School Holidays – Yeah or Nay?
We are in the one week term break for the last quarter of 2014. And I’ve reached the stage where I’m not so sure if I should go YEAH or NAY during the holidays. The easiest bit is the YEAHs… this comes naturally, innate in all of us.
Yeah #1: No need to wake up early!
Woohoooo!!! that’s for all of us! We can sleep in a little, no need to push ourselves out of bed and go through morning rituals just to get ready for school.
Yeah #2: No School!
No need to say more. No School, no school, no school
Yeah #3: We don’t have to worry about anything School related
That is, no need to iron school uniform, wash school shoes, get ready lunch boxes. Yipee!!!
But that’s all the YEAHs I could come up with… As I proceed into my 3rd year as a Primary School parent, there are really more NAYs than YEAHs.
Nay #1: Kids are way too free
Unless you take leave from work to bring them out, or you occupy them with camps and holiday programmes, you would most likely have 3 phone calls per 15 min when you are at work. (God bless you if you are a stay home mum!) The phone calls I got ranged from, “Can I have a piece of chocolate bread?” to “I’ve finished page 1 of Math homework, can I stop now?” to “Can we watch some TV?” to “What can we eat now?” to “What can we do now?” to the usual tale bearing phone calls from crying sibling 1 and crying sibling 2.
Too free. Really.
Nay #2: No one is looking forward to next Monday
I mean, I don’t want to set the alarm again at 6 a.m. I wish we never stopped waking up at 6 a.m.
Nay #3: There is no space in the house
At the end of the first day of hols, the kids have pulled out everything in each drawer and cabinet. They have left their mark in every room.
Nay #4: Holiday programmes all happen at the same time
Yup. It seems the ones you want to go for happen on the same day(s) of the week, and very likely at the same time.
Nay #5: Holiday programmes ain’t free and there’s no school bus for them!
And yes, the better ones, the ones that really take up all their time, and still add intrinsic value to their lives… these programmes aren’t cheap. And there’s still their transportation to settle. Most of the programmes require the parent or caregiver to drop off and pick up the child, and usually these happen in the middle of the day.
~~~~~
But deep down I know school holidays are best. Kids can recharge. I get to catch up with them (and their strangest habits) and such time spent together are always so precious. At the end, I just have to make the decision to spend time with them. Life doesn’t go on when it’s school holidays. It does stop. It’s just whether I want to stop and enjoy it with them.
My son loves any excuse to not have to go to bed early.
Yeah for school holidays. It is important for kids to have breaks from school just as we do need them from work.
My kids love any excuse to sleep in lol.
I’m a big fan of time off school. I’m always sad when school starts back up after summer break!
We homeschooled our daughter for the last 7 years before she went to college, and did it year round. I liked that because then we could take our breaks and go visit places when everyone else was in school!
I think a break is always necessary to “recharge.” It’s nice to just let kids be kids. 🙂
I think here in the States we need year round school…with smaller breaks. Having those little breaks give the kids lots more to look forward to without losing all they’ve learned. But yeah…it can be a pain to manage!
I think it might be different for us as we homeschool but personally I love holidays and the kids do too! More Yay than nay here for sure!