Cultural: School's OUT!
Normally Polish elementary- high schools finish the fourth Friday of the month of June. This year it falls a bit later than normal - then then, this year has been a bit strange, anyway, hasn’t it?
The children/young people then get all of July and August off.
They go back to school on September 1.
I like this calendar, though, of course, I figured a full three months off would be fine as well.
Why? Around here, even though school is officially is going on in the month of June, not much school is happening, if you get my drift. They take lots of trips, watch a lot of movies, people skip a lot and so on.
This year school’s been going on remotely now for a while, so it is going to be different, but not as different as sometimes for the kids.
So how does it affect my life?
At this stage of my life - and this year especially, it doesn’t really.
“lato” means summer
One of the things that the Sixth Graders usually do at the end of the school year because they are going to change schools the next year - is the “Polonez” - a special dance that they have spent weeks working on.
I remembered, thanks to Facebook, that I actually do have a bit of video about it. you will have to look at it small since the quality is suspect…but it’s what I have.
These are all the sixth graders who finished 6th grade when our son finished 6th grade. It was many years ago now and he just finished his bachelor’s degree in Bible/IT - so you know this is quite a while ago. After sixth grade, our kids didn’t go on to junior high and high school in the Polish system, so I have a harder time telling you about what happens.
part 2 - only about 30 seconds more of the polonez
What do the kids do during the summer?
A lot of kids have camps - some go to as many as 2 or 3 in the summer - each often lasting 2 weeks long.
The government tends to help the poor afford to go to camp.
This page is taken from a local magazine telling about the activities in our area - at the pool, outside, and in the library as well as cultural things in July. They will take August completely “off” from the musical things.
The towns also have day camps where kids can sign up and participate in activities to keep them busy. They call these programs “Summer in the City”.
Because of this year being the year of the pandemic, I am not sure what all is happening. I think they will still have these activities as the kids still need to be kept busy!
It is also very common to send kids off to relatives who live in the villages, mountains, or lake region to get them out of the city. It seems that MOST people actually leave the area to go on vacation. They are taken quite seriously here.
Otherwise, kids are kids. They get bored. They play soccer, they go swimming. They go shopping with their mom or dad. Normal things kids do.
So, this short cultural update is just to let you know that, while in the USA most people have had summer vacation for a month or so - or almost a month - our kids’ summer vacation JUST started. Now it is “summer”. not only on the calendar, but mentally as well!
Have a good one wherever you are reading this!
Hope you get to sew today!
Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!
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