David Lamb
Well-Known Member
Being a Brit, I had to look up Labor Day and Memorial Day. Were you serious in your suggestion that schools should close before the end of May, and not open again until the first week in September?Andy T. said:
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When does school start?
- Thread starter FriendofSpurgeon
- Start date
I Am Blessed 24
Active Member
I am home schooling Brent this year and we plan to start right after Labor Day, Tuesday, September 2nd.
And??rbell said:
How does this show they don't care about family time? And how do families use the summer vacation time as family time, other then going on expensive vacations, that they don't do the rest of the time? Do families wait till summer to have family time? If families aren't having family time during the school year, they aren't going to during summer vacation, and a few less days off should not effect family time at all. If in fact those families want time together, which many today do not or they wouldn't be living the life styles they are.
Many schools are going to year round school years, with 2 week breaks I think it's 4 times a years (it could be more, I don't know for sure, this wasn't happening very often back when my kids were in school).
People complain about the educations in america being behind so many other countries, then when they start trying to up the education level people complain about the amount of time it takes to teach more. Do you think that prehaps an education isn't worth the time?
donnA said:
Much time is wasted in school --- especially in the public schools. Thus, more time in school does not necessarily mean more education. (We see a lot less wasted time now that ours are in a private Christian school.)
Summers are very important to us. We try to have a summer that is educational, service-oriented, rest, family time and just plain fun. Actually, it takes work & a lot of planning to do this, but it's worth it.
Over the years, we (as a family) have been to a lot of places & done a lot of neat things -- things we could have never done if there were only two weeks for a break. In fact, our best memories involve various summer vacations.
Summers are also a time when teens are able to hit the workforce for the first time in their lives. Lastly, I think kids just need a break so they can hit the fall school refreshed & ready to go.
And yes, while we try to have "family time" during the school year, it is not the same as being together on vacation together.
David Lamb said:
David --
Not quite. Our school (Westminster Christian) ended at the end of May & the beginning of school was scheduled for August 18th (of course, tropical storm Fay messed things up a bit). In effect, they had 12 weeks of summer off. It actually went very quickly, as they were quite busy.
donnA said:
One of our esteemed upper-eschelon leaders in the A.E.A. (Alabama Education Association) made the statement once that he'd like to see 220 school days per year (!). My response to him...What are we, communist China?
I'm not responsible for what other families do...but seeing 2nd graders have 7 hours of school, then three hours of homework...it's a bit much.
donnA said:
Donna, you can take this how you want, and it is meant in love:
I don't know why, but it seems to me that your posts have taken on a more confrontational, harder edge lately. I'd appreciate your showing a bit more grace.
rbell said:
menageriekeeper
Active Member
The AEA needs to learn it's limitations! If they tried something like this, I'd homeschool all of mine and not just one that our esteemed public schools can't seem to educate because he's sick all the time.
I have that one reading Frost right now by his own choice. My public highschooler hasn't read Frost as part of her education or many other authors I had been introduced to by 11th grade.My understanding right at the moment, is that my fifth grader has spent the last week taking next springs SAT-10'S so the teachers will have a better idea of what they need to teach. It is a subject I will be bringing up at Tuesday evenings "parent/teacher spaghetti dinner".
I spent zero time prepping my homeschooler for those same tests last year and he did just as well or better than he had in public school.Longer school years aren't going to help if the kids aren't being taught a full range of skills.
givengrace
New Member
Started Here August 6th
mcdirector
Active Member
I don't think we need more school days, but I would like to see them distributed differently - shorter summer with more and longer breaks over the course of the year. The time we spend getting back into routine and review at the end of summer are wasted days IMHO and difficult on many children.
We started 8/20.
We started 8/20.
mcdirector said:
I don't disagree. Summer (even with loads of activities) can get really long. Thankfully, our kids were only "home" for a few weeks this time around so it went by really fast for them (and us). My concern is that the school boards will then use this a spring board for a full calendar year of school.
mcdirector
Active Member
Well, FofS - I sure don't think that we need more days. I think we will get much more bang for our buck if the kids don't have to get back into the routine.
We come back for a day - we get the kids on a short schedule in which kids find their seats, we say hello, hand out important papers, blah, blah, blah and then have an assembly that's always longer than anyone plans for, then we go through more back to school routine blah. Then we have ONE regular day of school. Then we have something special on Friday because they've been gone all summer. So our first real day isn't until the next Monday, but they are still finding classes, figuring out how to get to their lockers because they have forgotten, how to balance their books and walk and talk - not an easy skill until they are about 16 - takes lots of practice. They forget how to keep up with their notes and how to organize their notebooks. How to get to class with books and calculators. OH and they need a pencil and paper too! Some of these poor guys are just beginning to figure this stuff out in March and April and then we send them home for ages. Today at lunch I found out we are having a Tornado drill tomorrow (I know we have to) and some kind of poetry assembly Friday (???). We have two field trips scheduled in the first quarter and I'm just saying the kids need to build routine to be successful and when are they supposed to do that?
Good thing today isn't when they hand out next year's intent forms
We come back for a day - we get the kids on a short schedule in which kids find their seats, we say hello, hand out important papers, blah, blah, blah and then have an assembly that's always longer than anyone plans for, then we go through more back to school routine blah. Then we have ONE regular day of school. Then we have something special on Friday because they've been gone all summer. So our first real day isn't until the next Monday, but they are still finding classes, figuring out how to get to their lockers because they have forgotten, how to balance their books and walk and talk - not an easy skill until they are about 16 - takes lots of practice. They forget how to keep up with their notes and how to organize their notebooks. How to get to class with books and calculators. OH and they need a pencil and paper too! Some of these poor guys are just beginning to figure this stuff out in March and April and then we send them home for ages. Today at lunch I found out we are having a Tornado drill tomorrow (I know we have to) and some kind of poetry assembly Friday (???). We have two field trips scheduled in the first quarter and I'm just saying the kids need to build routine to be successful and when are they supposed to do that?
Good thing today isn't when they hand out next year's intent forms
mcdirector said:Well, FofS - I sure don't think that we need more days. I think we will get much more bang for our buck if the kids don't have to get back into the routine.
We come back for a day - we get the kids on a short schedule in which kids find their seats, we say hello, hand out important papers, blah, blah, blah and then have an assembly that's always longer than anyone plans for, then we go through more back to school routine blah. Then we have ONE regular day of school. Then we have something special on Friday because they've been gone all summer. So our first real day isn't until the next Monday, but they are still finding classes, figuring out how to get to their lockers because they have forgotten, how to balance their books and walk and talk - not an easy skill until they are about 16 - takes lots of practice. They forget how to keep up with their notes and how to organize their notebooks. How to get to class with books and calculators. OH and they need a pencil and paper too! Some of these poor guys are just beginning to figure this stuff out in March and April and then we send them home for ages. Today at lunch I found out we are having a Tornado drill tomorrow (I know we have to) and some kind of poetry assembly Friday (???). We have two field trips scheduled in the first quarter and I'm just saying the kids need to build routine to be successful and when are they supposed to do that?
Good thing today isn't when they hand out next year's intent forms
Wow. Sounds like you teach middle school (?). As a parent, I like the fact that the kids have a break in their routine, but I can certainly understand your concerns as a teacher.
Plus, mine are in high school so they pretty much have the routine down by now (one would hope). Also, since there are in high school, they have some classes that are for only one semester anyway -- so they will be starting new classes/rooms/etc. again in early 2009. No big deal for them.
Lastly, we get a lot of the back to school chatter, assemblies, etc. out of the way during Warrior Week.