Do our children have too many vacations?

In Spain, school holidays begin at the end of spring, when the month of June ends. Until the beginning of September the classrooms are not opened, thus accumulating about two and a half months of vacations: July and August, plus one week in June and another in September. Are too many vacations for children?

Many parents think so, and if we compare these dates with the rest of Europe, Spain, Portugal and Italy are the countries where more summer school vacations have children, although in other countries they "compensate" with weeks of vacations that do not exist here .

School vacations in other countries

In Germany, children only have six weeks of summer vacations, they usually start at the beginning of July and in mid-August they return to school, although each state has its dates and can change every year. However, with the arrival of autumn they have another two weeks of school holidays, the "Herbstferien", whose origins are in the help that the children supposed in the work of the field.

Something similar happens in Denmark, they have six weeks of vacations in summer and one week in autumn that they call "potato vacations".

In Austria, vacations are similar to those in Spain, and although they depend on the areas, they usually start between the last week of June and the first of July and end the first or second week of September.

In United Kingdom and Ireland The school year lasts until July and classes begin in early September. They usually also have a holiday week during the first and second trimesters, more or less in October and February.

In France the holidays are quite divided: they begin at the beginning of July and end at the end of August, more or less the entire two months, but they also have a week in autumn, two weeks in winter and two weeks in spring.

In Belgium they have two months of vacations in summer: July and August, to which it is necessary to add a week of vacations of autumn and another one in spring.

In the countries where summer lasts the most, the school starts in September, however, they do not usually have autumn or winter vacations, only those they share with all other European countries (Christmas and Easter).

Italy is the country with the most summer vacations, because children finish school the first or second week of June and start it the second or third of September.

Why do we have more summer vacations?

The key to this longer holiday duration in Spain, Italy and Portugal is, I think, in the climate that characterizes these Mediterranean countries and that makes during those dates it is really complicated to be in classrooms not prepared for heat.

The smaller the children, the more inhuman the schedule seems to me, and we could not even console ourselves with the option of being outside the classroom, because in the open air and in the courtyard of a school in which there is no shade (or at 30 degrees a the shadow) is worse.

Given the changes that we are living and we will live in the Spanish education system, we might think that in the future children would have more classes in summer, but the truth is that they would have to change the laws because there is a regulation regarding the conditions in which you can being in a classroom, and the temperature is one of them. And as you can imagine, the situation is not to put air conditioners in schools.

Many children these days stay in summer schools, which are made in the same schools, but also in other more refreshing spaces and, in any case, the heat is not taken away from anyone, but it is not regulated education that adheres to the regulations we were talking about.

Seen as seen, probably for the children there remain those two and a half months of vacation. And most parents will have to manage because their vacations do not match, and lend a hand to grandparents, summer schools, kindergartens, summer camps, toy libraries (why not a playroom at work?) ...

But, allow me to look back and remember how, for me, those two and a half months of vacation were the best of the year, it was hot, I stayed with my mother, with my grandparents, at home or on the beach ... And by the way , I loved summer booklets to review the school, but what I remember most are the games with friends in the street and on the beach.

Be it one way or another, it is difficult for a child to get bored with his free time, and in summer leisure time, games and fun multiply. I mean, that probably for some parents they do have too many vacations, but for children they will always fall short

Video: The Berenstain Bears - Too Much Vacation Trouble with Grown Ups - Ep. 22 (March 2024).