to ask if you think your children need so much holiday

[manicinsomniac]

I'm coming at this as a teacher who loves every second of my holidays by the way so definitely not teacher bashing. It's a major perk of my job and I'd be devastated to lose it.

BUT

We always say the holidays are for the children, not the teachers and the children really need it because they're exhausted.

Do you think that's true?

We have extended days and Saturday school and my children were knackered for the first few days and had lots of down time. But now, a week and a half into our (crazily long 7.5 week holiday!) they're fully refreshed and would happily go back tomorrow if asked.

They really do not need 13+ weeks of down time a year. All their extra curriculars are term time only so I'm racing them about to open dance classes, free summer events, into London, sending them out to play for hours to get rid of energy. They're certainly not acting like poor, exhausted little beings. In a week or so they're even going to have to start doing some holiday work with me, I think.

We love having the holidays because we tend to go travelling (off to America for all of August this year) so I'm certainly not saying I want them gone.

Just questioning whether, actually, 2 weeks off for each holiday plus half terms (so 9 weeks holiday in total) would be perfectly sufficient and make life easier for a lot of people?

I think they need it.
Physical education is appalling so I spend Saturdays at athletics, dance and golf lessons. They are tired after school so only do swimming one night a week and if the weather is nice we go to the park up to three times a week.
In the long holidays they like running around making up their own games and rules, visiting museums, castles, theatres, and cinemas.not to mention the days wandering the woods, watching tadpoles change, playing with cousins, tending the garden and vegetable patch. They learn as much from this as they do in the classroom.

Can you imagine the carnage if everyone only had a two week slot in August to go on a holiday?

Yes I think its important, and its much shorter than anywhere else in the world. My children broke up today and have been exhausted the last few weeks.

I do think they need that long, yes. I'm in NI so my kids have 9 weeks, we are almost a month in and I think they've just started to completely unwind. They're different kids in the summer, I also think the summer teaches them to amuse themselves, find things to do, not rely on me as much to entertain them - it's good for them. I know when they're off for 2 weeks at Christmas or the week they get at Easter we are always trying to fit fun things in, it becomes a bit of a race to be a National Trust poster.

Summer holidays are far too long.

When/where I grew up, we had 12 weeks summer holiday. Loved it. We were bored and up to no good, ushered out first thing and not seen again untill dinner. I mainly remember hiding on the roof of an outbuilding with a blanket, fruit and a book. Or hiding in trees. Again, reading and eating too much fruit.
So no, 6 weeks is not long at all :)

I agree about getting over tiredness - it only takes a week or two.

If holidays were shorter - getting a family holiday would be harder and even more expensive and fitting all the extra experiences in harder as well - the one that can' be fitted round school days or weekends.

However an awful lot of children are in some kind of childcare or with anyone who can have them in the school holidays- while that can be great experiences perhaps not all the time for all the children and childcare cost is a huge problem.

So I do wonder if pressure to change the amount of school holidays will build and build.

So for a broader life experience - yes it's needed.

With a narrower focus,poorer children show a slump in learning after the long summer break, and financial cost of childcare to families - it's probably not needed as such and is more a burden.

Who for doe you, or your children.

People who think the holidays are too long - did you feel this way when you were at school?

I disagree. I think our kids benefit greatly from a decent break to step off the treadmill and just relax, stay up a bit later, not worry about alarm clocks, homework, clubs etc. Theres a lot more to life than school and the only reason that some parents advocate shorter school holidays is because of childcare issues.

From a selfish point of view I feel the benefit of longer school holidays too. It feels like a chance to step off the hamster wheel of modern life for a few weeks which is no bad thing.

Good point about taking holidays cuntycow

Hmmm, on balance thinking I am BU so far!

When I was at school I was definitely very ready for school and activities by the end of the holidays but I think I liked 4-5 weeks of it.

They need it. So they develop in a wider way.
They need it, to learn to potter, go with the flow, stop and stare, daydream and relax. To have fun. To recharge, to see family.
Lots of school children are scheduled to within an inch of their life's term time. The pressure at secondary is immense. Let them have a break fgs.

Otherwise they are hamsters on a wheel. Like the rest of us.

Both.

They get as tired and ratty after, what this time will be, 7 weeks at home as they do after a 7 week half term at school. For parents who work it's an expensive time of year.

I used to get bored in the summer. By the end of it me and my siblings were tearing strips off each other.

I love the long holidays. DS is more than ready for it and it gives us a chance to do lots together.

I do think that their needs to be more in availablilty and variety of summer camps/play schemes available.

manic

How do you view the longer holidays had by the private schools or other countries? or do you just think that those that go to state school (in England) should have shorter holidays?

In my last job 4 out of 6 in my department had school aged children. It was just possible for us to all get a fortnight off and only have two on leave at a time. If the holiday was any shorter someone would have had to miss out. I know not everyone has a fortnight's holiday, but there are other factor such as spouse's / childminders' leave as well, it was a real juggle for us.

I think my kids need the long summer break. Dd had exams this year and was knackered by the end of term. Dh and I work FT but we manage the hols with a combination of childminder ( who does fun activities in the hols with other childminders) annual leave taken in shifts and working from home.
I love the drive to work in the hols because the traffic is so much lighter.

I wonder if the fact they seem "recovered" after a week or so, is precisely because they know they have 4/5 weeks to go. If they actually were going back to school the next week, they might be a good bit more stressed.

Personally, and for my DC too, the long summer holidays were/are just what we need. They have inherited my self sufficiency I guess - I get very pissed off with people telling me what to do the whole time, and love nothing more than the chance to potter, follow my own interests, and read.... I would have managed 12 weeks easy!

Though it IS a big problem for working parents. DP and I are lucky we can work around it.

Dh and I both work. Itis without a doubt an expensive time of year but I absolutely think the benefits for the children are so important that it just one of those things you have to suck up. Dh has to work from home sometimes, MIL has them once a week, I don't work Friday's, sometimes they go in to holiday club.. It hard, but we manage. It's nothing we didn't consider before we had kids.. After all we all had long holidays when we were at school, it's not like they they've sprang them on us at short notice.

Whoever it was up thread that said children should be left to "go feral". I completely agree with this. Mine have a trampoline, a garden, a load of toys and their imagination and they love it. It does them the world of good.

I played out a lot as a child, had dancing lessons, majorettes, piano, read for hours etc but I was horribly bored after a couple of weeks even with those activities.

DS has autism and his behaviour falls apart during the summer because he isn't safe to go out and run unless in a fenced-off area like the school playground. It's really hard to keep him from putting on weight because he can't access clubs.

We try to swim most days but even that gets boring after a while. He also misses the challenge, structure and routine of school. Some people really thrive on that.

BoneyBack - I don't know, I think the US length sounds crazy. Ireland also too long. I love the 7.5 that we have and know that a lot of other private schools have 8-8.5. But I think probably the state school 6 is perfectly sufficient!

Yanbu six weeks is not long enough at all . I feel really down when my dc go back to school and really wish I could home school.

I meant yabu

Ours is one day short of seven weeks (state school) because of INSET.

DS also hates the garden and having the windows open. It's very fraught