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Jul 18, 2018

Summer vacation responsiblities

Summer vacation responsiblities photo


This week is the last week of school. Tension is high and both my girls are excited for the long break. All of their testing is finished and it is just a hot wait until the closing ceremony on Friday. Soon we won’t need to wake up at 7 in the morning to get to school. Oh, wait except for the days they have to go to school for swimming lessons or to check their homework. At least there isn’t more homework. Oh, wait yeah there is actually an increase in homework. On top of the daily kanji practice (my eldest daughter desperately needs this so an increase might be a good idea), there are larger projects including painting, writing paragraphs and a workbook full of Japanese and math problems. Some teachers also request some form of a science project, but this is often not required and therefore, every year so far, my daughters have elected not to do it. There is the daily weather check or observations of plants they have slowly left to dry to a crisp in the summer heat.

 Summer vacation isn’t fun. It is more work for me, a bunch of stress for my kids and it complicates things as a stepmom because the girls spend their time back and forth between two households with little time to finish their tasks. There was so much confusion about how much these kids are obligated to do that, as kids would do, they ended up trying to get out of doing their homework entirely. They lied to me, to their teachers, and to their mother. While the lying was terrible and they have been fully reprimanded, they have been doing much better this year since. It makes me think about if the school hadn't put so much pressure on them to do so much busy work, they might never have lied to us. The overwork has its good side because it showed us what they had been doing all year, trying to shirk their responsibilities, only made worse during summer. But is everything they are required to do really good for them, or should they be allowed to have a break while they are still young and can get one.


edthethe

edthethe

American step mom with beautiful Brazilian babies. Raising them in Japan. I'm a crafter too


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