International Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
schools where you are
I just found out I have to put up with DS for 2 whole weeks for Easter vacation. That means 2 whole weeks of DS and DD fighting constantly the whole time from 6:30am to 8:30pm. I can not take it. What are your vacations like for those of you who have kids or know about the schools. The schools here are year around with bigger gaps in the school year. The let out mid-july and go back the end of aug. But we get the blasted 2 week and 1 week vacations without warning. I had to leave him home on Thanksgiving so he could celebrate with us. No turkey. I couldn't kill him. I bought chicken.
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Re: schools where you are
Schools in Chicago in my opinion start way to late and end to early. 9am - 2:30pm. I guess they just can't afford to pay teachers longer yet the state complains that students are not getting enough time in the class.
Spring break starts the 2nd ends the 6th then the weekend off. Winter break was a little longer they didn't go back till Jan. 6th. Summer break is the typical US style break.
My brother and I fought all the time. Hope you survive through spring break!
2012 Reading Challenge
Now Nesting from Chicago, IL My nail blog:
Schools in Oz go by terms. There are 4 terms a year. The school I work at runs from 8:45-2:55 (this time may vary slightly between schools but its all basically the same time).
Each term is 10 weeks then there are 2 weeks of holidays. Once in a while you get a public holiday thrown into the ten weeks, but more tend to fall during the 2 weeks off. The school year officially ends in before Christmas maybe about 17th or so and goes back for the students end of January/beginning of Feb. So about 5-6 weeks during the summer Christmas holidays.
I just found out schools in Hesse (where we will be moving in Germany) apparently only get 6 weeks of summer vacation. My eyes bugged out. I don't think there is a lot of other vacation either.
That's a long Semana Santa vacation though! Good luck surviving with your children! Maybe they won't argue the whole time? What's the weather like? Can you get out of the house a lot during those weeks?
Ahhhh, buses in Mexico. I fondly remember jumping off a moving bus in high heels. I felt extremely proud of myself once I learned how to take a bus there!
Usually in Germany there's the 6 week summer break, a one week fall break, a 2 week "winter" (read: Christmas) break, a 1 week late winter break (Faschingsferien), a 2 week spring break (Easter), and a 2 week Pentacost (Pfingstferien) break. Except for Christmas, Easter, and Pentacost, the German states all stagger their vacation to cut down on traffic. Plus various holidays scattered here and there depending on what state you live in. So really it is quite a lot of vacation, although not quite as much as in the States - it's just more spaced out.
And to the OP - what do you mean there's the one or two week breaks without warning?!? You don't really mean without any warning, do you? I can't imagine that would be logistically possible for them to just decide spontaneously to break for a week or two. I forget where you live, but here in Germany there are schedules with each state's school breaks available in a lot of places. The calenders I have been ordering for years all come with a page listing the vacations and individual holidays for each state.
Wow, that's a weird school system!
I don't know about schools in NYC but in Italy the school year goes from beginning-mid September to beginning-mid June. There are almost three full months of summer vacation. Then we have two weeks off between Christmas and Befana (Jan 6th) and I think just a few days for Pasqua (Easter), which includes "Pasquetta", the Monday following Easter Sunday. Then we have a few national holiday days here and there.
Oh yeah, I think you are in Germany. The no substitutes thing is ridiculous. I have a friend who is a teacher and was sick for 3 weeks including time in the hospital. Besides being worried for her, I kept thinking - so what, the kids just don't have religion and English for 3 weeks?? The system is also really unfriendly towards working moms - you basically have to be home all of the time in case a class gets cancelled and your child comes home for an hour at random times throughout the day.
There are calenders, though. They just aren't given out by the school. Here's a website that has all the school holidays for all the German states until 2015. That oughta do it for a while :-)
http://www.schulferien.org/Schulferien_nach_Jahren/2012/schulferien_2012.html
Wooooooah. I thought Spain was bad, currently waiting two weeks before they send an official sub! (Until then, anyone with a free hour goes in and subs).
Yeah, and with all the debate about reforming the German school system going on in various states (it's a state prerogative, so the federal government has essentially no say in what goes on), I have yet to hear this issue come up. It drives me up the wall even though I don't even have school-aged children yet.
I am in Mexico in a small city called Zinacantepec. I would thought they would have calenders too but no. They are so advanced on their schooling though. My 7 yr old is using the times tables up to 3 numbers already. His friends in the US are in 1st grade and are only beginning basic math skills. He is in 2nd here with the kids his age. He is behind a lot on the reading though. Changing languages does that to you though. Thanks for posting a link for if I were in Germany. I appreciate the thought.
Exactly! its hard to do with 2 kids. i tried to have them go off first but the jump was to big for the little one. She is too big to carry. I am not brave enough to try
Oops, sorry! Now I remember you posting that you're in Mexico. :-) Nevermind the link, of course :-) Strange that Mexico doesn't have substitute teachers, either. I thought that was an idiocy that was uniquely German.
If you ask the driver to fully stop I bet he/she would.
That's ok. i just appreciate the help. I don't know in bigger cities, but our little city thinks its easier for the parents to go out of their way to bring the kids to school( since there are no school buses) and then tell them their class has no school d/t the teacher not being here. Than to hire a sub.