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Better too long than too short. For many families, it is a rare chance to be together. I've only been able to spend one Christmas with my family abroad in 25 years, mainly because of scheduling conflicts. There's no way I could do it in that time frame. In 2008, we got out on the 19th and went back on the 4th. That was just about right. I came back on the 2nd, and had a chance to get ready before going back.
The summer break completely conflicts with that of our overseas cousins. They don't get out until July 20 and they go back in the middle of September. They get a week off in the middle of each of three terms, with three week breaks in between. So they aren't getting out until almost time for us to go back. As a result, our kids never really got to enjoy a proper holiday with their cousins the way that I did when I was a child.
Why can't we do this???? Here it is the end of July and I'm wising I could bank some of the time I have left this summer to use to catch up when I get behind during the school year. I'd love a week mid term to catch up and putting breaks BETWEEN terms makes so much sense we'll never do it. Here, we have Christmas break three weeks before semester finals.
Texas schools are not allowed to start until the week in which Aug 27 falls, so most are beginning Aug 22 or 23.
Time off is different for every district.
This year our district has -
Labor Day
2 days at Columbus Day (in-service)
3 days at Thanksgiving
11 days for Christmas Break (1 in-service)
MLK
President's Day (in-service)
week in March for Spring Break
Good Friday (in-service)
Memorial Day
Texas schools are not allowed to start until the week in which Aug 27 falls, so most are beginning Aug 22 or 23.
Time off is different for every district.
This year our district has -
Labor Day
2 days at Columbus Day (in-service)
3 days at Thanksgiving
11 days for Christmas Break (1 in-service)
MLK
President's Day (in-service)
week in March for Spring Break
Good Friday (in-service)
Memorial Day
I was not aware that there was some specific date before which Texas schools cannot start.
Our time off is
Labor Day (inservice for teachers)
October 10 (staff development)
1 week at Thanksgiving
2 weeks for Christmas (includes Jan 2 as a workday for teachers)
MLK (Staff development)
January 16 (staff development)
February 20 (staff development)
1 week for Spring Break
Good Friday
We also have 6 early release days (in fact our school may have more, but that is the district total - as an IB school, my granddaughter's school has other early release days used for team planning)
Here in Western NC we start teacher workdays Aug 19th, students start August 25th and school lets out for students June 8th with teacher workdays thru June 14th
We, usually, have two weeks but if the holidays are on the weekends there is no need for that. If they're giving us two weeks, I'd rather have the week before Christmas off. We have school on the 23rd then are off until the 9th. As I said, I'd rather go back on the 3rd (or have the 23rd off and go back on the 2nd) and then have a week in February instead of a three day weekend. It's going to be a long stretch from Christmas to Easter.
We have two weeks off for Christmas as well and I campaigned to have from December 23rd to January 9th off because historically the week after New Years day is extremely inexpensive to travel.
The school district starts Aug. 3rd here, but they have two weeks off between quarters and 6 weeks off for the summer, so a two week vacation in Oct, two weeks in December/Jan, and two weeks in March. Then they are out by the end of May.
We're a charter school, so we go back Aug. 17, we'll have one week off in October, November (for Thanksgiving), two weeks in Dec/Jan, one week in March and then we'll be out by May 20something.
We have two weeks off for Christmas as well and I campaigned to have from December 23rd to January 9th off because historically the week after New Years day is extremely inexpensive to travel.
The school district starts Aug. 3rd here, but they have two weeks off between quarters and 6 weeks off for the summer, so a two week vacation in Oct, two weeks in December/Jan, and two weeks in March. Then they are out by the end of May.
We're a charter school, so we go back Aug. 17, we'll have one week off in October, November (for Thanksgiving), two weeks in Dec/Jan, one week in March and then we'll be out by May 20something.
I'd love to be on a trimester system with breaks BETWEEN trimesters and a shorter summer. Seriously, this is one BORED household right now. There are only so many times you can go to the beach and so much cleaning/redecorating you can do. The kids are chomping at the bit to shop for school clothes and they don't start back for 5 more weeks.
Seriously, the agrarian school calendar needs to go the way of the cave men....Some time off in the summer is nice but do kids really need 12 weeks? They spend 6 of them bored. As a teacher, I could use more time off during the year to catch up and catch my breath. I start the year with fresh energy and newly rewritten lesson plans and by the end of the year, I'm recycling what I did last year because I'm burned out.
I'd love to be on a trimester system with breaks BETWEEN trimesters and a shorter summer. Seriously, this is one BORED household right now. There are only so many times you can go to the beach and so much cleaning/redecorating you can do. The kids are chomping at the bit to shop for school clothes and they don't start back for 5 more weeks.
Seriously, the agrarian school calendar needs to go the way of the cave men....Some time off in the summer is nice but do kids really need 12 weeks? They spend 6 of them bored. As a teacher, I could use more time off during the year to catch up and catch my breath. I start the year with fresh energy and newly rewritten lesson plans and by the end of the year, I'm recycling what I did last year because I'm burned out.
Wanna trade calendars????
We are on a trimester system but don't really have breaks between them (one day) but our summers are pretty short (mid June-Tuesday after Labor Day). It hardly seems like summer has gotten going here because of the cool June and the blasting hot July we have had. . In our old district our kids were out around Memorial Day and by Aug 1st they were ready to go back-but still had a month left. We tried to do our vacations in August as much as possible back then. Now the kids are in marching band and summer is "over" for them as they have band every day now--but they have a blast and all their friends are in band so they don't care.
I would like to see June and July off, go back early August and have a week break between trimesters and less single days off during the year. We could travel more, etc. during those off weeks.
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. In our old district our kids were out around Memorial Day and by Aug 1st they were ready to go back-but still had a month left. We tried to do our vacations in August as much as possible back then. Now the kids are in marching band and summer is "over" for them as they have band every day now--but they have a blast and all their friends are in band so they don't care.
