What do you think about year-round school?

My daughter attended a year round school when we moved to Las Vegas. Frankly, I liked it. She was on a wonderful track (what determines your break times) that allowed her to be off during the entire holiday season from thanksgiving to the new year. It was a great time for us to schedule vacations and such. Of course, it is helpful that I am a work at home mom. However, our local city parks and rec department has great programs for parents who work outside the home. All in all I liked the year round schedule.

We homeschooled and it was around the 6th grade we decided, since you don't get the summer off (unless you're a teacher), let's do the year-round with 'vacations'. This will help them as they enter the workforce too. This worked out very well. But remember the importance isn't so much, let's have a year-round school - as it is, what are they teaching your children when they are in school.

We homeschool and always school year round... kids FORGET if they stop using their brains!!! Just remember, the first part of most school years is simply to review what last year taught. As parents, we know what is best for our children.

I was homeschooled for all 12 grades we did school all year, I was frustrated having to do school in the summer when my neighborhood friends were playing, however we never had to review so we moved on faster, and the extra time meant a lighter work load. Mom also only made us study math, English, and Latin in the summer along with a reading list we had to work through all year long. We had most of the day to play we did most of our schooling, during the summer, in the late afternoon, the hottest part of the day. Vacations were easy, we doubled up our studies before and after or brought it along. I remember taking Latin, math, and my reading list book to the lake and studying in the morning when it was to chilly in the mountains to swim. It gave us something useful to do until we could swim. I loved year round schooling. I'm sure vacations will be a bit different in the public relm, perhaps more difficult, then I had, but I believe the benefits are out weigh any problems. No long breaks means less review, lighter work load, perhaps shorter days in the summer, a more relaxed atmosphere. I personally believe children will benefit from a year around schedule. Once they get over the indignation from their stolen summer vacation. Personally I plan on homeschooling my son and any other children I have on a year round schedule as I have been planning to do for several years. Sorry for the length of this post, I tend to speak extensively on my passions, of which this is one.

I think I'd have to say that I'm opposed. Not to the principle - but because I'd imagine that with different tracks/vacation periods that it would be more difficult to obtain child care during your varying "summer vacation"? With consistant summers off from school many working parents count on day camps. What about multiple children and if they wind up being on different track/vacation schedules? Then you have no common vacation time that works for the entire family.

This implies at least one parent doesn't work. If both parents work then exactly what time is there to spend together as a family? The kids are shipped off to camps/day care and, when the parents can get a week off or so, then they get to spend time together. To me, that's an unrealistic reason. Both my husband and I work and I would strongly prefer year long school with mini-vacation times in-between. In the deep south the summer is too hot to do much of anything so the thought of having time off from Thanksgiving until New Year's as one commenter mentioned is a dream! Also, what's more important - the continuing education to keep the kids on track or businesses supposedly losing money when they could easily adapt and still make money? Heaven forbid businesses lose money instead of kids losing knowledge.

Well, I suppose if all kids are doing is sitting in front of Xboxes and Televisions, why not have year round school. But, when I was a kid, summer vacation was when we got to be kids and learned things that can't be learned in school. Summer vacation is when us kids in the neighborhood got together, without much adult supervision, and learned how to get along with each other, how to laugh, how to work as a group, how to compromise, how to fight, how to make up, how to be bored, how to dream and so much more. There's more to be learned to be ready for adult life than reading, writing, math and year-round adult supervised school can teach.

As a teacher I am completely for year round school. The summer break is way too long for students to be out of the education setting. We usually spend September reviewing what was learned the year before. If we eleviate this long break, the catch up period won't be as long. I am in favor of a track system schooling, where you go to school for three months and then have a month off. During that month off other tracks will still be in session, so if the student needs extra help, they could stay in session with another class. The travel thing is better in a track system to. Parents and teachers can travel during non-peak expensive periods and probably travel more!

As a teacher and as a parent I am totally for year round schooling. As far as summer vacation is concerned, it is a waste of time for kids and most get placed in summer camps all day anyway, so the idea of family time is more of a dream than a reality. Personally, I think it would save parents money, or at least make it easier to pay for camps that would only last a couple of weeks rather than 10 weeks at a time. I know that it is a pain to have to deal with my step son going to 10 weeks of camp during the summer because both his biological parents work during the day, and it is very costly( and yet cheaper than a daycare). Parents can still coordinate their earned vacation time from work with the breaks their students will get. And I am sure that most cities will offer day camps, to those who need them, during the shorter school breaks. Our city offers them for the shorter Thanksgiving, Spring, and Winter recesses, in addition to the unnecessarily long summer break. The students would benefit from not having such a huge break from learning. The teachers would feel less stress because they would have more time in the classroom without having to play catch up with the curriculum. Even more so, I am for doing away with grade levels, instead having children move up through the standards as they master them.

I suspect this works well for Urban areas, but not so much for Rural. Summer vacation started so that the children could be home during the growing season to help with the farm work. In many rural areas, this still stands. Children learn a great deal that can't be learned in a classroom from working side by side with their parents. Also, in many areas, the cost of air conditioning the buildings would be prohibitive. I know in our area (northern state), many school buildings don't have air conditioners. Personally, I live in a city and would not be opposed to year-round school. My only concern would be if all schools were on different vacation schedules, that would be a nightmare for families with children in seperate schools. Consistant vacations/breaks would make family time easier to facilitate.

What I think people are missing... you still get the time off it is just spread out through out the year. You just plan vacation times when your kids are off track. I think planning would be easier! When everyone at work has their kids off at the same time you don't always get the time off because someone else got it first. Utah has had some districts already doing year around for many years. A lot of people were against it in the beginning then found they liked it. The hardest problem was when you had kids in high school that weren't on it and kids in elementary that were. If everyone was on it, it would be even better!!

having it all year round would be better.. as soon as may hits .. the cost of airplane tickets rise in a huge difference.. every thing about travel becomes more expesive.. IT's the only time anyone can really travel.. and if you live in a place in the south or hot weathered places it can be pretty depressing when you go to beautiful river like places that are empty with drought.. I honestly would love more spring and fall breaks .. when the weather is amazing.. I think daycare places and summer camp places would adjust to the great opurtunity to make income all year round. Instead of having just one season to make it.. they would have 3 or more times a year to boost income. . Also I think it would be great to break the germ cycles and give staff and students an opurtunity to Rest and Clean the school house a bit better... Also in some of the cities and urban areas.. school is a safer place to be.. with breakfast and lunch provided for the lower income childern.. and of course all day care with education.. Air condidtion and heating all day would be provided.. so those families would benifit from that as well..

I used to run an after school program through a school that had a year round schedule, (my son is not old enough for school yet). In my experience dealing with this type of schedule it was hard for parents who worked full time. Some of the parents would have to pay for day care during their children's time off but were not really able to afford it. Also alot of the day cares around here (Louisville, KY) will not allow you to pick and chose when you will send your child to day care but want you to pay on a yearly basis. Not pay as you go so to say. So it began to become a financial problem with some of the parents I dealt with. Also I've noticed that it is harder when you have older children who attend a regular school schedule and the younger kids are on the year round schedule. Some times the older kids are able to care for the younger siblings but not when they themselves are still in school and the younger ones are out for their break.

I think we need to reform the school system in other ways first: - Many studies show that making kids "sit still" and "pay attention" is very bad for them, especially for kindergarten boys. More and more kids are being labeled ADHD, just because they're full of energy and actually *want* fresh air and exercise! Then we go and damage their brains with Ritalin. It's time we let kids be kids. Make classes more interactive. - By grade 4, most kids get some sense of what subject they're good at - math, english, history, gym, etc. Why not give them some choice? Instead of trying to make everyone all the same, let's provide a chance to excel at something. - If we're going make school hours longer, we'll need to stop piling on homework. It makes more sense to do everything at school, where we can build a better work environment. Too many kids have family issues at home that might get in the way. There's more to life than just school.

As a single parent and a working mom I am totally for year round schooling. As far as summer vacation is concerned, it is a waste of time for kids most kids get placed in summer camps all day anyway, I know for myself, my son goes right into summer camp as soon as school is over. Personally, I think it would save me money, or at least make it cheaper to pay for a camp that would only last a couple of weeks rather than 10 weeks. If schooling was all year round I would be able to coordinate my vacation time around my son school breaks. I think my son would benefit from not having such a huge break from learning and the teachers as well as my son would feel less stress because they would not have to spend so much time playing catch up on material that was forgotten over the summer break. I also feel that our kids are behind the rest of the country in learning so why not help our kids get a head start in competiting with the rest of the country.

ok im a student and i have a 4.0 and i dont think we should have it cuz think where in class and its summer and its hoter then the devil's house and no air conditining thats is unfair and also we work hard 4 9 months and we deserve a break off and the parents u didnt have to go to school year round so why make us and u are loosing family time so NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SCHOOL YEAR ROUND

To the three anonymous students above: If you can't spell words like "our" and "butts" and "hotter" and "losing" and "conditioning" and "because"...and if you can't punctuate a sentence, you are perfect case studies for why many parents and teachers think you need year-round school.

Our kids have always attended all year round school and they don't know any different. For us, as parents who both work outside the home, we love it! The kids don't spend so much time reviewing everything at the beginning of the school year. Plus, our school offers intersession activities, so even though they are technically not in school, they still go to school for more concentrated help on reading over one break and math over the next break. During the summer, the kids are out for 6 weeks. I take a 2 week vacation, my husband takes a 2 week vacation, 1 week from each of our vacations overlap so we get to spend time together as a family, and then we only have to put the kids in camp for 3 weeks. SO MUCH easier to manage. Its been the best arrangement for us. Though I can't say if my kids would be less or more farther along than if we sent them to a traditional calendar school, I know they are performing well on the schedule they are used to, so I have no complaints.

Everyone is saying they're "sure" that the community & camps will rally around the new school schedules. BALONEY! There are some year-round schools here and they top complaint is what to do when school is out. People talk about coordinating with your spouse; so that means you have no family vacation time together, and it still doesn't work if you both get 2 weeks vacation and the school is out for a total of 8 weeks. Never mind what is a single parent supposed to do. The day camps around here depend nearly entirely on college students as the counselors - therefore they can only offer full camps when the colleges have their breaks. Or you have to hire full-time staff; something most non-profits (who run the majority of the camps in our area) can't afford to do. Even if they can run after-school programs with in-area college kids, they can't run full day camps; the counselors are in class. And only large cities with a number of colleges in the area could cobble together enough part-time students to make it work year round. The final reason, kids lose their training, that is on the PARENTS. My house was filled with educational books, one hour of screen time (our choice TV or video game). We always participated in summer reading programs, had educational materials to work on, my mom would quiz our times tables with us. If your kids are losing the teaching, what are YOU doing to fix it? I think a shorter summer break would be the thing; 8 weeks instead of 12, and reminding parents that they are partners in the educational process; the school can't do it all.

Presently our students are in a 3 tier program. The brighter you are the quicker you get to be released for the summer. So you'll attend 180 days as a tier 1 child . More days if you can't pass until you've spent most of your summer in school also. Attending 9 weeks and then having 3 weeks off 4 times a year seems like a brilliant idea if all grades from pre-k to Srs are on the same schedule . The school A/C is on most of the time even in the summer to make sure the building doesn't fall into ruins and there are lots of activities taking place year round already. Most of the educators and parents that I've discussed this with are for it. Only time will tell if it works ! P S. Question for kids that can't spell or punctuate and write in these forums :Is it because computers accept your form of writing so case sensitive and spelling no longer matters making it OK or is it that you can't write properly and don't care ?

I don't see why this is a big deal, with this economy why not this give the children something to do all year, and they still get there vacations, family's still need after school programs so those should not hinder so much as for summer camps those neither. I see this as a way to keep kids focused what we need to be doing, I wish we had year round. I believe vacation is too long anyways. My kids tend to have fun at the start of vacation, and become lazy during the middle I am a single mother, who can't afford vacations away and I just rather have them learning then sleeping in.

I have to say that while i can see that here are benefits to doing this, they often just reflect how the parents feel. Some of us actually go places and have lives. There are things that can't be done in two weeks. I think that the kids should have at least some say in this. After all, it's not your summer, it's ours.

i think soo because i love school and i believe that we schould all like it and get to like school like how i do thank youu

I'm for it

I am a supporter of year-round school for the obvious stated facts. I don't understand how some parent's think it is "quality-time" for families. Generally the mom and dad are at work at the same time the child is in school. Who is to say they can't utilize the 2-3 weeks that is sporadically dispersed through the school year. That would open more oppertunities for winter, fall, and spring vacations. You should check out my blog.http://hanna-yearroundschool.blogspot.com/

i dont think this because children need to spend times with their family. they need a break from school work. u cant wear uniforms all d time d summmer is way too hot

im in high school and i think it would be way better if we have year round school. we would learn so much more and wouldn't forget it during the summer. don't get me wrong, i love our summer breaks but im more for my future and how i can get the farthest in my life. So im all for year round school.

I am in high school and i don't think we should have year round schooling. I don't think we should go to school year round because it is not fair. We deserver time off! No one wants to sit in a school desk year round!! Yeah granted We get days off but some families want to take vacations during summer!>!>! I personally think that is rediculous to have year round schooling!! If any one can give me a great reson to have it and help me understand it! it is STUPID!