Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This school reversed the standard lunch followed by recess schedule, and is reporting positive results (time to eat AND time to play). Does anyone out there work or have kids in a school with that schedule? It's such a simple switch, and from this article, anyway, sounds like it makes a great deal of sense.
I like the idea and have suggested that my granddaughter's school consider it for next year. They really could not switch easily once school had started because it is a large school with a lot of different classes to switch.
The school my kids attended in COS, Colorado did this. It was great - my kids actually came home with EMPTY lunch boxes, not half eaten sandwiches. They started packing bigger lunches too! That same school had a 'snack time' in the classroom after their other recess - early lunch kids had it in the afternoon, late lunchers got it in the morning.
I wish ALL schools would implement it. Great idea!
The school my kids attended in COS, Colorado did this. It was great - my kids actually came home with EMPTY lunch boxes, not half eaten sandwiches. They started packing bigger lunches too! That same school had a 'snack time' in the classroom after their other recess - early lunch kids had it in the afternoon, late lunchers got it in the morning.
I wish ALL schools would implement it. Great idea!
My DS had a second grade teacher who let them do their work throughout snack and then take those 10 minutes to go outside after snack and burn off their energy. Without question, that was the best learning year he's had. I used to volunteer and personally watched all of those squirming kids run around and scream for 10 minutes. When they returned inside, they sat down and focused.
Then other teachers started to complain about their kids going outside.
She was called to the carpet on it because everyone else was busy trying to raise test scores and the rest of the kids were upset.
Years ago, there was a 20 minute recess at 10 a.m. and a 30 minute recess at lunch. Now it's all about the almighty test score.
Small wonder depression and anxiety seems to be high among younger people now IMO.
Last edited by cebdark; 10-06-2010 at 08:55 AM..
Reason: typo
When our kids were in elementary school some grades had recess before lunch, some after mainly because of the size of the lunch room. They always had enough time for both. The school invited parents to join their kids for lunch when ever they wanted so we did that often. I do have to say that NONE of the kids had an issue with having enough time to eat but what you DID see was kids snarffing down their food so fast for EXTRA recess time or so they could get to the "good" slide or whatever. The school finally made kids wait until a certain time to go out to recess so kids would eat slower. Lunch would be from say 11:00-11:20 and recess would be from 11:20-11:50, some kids would be done eating and on the way out by 11:05 so they make them stay until 11:15.
Our school finally switched to this (after much pushing from a few parents) and it has made a big difference. Kids get to burn off energy, they eat properly and are calmer in class. We had an issue previously with kids vomiting their lunches as they had eaten too quickly and then run outside. This doesn't happen any more.
I am jealous of captain hug above. When I was in school we had both morning and afternoon recess and a long lunch with many of us going home. My kids couldn't believe it.
We're at a charter school. The school rules and regulations are made up by parents. Therefore, they mandated that we have so many minutes of recess per day. They also decided on uniforms, curricula, and that every parent has to volunteer at least 10 hours per semester.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.