What time of the day does your child have recess?

[bali1228]

My boys have October birthdays and it has been and issue each year with almost each teacher about the age situation. My boys did the half day pre k thing 3 turning 4, kindergarten 4 turning 5 now first grade 5 turning 6.. Each year after their birthdays pass the teacher starts in with the whole how my kid is lacking in this or that. Personally I take it all with a grain of salt! My boys have a TON of energy and sure they might not want to sit still and everything but they do know their stuff. I have a first grade teacher that is taking his free time a way for one reason or another and it really bugs me that she does that for the fact that he really needs that time to burn excess energy up.

Aww, that's too bad! I'm so grateful dd's teacher is taking her age into consideration, and working with us. She will call me at home so we can discuss any issues that need to be addressed (not that there are a ton of issues, she'll do stuff like excuse herself to the corner when she gets overwhelmed). I'm really grateful she is so willing to include us. It's her first year teaching full time, and she's quite strict, with high expectations for behavior, but so am I so it works...we gang up on the five year old .

[Macaela25]

I'm not sure when my DS' recess is, but his lunch is at 10:25....ugh.

When I taught K up until five years ago, we were allowed two 20 minute recesses per week, and were actually discouraged from taking them unless "all classworlk was done". I left an article on the principal's desk once about how children learn MUCH better when they are allowed to be active throughout the day....nothing changed. There was no downtime allowed whatsoever - even in the morning before school, while waiting to be picked up, on the bus, and once their lunch was eaten, each child had to read silently.
We even were told to post alphabet charts on the bathroom walls so that "learning time wouldn't be lost".

Too bad no one worries about childhood being lost.

[bali1228]

I'm not sure when my DS' recess is, but his lunch is at 10:25....ugh.

When I taught K up until five years ago, we were allowed two 20 minute recesses per week, and were actually discouraged from taking them unless "all classworlk was done". I left an article on the principal's desk once about how children learn MUCH better when they are allowed to be active throughout the day....nothing changed. There was no downtime allowed whatsoever - even in the morning before school, while waiting to be picked up, on the bus, and once their lunch was eaten, each child had to read silently.
We even were told to post alphabet charts on the bathroom walls so that "learning time wouldn't be lost".

Too bad no one worries about childhood being lost.

Wow, I'm at a loss for words....My child's education is very important to me, but no recess and abc's on the potty? That just makes me so sad .

[kschick96]

I'm not sure when my DS' recess is, but his lunch is at 10:25....ugh.

When I taught K up until five years ago, we were allowed two 20 minute recesses per week, and were actually discouraged from taking them unless "all classworlk was done". I left an article on the principal's desk once about how children learn MUCH better when they are allowed to be active throughout the day....nothing changed. There was no downtime allowed whatsoever - even in the morning before school, while waiting to be picked up, on the bus, and once their lunch was eaten, each child had to read silently.
We even were told to post alphabet charts on the bathroom walls so that "learning time wouldn't be lost".

Too bad no one worries about childhood being lost.

This has nothing to do with recess, but I saw on the news recently that schools are serving lunch earlier and earlier (the lunch at 10:25 made me think of this). Some schools are serving lunch as early as 9 or 9:30 in the morning! That is nuts!

Their argument is that school starts at 7:15-7:30 and maybe some of those kids didn't eat breakfast. But if you are eating lunch super early and you don't get out until 3, wouldn't you be hungry again by noon or one? Just makes no sense to me. If you are that concerned, hand out a piece of fruit for a mid-morning snack.

Bali-I'm sorry I kinda hijacked your thread about lunch times, but these extreme early lunch times may also be a factor in the lack of recess at some schools. Just a thought.

[CW&M Mom]

recess is after lunch. Lunch is around 11:30 or so.

And abc's in the bathroom? glory. That is insane.

I agree on the too early lunch too. Most of the kids at my daughter's school eat breakfast at the school now. It takes 30 minutes for about 90% of the students to get there so it's just easier for them to eat there.

[bali1228]

This has nothing to do with recess, but I saw on the news recently that schools are serving lunch earlier and earlier (the lunch at 10:25 made me think of this). Some schools are serving lunch as early as 9 or 9:30 in the morning! That is nuts!

Their argument is that school starts at 7:15-7:30 and maybe some of those kids didn't eat breakfast. But if you are eating lunch super early and you don't get out until 3, wouldn't you be hungry again by noon or one? Just makes no sense to me. If you are that concerned, hand out a piece of fruit for a mid-morning snack.

Bali-I'm sorry I kinda hijacked your thread about lunch times, but these extreme early lunch times may also be a factor in the lack of recess at some schools. Just a thought.

Hijack away (not that you did ), but the whole school lunch/breakfast craptastic system is a huuge sore spot for me (I may need to get some kind of cream for that ).

First of all, I hate the garbage they feed the kids (ketchup is a vegetable, really?). Second of all, I hate that they feed them so early (they are starving by the time they get home). Thirdly (is that a word? Spell-check say's yes, so onward we press), I hate that there is such an issue involving school breakfast. I wish they would just offer breakfast as a meal option for all of the students, so that no one needs to know who has free/ reduced meals , and no one needs to have a hissy fit that those (start sarcasm) selfish, and greedy poor kids get an extra free meal, because they have horrible, and lazy parents (end sarcasm). Why not just offer to feed them all breakfast, and the ones that pay for lunch, can pay for breakfast too, and no one has to be the wiser. If all of the children start their day with a communal meal with their teachers, that may just help them to form a closer community.
Now, I feed my kid breakfast every morning, and I pack her lunch too, because the food offered by the lunch program is atrocious, and the ladies that run it are horrible in the morning. They have made dd late for assembly the few times she has purchased lunch (she begs me to let her buy lunch. I'm a horrible mother because I insist on feeding her myself), because they were too busy chatting with their co-workers, rather than taking dd's money and marking her selection. I don't understand why feeding children is so difficult and controversial .

recess is after lunch. Lunch is around 11:30 or so.

And abc's in the bathroom? glory. That is insane.

I agree on the too early lunch too. Most of the kids at my daughter's school eat breakfast at the school now. It takes 30 minutes for about 90% of the students to get there so it's just easier for them to eat there.

Getting dd to eat breakfast is the hardest part of my day, she is not a morning person (I can't imagine where she got that from ), and has no interest in food at 7:00am (I can't say as I blame her), so that's where our am arguing starts. If I just had to get her dressed and off to school 20 minutes earlier, and she was able to eat there, I'm sure she would be more than happy to snarf down some oatmeal and toast with her girls at 8:00am instead. I'm sure it would make for a much more productive day for her teachers, as they won't have a child that's cranky because she got read the riot act prior to arriving at school, and she won't be "hangry" later in the morning because her belly is full. It would be a good productive learning environment.
It's a win win. I would pay them, I would pay them double just to remove this source of stress from our morning routine. Alas, it will not happen, because some folks think a poor kid might slip in and get a free packet of instant oats and some toast .