12 Tips On Summer Vacation and Summer Camp
It’s arrived, that time of year where parents scramble to figure out where their kids’ summer hours are best spent. Will it be survival camp or computers? Ballet or chess? Is the commute even possible, and how much will the grandparents have to shell out to help pay for it? And aside from all that, is there even a spot for your child?
It’s obvious that you have to act fast to get your child into a decent program if you can afford it, and if you can’t – then what is the alternative? And by the way, why do we do this every year? Give our kids almost three months of time off during the most high-energy time of the year while we parents are lucky to get two weeks paid time off?
You might be surprised to learn several startling facts about our current set up, as well as some good tips for helping your kids get the most out of summer.
1. Summer vacation has nothing to do with farming. The explanation we’ve been given for the extended break during the summer is not based on fact. If our national schedule was actually arranged around the “agrarian calendar” as we have been taught to believe, kids back in the day would be helping their parents plant in the spring and harvest in the fall. In the farming era when it mattered, there wouldn’t have been much for kids to do in the summer.
2. Urban schools used to be on a “flex” model. Schools used to run year-round and parents could pull their kids out when needed. This way families who depended on seasonal fluctuations had the extra help. Now schools run an official 180 days a year.
3. The modern calendar was a compromise between rural and urban models. As of the late 19thcentury, calls for standardization pushed education into the current model. It had nothing to do with performance outcomes but rather, the fact that being inside during the dog days was counterproductive. Those longer breaks were also to train teachers and give them time for the next academic year. 1
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