Changing Recess and Lunch

On Wed, 1 Jun 2005 10:33:33 EDT, (Carol
Hulls) wrote:

it also means that they won't be getting a
break by coming home in the middle of the day for lunch since the time
is too short to make the round-trip.

I wonder if there are other families who also value the mid-day break
for their kids, and what they think of this. I wonder if the
school-board people have thought about this enough to have an answer
to the question "Are children *required* to stay at school for the
40-minute breaks?" There might be some advantage to sounding them
out about exceptions and phase-ins now, so that you don't have to wait
until your child is really in a bad situation. If the school board
has any anti-bullying programs, I wonder if there's a way to consult
those people about the increase in interpersonal conflicts they should
expect if everyone is required to eat together at school.

I don't know how old your kids are and how they usually travel to
school. If it's too far to walk home and back in 40 minutes, would
bicycling help? I also liked the idea of you meeting them at school
and picnicking. Around here, there are kids who eat lunch at their
after-school-care provider's house a block from the school, since they
don't eat well at school and they can't go home for whatever reason.


When I was in elementary school in an Ontario suburb in the late 60s
and early 70s, we had 75 minutes for lunch because they thought we
were better off with our mums cooking us hot lunch and then having
family time to play with our siblings, practise piano, or watch the
Flintstones at home. No-one rode a bus. My few classmates who had
no parent at home were *permitted* to stay at school for lunch.

When our kids were in elementary school in a different Ontario suburb
in the 90s, they had 60 minutes for lunch. No-one at that school rode
a bus and almost everyone stayed for lunch. We were about the
farthest away, maybe a kilometer. Our kids could have come home for
lunch, but they stayed at school by choice because most of their
friends ate lunch at school and had after-school day-care or lessons,
so they wanted to socialize at lunchtime. And they were both good
eaters.

Good luck,

Louise

On 2005-06-01, Scott wrote:
Carol Hulls wrote:
Hello,

Our school board seems to be changing from a schedule of 15 minute
morning and afternoon recess plus 60 minute (30 minutes eating + 30
minutes outside for kids who stay at school) to one of two 40 minute
"nutrition breaks" (20 minutes eating + 20 minutes outside). Does
anyone have any experience with this type of schedule?

You don't say your kids' ages, but I'll guess elementary school.

One whole hour of lunch seems like an awfully long break to me.
The times I've gone to DS's school for lunch with him, he is
invariably finished eating in 5 minutes. After eating the kids
go outside to play. As I recall, the total break is maybe 35
minutes?

Forty minutes seems long enough for all the kids at my son's school to
eat their lunches.

My son's school has a 20-minute recess in the morning and a 40-minute
break for lunch. The lunch break is long enough that most kids finish
and go to the playground to play. There is also a Lunch Time Art
program that changes projects weekly, for kids who don't want to go to
the playground or hang around the lunch tables, and the books and
computers in the library are also available.

For a big fraction of this year, my son joined a student-initiated
theater group (all 3rd graders) who spent their recess and often most
of lunch time practicing skits that were dialogs from the Harry Potter
books. They met in the library also. Whenever they felt they had
memorized their parts and rehearsed enough, they presented their
dialogs to one or two of the third grade classes.

------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
(Senior member, IEEE) (Board of Directors, ISCB)
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Affiliations for identification only.

Hi --

My experience is that younger kids tend to need more time to eat, close
to 30 minutes to get the food inside. At our school part of lunch is
"lights on" (talking allowed) but 5-7 minutes are "lights off" so that
the kids will stop talking and concentrate on eating. Most kids consume
most of their lunch because of these rules.

If the class has an earlier or later lunch, rather than a mid-day lunch,
the teachers will provide another 10-minute break in the long part of
the day for a snack. Sometimes the snack is provided, other times it's
composed of what's left in the lunchbox.

The kids have a 30-minute recess (outdoors, weather permitting) either
just before or just after lunch. That's their ONLY outside, run-around
time, outside of PE once/week. This drives me crazy; they need more
running time! (And we wonder why childhood obesity is on the rise ..)

No one goes home for lunch. Lunch is either provided by the school or
brought in a lunchbox, and each individual child can decide on any given
day to do it one way or the other.

I think that for the under-8 crowd, two food breaks per day makes
excellent sense. For the older kids, one break is sufficient. In the
ideal world the kids would have AM and PM recess in addition to a midday
food break.

My two cents,
--Beth Kevles

http://web.mit.edu/kevles/www/nomilk.html -- a page for the milk-allergic
Disclaimer: Nothing in this message should be construed as medical
advice. Please consult with your own medical practicioner.

NOTE: No email is read at my MIT address. Use the AOL one if you would
like me to reply.

Carol Hulls wrote:

one of two 40 minute
"nutrition breaks" (20 minutes eating + 20 minutes outside). Does
anyone have any experience with this type of schedule?

My son had two 15 minute recesses and 35 minutes for lunch plus recess. He
was in kindergarten so they had a snack in the room (crackers or dry cereal)
around 10am. At lunch the lights are very low and they are required to be
quiet so there wasn't much noise and bustle even with all the kids. They
had to eat with their winter coats and stuff on though because they went
straight outside :-( I'd say about 3/4 of the kids at his table got at
least 1/2 their meal eaten.

My son hardly every ate his meal, regardless of if it was the hot school
lunch or sent from home. If I sent it from home he generally ate it in the
car after school ;-) It was hard for him to keep track of his lunch box.
He is ravenous when he gets home. If I don't take a snack in the car when I
pick him up I have a heck of time keeping him from asking his brother's
babysitter for food. It takes us 15 minutes tops to get from school - pick
up brother - and back home.

I like the idea of meeting them at school if that is an option. My kids
would think eating in the car on a rainy day would be great. The school
might let him eat in an empty room if you came in every day to sit with him
and supervise.

--
Nikki

In article , Carol Hulls says...

In article ,
Banty wrote:
In article , Carol Hulls says...
Our school board seems to be changing from a schedule of 15 minute
morning and afternoon recess plus 60 minute (30 minutes eating + 30
minutes outside for kids who stay at school) to one of two 40 minute
"nutrition breaks" (20 minutes eating + 20 minutes outside). Does
anyone have any experience with this type of schedule?

My kids thrive with a routine, so I'm a bit concerned about moving
around their mealtimes, and it also means that they won't be getting a
break by coming home in the middle of the day for lunch since the time
is too short to make the round-trip.

Well, any change will impact some families' current schedules. Are all the kids
are your childs' school within walking distance home and have a parent at home
during the lunch hour? Probably not.

In my neighbourhood, very few kids actually go home for lunch. I
can't say how things are for other schools in the board, but I suspect
the number is quite low. Unfortunately in my case, one of the reasons
we'll be affected is that my kids ran into difficulties when we tried
lunch at school five days a week. In the end the solution for my
family was for me to adjust my working hours so that I could return
home for lunch - fortunately I work very close to home.

It was our earlier difficulties that have me concerned for the fall
and wondering how the transition can best be handled. Maybe I should
be asking how does one get a shy child who needs a break from their
peers to actually ingest food at school....


Yes, it sounds like the problem is specific to your situation.

Do you know the rationale for this change? What does the school board say?
Also, are they planning on serving hot meals for one or both breaks?

The rationale is to adjust the teachers' schedules so that all get one
continuous 40 min break during the day and to try and give the
teachers more prep time. There is also the expectation that the
students will be better focused later in the afternoon with the two
food breaks. The school doesn't serve hot meals except for pizza day.
Otherwise it is bag lunches.

That sounds good to me. When I read your OP, I wondered how they could get two
hot lunches going in a day. But if it's usually a sack lunch anyway, they have
the flexibility to do something like this.


For my family, since I work and it would be too far to come home for lunch in
any case, to have two nutrition breaks would actually be beneficial. More
frequent, smaller meals may be better for growing bodies anyway. For my son,
some years he had aa too-early lunch schedule (the school did lunch in shifts),
and that meant he'd not be hungry enough for the lunch (we always have
breakfast), and he was starving during the latter part of the school day. If it
were much later, though, he'd be on low fuel for the latter part of the morning.

Did you find a way to solve things with the too early lunch or was it
just something that you had to survive with until the end of the
year? If so, what did you do?


My son packed a granola bar or other a similar snack each day to eat later in
the day. He ate it about half the days.

Banty

Maybe these shorter breaks will actually work to your child's
advantage. First, they will have two opportunities to eat, so even if
they eat the same amount as they used to at lunch, it will be spread
over two periods. If they don't eat much at one, they can make up for
it later. I imagine if my kids had this routine I would pack different
things for the two breaks, so you can put something in each lunch that
they are likely to want to eat. Second, a shorter break means less
time they have to be in the chaotic situation of the
lunchroom/playground. It might be easier to cope with either or both
when the period is short. My older son had some problems in
kindergarten where he basically spent the whole recess hiding in the
play structure because he didn't fit in with the soccer group and
didn't want to chase the girls (these seemed to be the two main
activities for boys at recess). To hide for 20 minutes may be easier
than for 30! With less time in the lunchroom, then kids may spend more
time eating and less goofing off (although in our school, eating is
definitely a low priority at lunchtime!). Finally, although there have
been problems in the past, your children are older and have now made it
through another year of school, so that maturity may help. If there
are serious problems, then definitely you will need to work with the
school to find another solution.

Chris

In article .com,
Chris wrote:
Maybe these shorter breaks will actually work to your child's
advantage. First, they will have two opportunities to eat, so even if
they eat the same amount as they used to at lunch, it will be spread
over two periods. If they don't eat much at one, they can make up for
it later. I imagine if my kids had this routine I would pack different
things for the two breaks, so you can put something in each lunch that
they are likely to want to eat. Second, a shorter break means less
time they have to be in the chaotic situation of the
lunchroom/playground. It might be easier to cope with either or both
when the period is short.

You know, you're right. I've been looking at the problem as one of "a
break is needed because of coping problems" but it could be that it
will be easier to cope and so the break at home may be less
important. It would be great for them to get to the point where they
can handle full days.

Although I've certainly also got some good suggestions from posters as
to how to try and make things work if we run into difficulties.

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions!
Carol Hulls

"Carol Hulls" wrote in message
...

You know, you're right. I've been looking at the problem as one of "a
break is needed because of coping problems" but it could be that it
will be easier to cope and so the break at home may be less
important. It would be great for them to get to the point where they
can handle full days.

You might also check with the school to find out what other opportunities
there are for students to relax. I know our school has the library open at
lunch, so kids can go in and read quietly. The computer lab is open to
allow kids to catch up on projects, or just play. There are some clubs,
chess and singing come to mind. Some teachers are happy to have former
students come in and help with setting up for the afternoon, or correct
papers or file homework. (And unlike the computer room or library, students
are welcome to eat lunch in the classroom...) Also, you might want to
discuss coping mechanisms with your kids. I know when determining what we
needed when replacing play structures at our school one need was a high
perch, so shy kids could sit up there and watch the other kids on the
playground.

On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 15:59:19 EDT, "Cathy Kearns"
wrote:
I know when determining what we
needed when replacing play structures at our school one need was a high
perch, so shy kids could sit up there and watch the other kids on the
playground.

I just wanted to say that I think this is a really neat and sensitive
idea.


Louise

In article ,
Carol Hulls wrote:
Hello,

Our school board seems to be changing from a schedule of 15 minute
morning and afternoon recess plus 60 minute (30 minutes eating + 30
minutes outside for kids who stay at school) to one of two 40 minute
"nutrition breaks" (20 minutes eating + 20 minutes outside).

This is rather orthogonal to your original question, so I've changed
the subject line. I remember having a schedule like the one you
described when I was in school, both in Massachusetts and Ontario.
My kids have never had "recess" except for after lunch. And I have
to admit that as much as the kids might benefit from running around,
I can't imagine how folks handle the overhead of winter gear in the
space of a 15-minute recess! Since you're posting from Waterloo (I'm
an alum), I assume you are in a cold-winter climate, so I wonder if
you or others in a similar situation know how they handle the logistics
of that? (I'm thinking of the K-3 range where the break and movement
seem most important, but where dressing for winter play takes the
longest.)

I know we did it when we were kids, but I don't know how ;-)

--Robyn
..