Is it harder for kids to make/keep friends in year round school vs traditional? (home)

[LARRY2CARY]

My children will probably be starting year round school for the first time. I think the concept is great & am looking forward to it, I just wonder if it will effect their ability to make friends with all the different tracks. Can anyone share their experiences? Also do children stay on the same track every year or do they get re-assigned? Do most people have a preference to which track, I hear 4 is very popular. Thanks.

[T|K]

When I was in middle school and was in year round here in the area, I had no problems making friends all around the school. It is harder to make friends on other tracks though, just like in a traditional school, you make friends with people in your classes mostly, so more friends are going to come from your tracks logically.

[bellasformas]

My daughter went to YR from K-8. She had no difficulty making and keeping friends. Most of her friends were on her track, but she also made friends on different tracks, and from different schools through soccer. With Facebook and texting...it's pretty easy for them to stay in touch, even though most of the friends she made in K-8 are in different high schools. I wouldn't worry about that.

As far as changing tracks...we never did, and there weren't many YR schools while she was going. You can apply for a change, and they will accomodate you if they can.

None of the kids in our neighborhood were her age, so I can't share that with you, but many of her friends had "neighbor friends" who they go to the pool, beach, dinner with. It's not the end of the world some would like you to believe it is. We loved it! The only down side was that they had to make up snow days on Saturdays, because with kids in school year round, there is no down time for the building itself...except over 4th of July....but we survived that.

Plus sides...nice break after nine weeks, ability to travel in off peak times, better retention rate (at least for my child) and I think YR is more like the real world. With most jobs, you don't get to take 3 months off in summer.

[KellyCrash]

One thing I really hate about the multi track system is that the kids in the neighborhood are all on different schedules. My daughter's neighborhood friends hardly ever had the same days off as she did. It didn't make it hard for her to make or keep friends, but if we didn't have anything planned for the track out she would get bored and anxious for her friends to come home from school so they could play.

[annesg]

I guess it depends on the school and your neighborhood. I used to whine about the fact that none of the neighbor kids were on the same schedule as mine, but the fact is, none of them have a stay at home parent (except mine) so even if their neighbor friends were on break, they wouldn't be at home all day they would be at camp! (except maybe one household that has a teacher for a mom).

That being said, in our school there is only 1 section of our track for each grade, so my kids are with the same exact group of kids every year unless someone new moves in or someone existing moves away or changes tracks. This certainly keeps consistency and allows for friends to stay together, but it also means that my kids don't meet or get to know any of the other kids in their grade at the school.

Overall it seems to me that each type of calendar has its real problems and its real advantages. I'm getting tired of year round, truth be told, and if I go back to work I'll need a traditional calendar probably, but I really do not want to force change on my kids right now as they are settled in pretty well.