annikasorrensen

To add to Chedva's remarks, there is a growing trend for year-round schooling with shorter breaks. Studies have found that a traditional 10 - 12 week "summer vacation" means the children come back having lost up to 25% of their knowledge base, especially in math. Other countries like Japan have a 6 week summer (plus have summer homework). Also, countries like Japan have a higher total number of school days per year resulting in much higher number of hours per year spent on schoolwork. It is no mystery why Japan students score so highly in comparision to US students. The combination of culture (high expectations of the children from the adults) and school structure (year round schooling) has yielded predictable results in Japan. It is not out of the grasp of the US (where I am from) to do something similar. In the meantime, parents who want high academic achievement from their children should not solely rely on the school system, but supplement it. (And I advocate this is a decision to be made from parent to parent, not all will see this the same way.)

After about the age of 12 - 13, my personal philosophy is that children need to stop being treated like children by their parents. It doesn't mean I think children should be sent out into the workforce, but I do think it means that parents should take a look at summer break as an opportunity to prepare their children for the challenges of adult life. This might mean summer camp (friendship, survival skills, new experiences, dealing with other adult role models, etc), or helping around the house (being a member of the family that _contributes_ significantly vs. just a free-ride member), or volunteering (exposing them to different careers, or having them help people of different ages, abilities, socio-economic or ethnic or religious backgrounds), or any other numerous activities. Our son wants to be a computer programmer when he grows up... during the summer he gets weekly programming "assignments" from his father to challenge him beyond his normal hacking. The assignments steer him to skills in programming that deepen his knowledge in a way that can be applied to many programming challenges.

The keys to consider are promoting balance, engaging in forward thinking and planning on behalf of our children, and considering our teen as a "young adult" capable of stretching beyond childhood self-definitions. There's plenty of time for the teen to play, sleep in, goof off while also being directed over the summer break. The 3 or 4 summers before heading off to college or the real world of fulltime employment are about preparing our children for those challenges. NOT a summer of a "break" as the teen poster seemed to indicate.

Most adults do not get a summer break (and teachers do not, either - they often have to work parttime to supplement their income or end up taking classes for further credit and career advancement) - and I don't want my kids to think that the majority of their adult lives will revolve around the idea of an automatic 12 weeks off. I remember when my son was in 2nd grade and his teacher gave him ... gasp ... WEEKEND homework. His reaction was tears and frustration because he had erroneously taken to believe that weekends were off-limits to homework assignments from teachers. I see a bit of this attitude (shock, denial, frustration, even anger) in some teens when confronted with the idea that summers during high school are _not_ vacations, but a time that should be harnessed (with reasonable balance) for preparation to enter the adult world of responsibilities.

Annika