their homework and studied however much was needed for exams. We didn’t pull our kids out of school for trips.  For that matter, we rarely took trips, although we did do other things.  We didn’t even pull them out for my BIL’s wedding, which my husband attended alone. But whether a family has every minute of their break pre-planned or has no specific plans doesn’t matter.  As a break it should be up to the families how to spend the time.  While I respect the school and make sure to honor the time required both in and out of class, I wish that the school would give equal respect to families and our time with the kids.[/quote]

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