Summer Vacation

Summer vacation, the time of year every child looks forward to—sun, water, no school, freedom—ummm, not quite in Japan!

Summer vacation here is considerably shorter than I remember mine being—I recall getting out of school sometime in June, and not going back till the first week of September. And the best part about it—no homework, no teachers, goofing around, being lazy, wow!!

My children’s vacation begins around July 23^rd, and they are expected back the first weekday of September. Ok, so 40 days, a bit shorter than mine, but I can deal with it. But on top of that, they have HOMEWORK!! The first time I realized this, I freaked! When do the kids ever get a break?? Homework—on vacation?? It’s unheard of! Not here in Japan though.

First off, let me explain how the school year runs:
You begin your new year in April and end it in March of the next year. You get a 2-week vacation in-between terms, and this is the only vacation that has no homework. Otherwise, both summer and winter break include homework.

What does the homework consist of? Usually there’s a booklet that includes both math and grammar homework, about 20 pages or so, and then there’s a schedule-like diary they are supposed to fill in every day with a summary of what they did that day and how was the weather. Then they are supposed to choose one activity from a long list of subjects to complete—these can be as simple as drawing a picture to as complicated as a science experiment. As they get older the homework load gets heavier, to where my eldest in Jr. High School now has several different booklets to complete.

To be fair, it doesn’t seem that any of this homework is compulsory, but to be honest, what kid wants to be the only one who didn’t do their homework?

This year my kids got smart, as soon as they got home from the last day of school, they sat themselves down and completed the whole booklet in a couple of hours. Phew! But in years past it was usually a last minute mad rush to complete everything, including a full-blow craft project the day before going back to school!

Besides having a short vacation, topped with homework, the kids are expected to show up at school at least twice—mainly it seems just to check in and make sure they’re doing their homework. We usually skip these days since I never remember them, but it does seem most good Japanese kids go—maybe one day I’ll qualify in the ‘good Japanese’ category.

There are some truly wonderful things about summer in Japan--WATERMELON!! Yeah! We finally get to eat some! A bit pricey, but it's worth it! And FIREWORKS! Lucky for us, we live about 30 minutes by car away from one of the largest firework shows in the world, which we have managed to go to 7 out of 11 years, and of course, buying little hand-held fireworks to do in your back yard, something I know many countries don't have. And since we live in the countryside, we have a great variety of rivers to swim in. But still, the homework....