Year round schooling

[Jai]

Do you have year round schooling where you live? If so do you and your kids like it/dislike it?

I just read that the Gov. is proposing year round schooling here in MI. I will admit at first thought I do not like the idea, but I don't know much about it yet.

Also, is this something that we would vote on (like the proposals) or could he just make it happen?

So I read a little more. The kids would still be going the same amount of days, just without that long of a break in the summer. Main reason being so they don't spend so much time going over what they already learned the prior year. Which does make sense I guess but I've never noticed a problem. My kids school does like a week or going over what they learned the previous year and that's it.

[Dreya]

While I can't comment on year round schooling for my own kids let me share my experience with a different system of shorter, more frequent breaks.

I went through high school in Wales and the school calender looked a lot different to the way it looks in the states. We'd have 3 weeks "on", 1 week "off" called half term holiday. Most of the time we'd have assignments and projects or studying that needed to be completed during half term so it was like a pseudo break. At Christmas we got 2 weeks and in the summer we got 5 weeks, not nearly the May - August break that they have here. In all honesty, it didn't bother us at all. I was still happy to get back to school in September and the 5 weeks off were just the right break length. My mother would ship us off to my father's farm in Canada for 5 weeks, by the end of the break we'd be getting sick of it and want to go home.

I think that system is better honestly, it gives a little break but doesn't let the mind atrophy.

[Racegirl766k]

We have a "modified" year round schedule here. 8 weeks on 2 off, 8 on 3 off, 8 on 2 off, 8 on 6 off. The teachers still spend just as long going over stuff at the begining of the new school year, plus it costs the district a lot more money since they have to run the a/c longer in our hot months. Additionally more high school kids are choosing not to take summer school classes (which help find the schools since you have to pay for them) since they don't have a long enough summer break to take them and go on vacations... Because of all of those reasons, they're considering going back to a regular schedule.

To answer your questions about you being able to vote for/against it. In my experience, you don't really have much of a say, it's whatever the district decides. I do know they where thinking about it when I was in high school and actually took a poll from students to see what they thought...

[macksmom]

I don't think it's such an awful thing. The summer break is loooong and I think sometimes too long. Yes it's fun and a nice respite but I found DD missing her school friends and routine. I remember feeling like it was too long as a kid. Camp is expensive and it's not financially feasible to do fun and exciting things all summer. I work hard to find free things but it's getting more difficult.

For smart kids I don't think the long break hurts but for kids who have trouble it really sets them back. My mom always said that (she is a teacher).

I think there are pluses and minuses to it.

[anonsouthernbell]

I don't think it's such an awful thing. The summer break is loooong and I think sometimes too long. Yes it's fun and a nice respite but I found DD missing her school friends and routine. I remember feeling like it was too long as a kid. Camp is expensive and it's not financially feasible to do fun and exciting things all summer. I work hard to find free things but it's getting more difficult.

For smart kids I don't think the long break hurts but for kids who have trouble it really sets them back. My mom always said that (she is a teacher).

I think there are pluses and minuses to it.

I would change that to say kids whose parents are involved vs not involved. For instance, my mom gave us homework every summer that we had off, plus we had required reading and assignments, etc.

I would be curious to know if they plan on increasing teacher's salaries. I know that a lot of teachers supplement their income by working over the summer and that would be difficult to find a job that would hire educators for 2 to 3 weeks at a time. Additionally, when you work in a stressful environment that nice long summer break is just the perfect amount of time to recharge so that you can do it all over again the following school year.

[Jai]

See Ive always heard that teachers can get paid for 10 months and no check over the summer, or they can have their checks spread out onto 12 months so they still receive a check during the summer.

Yea, my kids don't have trouble when coming back to school after the summer but I work with them during the summer. The school gives a packet to each student of homework to keep their minds fresh. I think sometimes the parents don't have them do it. I have mine do it.

I can see pros and cons to this. At first I thought no way, I do not like this. But I can see benefits as well now.

[Cosmosmom]

I like the idea myself...now as an adult. As a kid, I wouldn't have liked it. I would say that they would have to install a/c here. Most schools don't have them and I don't think kids can learn if they are too hot.

[DucksLikeRain]

I'm neutral. I think it would work as well as what we've got going now but not necessarily better. I know my girls' school spends like two months on review in some areas. It's the middle of November and they're finally almost to where they were in June last year in math. It's ridiculous. But I don't think that would change-just be split between all the restarts. Instead of 6 week of review they'd do 2 weeks of review each time they came back from school.

The education system isn't working globally but I don't think this fixes it-my cousins in ID and UT had year round school for years when we were growing up and their schools were definitely not any further in education standards than ours.

[moosh34]

See Ive always heard that teachers can get paid for 10 months and no check over the summer, or they can have their checks spread out onto 12 months so they still receive a check during the summer.

A little off topic, but in my state teachers have a 9 month contract and they usually do spread the checks out over the whole year. Dh works for a charter. He has a little less than 2 months off in the summers. The other "month" off is Christmas break and Spring break (which is only 3 weeks, but whatev.) Dh does not currently find a summer job. With having babies or being pregnant, I like having him home when we get to. Plus, finding a job for 7-8 weeks seems pretty useless...and that's if we take no vacation time at all.

My mom teaches at a school that is on year-round to help with capacity. Her first 2 years teaching she had to pack up her whole classroom so another teacher could use it when she was off track and then she'd go into another classroom when she went back on track. That way they could have 6 classes using 4 classrooms or something like that. In the last few years, many of the schools in her school district that were on year-round and no longer needed to be to help with capacity went back to traditional schedule. I don't think they found that the pros outweighed the cons.

[jazzmom]

You know, I've never really thought about it. But after reading this thread I can definitely see pros and cons. As long as there was somewhat of an extended break over the summer (trips, activities, etc.) I think year-round school could actually be a very good thing. However, I wonder how families with two parents working full-time would fare? Would it be difficult to find childcare for 1-2-3 week intervals around the year like that? Our school has late start days a couple times a month, which is when the teachers do their training before school and kids don't come in until an hour later than usual. This leaves some families scrambling to get their kids to school b/c they have to be at work at 7, 8, whatever---but the kids don't have to come until 9.45.

[Jai]

You know, I've never really thought about it. But after reading this thread I can definitely see pros and cons. As long as there was somewhat of an extended break over the summer (trips, activities, etc.) I think year-round school could actually be a very good thing. However, I wonder how families with two parents working full-time would fare? Would it be difficult to find childcare for 1-2-3 week intervals around the year like that? Our school has late start days a couple times a month, which is when the teachers do their training before school and kids don't come in until an hour later than usual. This leaves some families scrambling to get their kids to school b/c they have to be at work at 7, 8, whatever---but the kids don't have to come until 9.45.

My mom mentioned this too. I know my best friend sends her child to school for camp/ basically latchkey during the summer.

[WishingNWaiting]

I grew up going to year-round school and both of my kids are in it now and we love it. We have a 4 track year round system, most of the tracks are 9 weeks in/3 weeks out of school and there is a 2 week break at Christmas and in the summer for everyone. Our track gets caught in several holiday breaks, so we aren't on a clean 9/3 week schedule, but it seems like they are constantly getting little breaks. The community has both traditional and year round schools, so there are tons of camps, daycare options every break. I think the kids do well because they don't forget as much and just when they are getting tired of the routine they get a break. Aso, for family vacations we are able to go on "off" times and save money and avoid crowds. The downside came for me at high school because there aren't as many year round high schools and it made extra-curricular activities a little more challenging. But elementary and middle are great for us using year round as the kids seem to be flourishing!

[hotpinkmomma0811]

There is only 1 school in town that does it. I honestly don't see a big deal with it because the one here you get more breaks but, just in smaller time frames. Instead of 3 months straight summer vacation its more broken up. My cousin did it where she lived and loved it.

[Ky'sMom]

We have a couple schools here who go year round. I specifically didn't send Ky to the one closer to our house because I don't like the year round schedule. I think it is inconvenient for full time working parents. As it is now, Ky goes to visit relatives in the summer and also goes to camps, mostly at the Boys and Girls Clubs, which are super inexpensive ($150 for the whole summer, it can be waived for lower income families). I would pay much more than that for childcare for him for 3 weeks at a regular daycare.

I also like having summers off. We do a lot of different sorts of learning in the summer. And as the child of parents who weren't involved necessarily, my mom didn't do a whole lot of academic stuff with us, she did take us to the library, but that was it - I can say I fared rather well, as did my brothers who I (vainly) don't think were as smart as me LOL!.

I like summers though. I like letting the kids be kids and not having a whole lot of structure during the summer. I like letting them run outside and play or visit grandmas and granpas or cousins and ride bikes and do fun stuff like I used to do in the summer. I think childhood is getting too scheduled and I see summer as a way to let my kids be kids. It is also a break from homework, a long needed break IMO. I do have Ky do reading and reports in the summer but it is not a bunch of useless worksheets like he gets at school all year. We also have time to go to places we dont' have time to go to during the year.

I would make a big stink about it if I lived in the state and try to get some people together to block it.

Erin