Vacation-Bible-School

Of any three incongruous words, these have to rank high on anyone's list. What kind of vacation involves bibles AND school?!? Yet each summer in the US, many churches run a week-long VBS and many parents send their kids. I suspect free childcare is at least part of the lure. Now, I believe in God and think it's a good thing for kids to be exposed to grounded spiritual beliefs (ie, no cults). But VBS doesn't sound like happy fun time to me. I was a kid who ran around, played with neighbors, biked to not-so-nearby towns, and generally had fun having fun all summer. There were chores, of course, but also plenty of free time.  School does not equal free time.

Perhaps because I'm a literal-type person, I find it very difficult to gloss over the phrase. Is it a school for vacationing bibles? Or a vacation for biblical scholars? Maybe the bible of school vacations? No matter what, I don't wanna.