New Guy

[Fall fanatic]

How is everybody doing?

Only about six weeks or so until we will start to see candy corn being sold in this part of the country.

Have a great day everyone.

[Murfreesboro]

We're still here. I check in most days, but I intend to enjoy the summer to the max before "our" season begins.

[Andybev01]

I check in a few times a week just to see how low the 7 week topic list gets to .

After July 4th I'm back at it , that's my end of summer.

[MauEvig]

To me Summer doesn't really end until at least September, although that could partly be because back when I was a kid that was the month we all went back to school. So I figured labor day was the last day of summer for me, or even the day after labor day. It was usually on a Wednesday we went back to school so I think we got one more day after labor day, and then it was on the bus with us! (Technically summer goes on until September 23rd, some call it "indian summer" I think because the leaves are turning, but it's still warm out, but for me at least summer was over once school was back in session.)

After the Fourth of July I still have other things to look forward to like my Birthday, though now that I'm older I don't really look forward to it as much as I used to. I guess it's partly because I creep closer and closer to the big 3.0, and after July this will be my last year in my twenties. There's still various festivals and picnics to go to like Summer fest (and I'm really really hoping I'll get that week off for my trip!)

But I do get excited all the same when I start seeing pumpkins, skeletons and black cats make their way into the stores. And I'm also meh when I see the Christmas stuff, it's like they want to rush the Christmas holiday or something. >.> I'll get into the Christmas mood after Halloween (Thanksgiving is still a Holiday I appreciate though but I think more about Christmas when Thanksgiving rolls around) and then it's back to the winter doldrums again. Gah, I'm not looking forward to that, so as much as I love Halloween, I want Summer to last as long as it can. Besides, the Summer Solstice begins June 21st, it would be awful short if it ended July fourth. lol.

[Murfreesboro]

I think schools up North postpone the return longer than they do down here. When I was a child, we did get most of August off, but my own kids went to a year-round grade school, had five weeks of summer break (but substantially longer breaks throughout the year, so they did get the same amount of time off).

Nowadays, Murfreesboro has brought the "traditional" & the "year-round" calendars closer into line. Pretty much everybody gets out at the end of May, and goes back in early August. My husband, as a school teacher, definitely feels his holiday is over once the 4th is over. It's not that he doesn't have a few more weeks off, but that he has to start thinking and planning for the next school year.

I agree, though, that August is definitely a summer month. I would love to be able to hit the beach that month, but our academic schedules won't permit that. Instead, since both my boys have August birthdays, we have generally gone to a local water park during that month.

One thing about summer around here is that it can get beastly hot, so when the weather does finally stop sizzling, people are uber-ready for the milder temps of the fall.

[MauEvig]

Wow, I don't think I could stand only getting five weeks off for summer. It would just not feel like summer!
Then again now that I'm working rather than going to school, things just aren't the same anyway. Unless I actually get a job working at the school (other than cleaning) it's doubtful I could get the same time off like the kids do. Kids really have it made, unfortunately they just don't realize it.
I guess Northern life really is like another culture in many ways. New York has high educational standards for sure, but while August felt like summer was coming to an end, it certainly didn't end at the beginning of July. That would just be way too short for me. It would be nice if Winter only lasted a few weeks though. lol. Long enough for the kids to go sledding and enjoy Christmas, and then back to warmth. But we don't live in a perfect world unfortunately and have to make due with what we are given.

[Murfreesboro]

Unless things have changed, Virginia has something called the "King's Dominion clause" that affects the school calendar. King's Dominion (was? is?) an amusement park outside Richmond, and TPTB wanted it to make as much money as possible, so they persuaded the legislators to delay the start of school in that state until after Labor Day weekend.

I knew about this because my husband began his career as a school teacher up there.

[Boogeyman]

That park is still in business.

[MauEvig]

A lot of businesses seem to be getting more customers during the summer, and many of them profit from bringing kids to certain attractions.
But like I said, having grown up in New York state, it just makes no sense not to have summer vacation last two months of the year (give or take a few weeks so it's actually a bit more than two months.) Sure the South seems to start a bit early, ending school in May and beginning in August, but regardless of when the beginning to end is, they should still get longer than five weeks. Five weeks just...doesn't seem nearly long enough. I'd feel bad if I had kids going to school and they only got five weeks off. I don't think any of the kids would be happy about "year round" school. They really need a break. I know I did. Although I did attend summer school for various things in the past, but that only lasted a few weeks. For one thing, that was the only way I could get into Driver's Ed. Thanks to that, I never had to take a five hour course, Driver's Ed took care of that for me.
I'd like to visit Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens one day. They both sound like fun. When I was a kid, my favorite theme park was Darien Lake. They're way too expensive nowadays though. It also seems to make more sense monetary wise, since Hotels, Amusement Parks, and Carnivals usually benefit from a longer summer break if it involves parents spending money on their kids to go there.

[Murfreesboro]

Well, five weeks was really just the year-round calendar, and I don't think anyone here is doing the full-on year-round calendar anymore. Our summer now lasts basically from Memorial Day weekend to early August, so people do get two months off--just not the same two months they get further North.

When my kids were in year-round school, they got breaks every nine weeks, usually three-week breaks. It was lovely until they crossed over into the county system (which begins here in 7th grade--the city schools do only K-6th). Then it got awkward, because we'd have younger kid(s) in year-round, and older one(s) having a more conventional calendar. And TPTB said they couldn't do year-round in high school because of all the extra-curriculars high schoolers have--sports teams, summer jobs, internships, etc. I think that may be what killed the full-on year-round initiative around here, when so many families experienced the disjunction that we did. I mean, it's not like you can take advantage of three weeks off in Sept/Oct if one of your kids is still in school.

One nice legacy from that time, though, is that the county added a one-week fall break, whereas formerly they had had none. Everybody loves taking a breather in the fall.