School is FINALLY out for the summer here. Having the kids in school for all of June is STILL so weird for me, and we just finished our 6th year of school. You think I’d be use to it by now, but I’m not.
I grew up going to school though the end of May, sometimes only until the 3rd week of May. And we started back to school in the 3rd week of August usually. So we had 3 FULL months of summer break (or vacation, as we called it).
My kiddos go to school until the very end of June, and for the last 2 years because of the way the calendar falls we’ve started school the last week of August, BEFORE Labor Day. That gives us about 9 weeks of summer holidays (as they call it here). It feels SO short…
Now, I probably wouldn’t mind the torture of having to sit in school for a whole month after summer has started to arrive up here in the cold white north if there was actually real teaching going on. But for the last 3 weeks of June, most of the classroom time consists of movies, parties, and games, not to mention all the field trips they take out of the classroom.
Don’t get me wrong, I know they learn with those kinds of things too. But it really does feel like a waste of their time to be in school those last 3 weeks. The atmosphere in the classrooms goes downhill after about the 2nd week of June, with the kiddos becoming more restless. Maybe it’s different in the secondary grades, but that’s how it is in the elementary schools.
And I have to be careful to watch my own attitude about it. Because I’m finished at the end of May, too! Finished with the run around drill and ready for summer!
It’s VERY weird having to cram a whole summer into just over 2 months. Not my favorite way to do it, but I’ll have to live with it, I guess. Now on to the fun of the summer!
*** Join me in the weirdness… I KNOW you’ve encountered SOMETHING weird somewhere this week!! Leave me a comment and tell me all about it! ***
We finished up May 21st and go back August 9th. Not much summer here either. 🙁 But I'm ok with that since it's so stinking hot here. We do get a fall break (one week in October) which is nice since the weather is perfect then.
Yah, that's pretty short, too, Jenn. We have a long weekend nearly every month (Sept is Labor Day, Oct is Thanksgiving, Nov is Remembrance Day, Feb is Family Day, March or April is Easter with Good Friday and Easter Monday off at least but usually a whole week if it's in April, May is Victoria Day) plus a a decent break over Christmas, and a week break in February. But our weather has been getting nice the last few weeks, and it seems like such a shame to be in class during that time. It IS so hot at your place, I don't guess you can be out all the time. Do you guys go cooler places to camp and stuff?
It's just tough when I'm used to 3 months of summer and only get 9 weeks. I always have to readjust my thinking about how long we have to do what we want to do over the summer!