Hey Friend,
How are you doing?
All is well with the E clan but we are more than ready for half term next week. Each day gets harder to wake Little Dude (LD) up. Gone are the summer days where he’d be sprawled out, starfish-like wearing next to nothing, blinking awake happily.
Long gone.
These days he’s wrapped up like a bug in a cocoon, quietly snoring away with me taking several attempts at a gentle shake to get him up.
Most mornings – after he’s realised he’s not dreaming and I am actually speaking to him – he’ll shake his head vigorously, as if he expects me to say, ‘Okay then, Son. You stay in bed. In fact, let’s all stay home today!’
Wishful thinking.
Roll on half term and rolling out of bed whenever we feel ready!
Speaking of half term, there’s been a lot of debate recently about one-week versus two-weeks for October.
Little Miss has always had two weeks at her secondary school meaning LD has had to endure years of her gloating about it.
She never remembers that her extra week holiday in October means an extra week of school come July. LD doesn’t gloat then, he just smiles as she puts her uniform on and heads to school while he’s still lounging in his pyjamas.
My school is now discussing a change from one week to two beginning in the next school year and not everyone is happy about it.
The argument is that summer is too long and children get out of the habit and routine, making it difficult to start a new school year again.
I’d really love to hear from parents on this point – is this the case for your child/ren?
Yes, of course, there are the usual moans of ‘I don’t want to go back to school!’ – and that’s just me! But in general, we just get on with it. It has to be done whether we want to or not.
And I’d much rather have a long summer than two weeks in the cold and rain.
However, I do understand some children have a difficult home-life. But would that one week less in the summer and having two weeks in the autumn make that home-life better? It doesn’t seem like a rational argument to me.
I think a better solution is finding ways to support those families in particular. Because shifting that week to a different point in the year doesn’t make those difficulties disappear.
Instead of chucking money on useless nonsense like LTN’s, use the money to offer families the support they need! But I digress…
The onus ultimately has to fall on parents and what we are doing during those holiday weeks, wherever they fall.
Yes, school holidays are for outings, time away, picnics, movies, lounging and snacking. We spent a fair amount of time over the summer watching movies as we introduced LD to the Marvel films (I’ll circle back to this another time and why I’m refusing to watch Doomsday).
But, there has to be continued learning in those times too. It’s not a lot of time and, to be fair, it wasn’t every day (more like every other day), but work was done.
Did they moan about it?
Of course!
But the work was completed and we all got back to the fun stuff in no time.
I’m not trying to be judgy here. I know it’s not like this for all.
We (my brothers and I) grew up doing that bit extra. My children are the same. It’s normal for them to hear me say I bought them another workbook. Although that’s less likely now with the demise of WHSmith where I regularly bought them from (I will lament the loss of WHSmith along with Woolworths and C&A for many, many years to come).
Screentime is also a big issue (Yeah, I said it). Some days we spent more time on a screen than doing things (ref. Marvel marathon). But I’d say it was equal to the days where we did activities together.
There just has to be balance and that’s the main thing to keep in mind whether the half term is one week or two.
Well, one more day of what has been a particularly long week but the reward is switching off my alarm for five days straight – yes!
Speak soon x
