Six weeks School Holidays way too long.

[Hoper2]

Six Weeks School Holidays is too long to be off School.

I love being with DD ... some of the time we squabble, but at least we have time to do it together. Neither of us is too intelligent, luckily, so we manage to entertain ourselves ...
Actually, she finds the academic side of school quite difficult, but over the holiday has started voluntarily practicing handwriting - copying out poems about fairies - and reading - endless alternate pages out of her million magic unicorn/kitten/puppy books.
Far from regressing, taking off the pressure of school seems to encourage her.

Not long enough.

My dc need it,their teachers need it and I need it.We all get back into a natural rhythm and I get more in tune with 2 of mine.

It flies by.

Interesting discussion. So it sounds like, unsurprisingly really, if you're someone who's able to spend time at home over the holidays, with enough money to be able to afford a few days out, and children who can entertain themselves to a certain extent, you'd like longer holidays. If you need to juggle work and childcare, or are limited by lack of money, or have kids that need more attention, you might prefer a shorter holiday.

Given that the length of the holiday can't be changed to fit the needs of individual families, it sounds like six weeks is a reasonable compromise, then.

My DC get the bare minimium of six weeks, and only that if you count two half days as part of six weeks. We often get that cramped a holiday in this LA. I would guess for teachers that means they get 5 weeks really at the most. Its not enough, especially when followed by the killing Autumn term.

Yes I can be around, and my DC are older so its much easier.

We are jealous of places where they get a month or two - but also have systems set up for child care. There are lots of things you can learn outside school.

I'd like a couple more weeks, I work 2 or 3 days a week and the rest of the time never seems to be enough to do all the things we'd like to do, especially visiting people.

High five rocco I have found myself in school tidying, planning and resourcing, and having meetings for a week already however..... Grrrr.

I have a couple of G&T DDs and they are mainly watching the disney channel, making loom things and playing badminton in the garden.

We are doing the library challenge and sorting out bedrooms, they have the odd chore to do and we have been to a few play parks but otherwise we are totally veging out.

I think I am about half way through the holiday about now and am dreading the end!

I always glasto see so many people still enjoy the hols.
We go away for weeks in our little camper the we work around childcare the rest of the time.
Even on a work day I love coming home and not having to worry about uniform or homework or packed lunches.

That's it for me, the freedom from letters and uniforms and sports kits and rigid timetables. We still have to get up and out on my work days, but the timing is a bit more flexible and no after school activities, once we're home we just chill (I work school hours but not in a school setting).

I think 6 weeks is about right for us. DH and I both work nearly full time (4.5 days per week).

We have 2 weeks away (usually Cornwall), and then for the other 4 weeks DH and I go down to 3 days at work each, and the kids go to holiday club when we overlap.

They don't seem to get too bored, but it can get a bit expensive.
When they were little they were happy to just go to the park, but now (age 10 and 11) its harder to find free things they want to do.

I'm not sure what we will do when they are too old for holiday club, the one we use goes up to age 13. They may end up having days home alone.

We are lucky that we are both in jobs with a fairly generous leave allowance, but I think we will still struggle a bit this year, as DD1 starts secondary in Sept, so we have different inset days to cover.

If the holidays were more than 6 weeks, we would run out of leave to stay home with them, so they would have to do more days per week at holiday club - or home alone when too old for holiday club.

I enjoy the break and it has zoomed by!
Of course, I just have common garden children, so what would I know?

When I was at school I remember spending what seemed like a whole rainy summer drawing a near life sized (I'm sure) map of Spain while drinking homemade ginger beer.

I think it is massively important that school holidays are based around the needs of children and not around the childcare needs of working parents. Schools must be dedicated to giving children what they need to develop as healthy human beings.

In my opinion, children should not be constantly shuttled from one activity to the next but must learn to be bored, to lie on the grass looking at clouds and to have peaceful downtime with their families. These things are essential for good mental health.

The children need the break too! We often treat them like robots expecting them to stick to routine, learn this, do that, go there etc - As a teacher, they just need some time off to have life experiences, have chance to be a child and have fun! 6 weeks is a good length for them to recharge their batteries.

Luckily we are a family of thickos who are really enjoying the six weeks holidays. Which is just as well as DS2 has only had 6 days in school apart from going in for his GCSEs since breaking up for Easter, yes Easter!

It's too short. Dd hasn't had chance to practise being bored yet.

OP I see where you're coming from. I work so I'm really struggling at the moment. Can't afford holiday clubs or nice trips out. Kids go to my mums who also juggles her own job and them, on the days I have booked off I'm too skint to go anywhere nice so it's usually just home activities, park, walks etc, all very boring for a 10 yo boy. They hate it. I hate it. Suppose if I was a SAHM it would be a lot different but I'm not. I'm stressed, skint and fed up.

From a schools point of view important maintenance work goes on over the summer. Every year we have windows in, walls up, walls down, carpets, electrics, painting etc. There is a limit as to what can be achieved in term time and it's virtually impossible trying to teach a class with a relentless drill drone in the next room.

6 weeks of school holidays was much nicer when I didn't work FT. I love the whole library challenge/ museum visits/ days out stuff. Unfortunately now we don't have as much time for all that and holidays are more about juggling childcare

I love love love the holidays. Although I accept that working part time and having my mum around the corner for on-tap childcare.
But like the other posters, DD and I are thick so we are happy in parks and dressing up teddies and building Lego and (shock horror) she gets to watch tv all day if she wants to every now and then! It's her holiday too!

I love school holidays too but then I am a SAHM, so it's lovely to not have to get up to a schedule, and rush around with DS2 (22mo) trying to get everyone ready and out the house to get DS1 to school on time.
We have a lovely time in the holidays! Just chillin', watching DVDs, going out to friends' houses, parks, shops, zoos, maybe a few days away if DH can get time off - it's fab.

I'm going to cut straight to the chase here, having only read the first 2 pages of this 6 page topic:

What you always find when you see replies to this perennial question is a 'falling into camps':

You have the parents of DC who do regress academically in 6,7,9 weeks who would dearly like the holidays to be shorter and more evenly spread;

You have the parents who spend 2 weeks at a villa, 2 weeks at their Cornish holiday home, the DC spend a week apiece with the 2 sets of grandparents and spend the rest at Science Camp/Stagecoach or whatever who wish they had 'longer to enjoy their holidays away the children's' company';

You'll get the home-edders who couldn't imagine not being with their DC and interacting with them 24/7 and can't understand why it doesn't suit everyone;

You'll have the SAHM who loves not having to do anything structured, like get the DC off to school/packed lunches/homework for weeks on end;

You'll find certain sorts of DC who not only have heaps of 'things to do' but are situated in a physical location that allows them to do them;

You'll find some DC who will spend 6 weeks glued to a screen with at-work parents who can't be there to chivvy them out;

You'll get the working parents with no reliable or affordable childcare available who are tearing their hair out finding cover for the holidays.

The various camps will never find accord.

As an aside, you'll also find some of those wanting 3 months holidays complaining bitterly about the occasional 9 week half term that allows this! .

OP found a lovely free activity today. Took the DC to the library for the reading challenge. Bless their poor little brains, obviously they are not G&F but at least they can look at the pictures

The local chess club were in there so then they got to play chess and get some really good tuition and it was all free. Obviously I had to stop them shoving the Queen up their nose and lobotomising themselves but at least they seemed to grasp the difference between black and white

Jilted

When my dcs were younger, I felt the pressure to take them to beaches , museums etc
Now that they are a bit older, they tend to entertain themselves by watching TV ,etc

Jilted

DD is a teenager now and spends most of her day asleep, leaving nice long evenings to spend with us.