Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We do morning and evening extended day and they just run around the whole time. While it's not awesome giving our kids such a long day, we don't really have a choice, and they end up not missing recess as much because there's tons of "recess" on the front and tail end for them.

But the "long day" sounds like it's pretty much just like the days kids used to have, with hours of running around with their friends. The difference is that they're doing it at school instead of in their neighborhood.

+1 I was a SAHM for my kids' first couple years of ES and they were much more active after school once they were going to extended day. Since nearly all their friends were there they didn't have anyone else to play with when they just came home. Now they spend a couple hours every afternoon in free play.

For K, while only 1 recess was on the schedule, there was also a free/flexible slot in the schedule which was usually used for a 2nd recess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We do morning and evening extended day and they just run around the whole time. While it's not awesome giving our kids such a long day, we don't really have a choice, and they end up not missing recess as much because there's tons of "recess" on the front and tail end for them.

But the "long day" sounds like it's pretty much just like the days kids used to have, with hours of running around with their friends. The difference is that they're doing it at school instead of in their neighborhood.

All I'm saying is that my kids come home telling me about all of the fun outdoor time they had and they don't compartmentalize it into recess vs extended day. So the report we get back is pretty much always that they were getting lots of activity. And yes, I agree, kids who aren't in extended day have their own version of the same, just at home. It's all good, for us at least. We're really happy with our APS school and our kids are getting tons of physical activity.