Upon retiring for the evening yesterday, I knew that the snow had already started to fall in our area. However, the weather forecasters did not expect much accumulation and I was fine with that and went off to bed.
This morning after wishing my husband safe travels after we prayed, I drifted back to sleep and once the rest of the family woke up, I tried to coax them to look out of the windows at the snow but they were preoccupied until the phone rang with their ‘Nana’ on the other end. My parents were calling to let me know that the local public schools were closed for the day and did I intend to allow their grandchildren a homeschool snow day?
Being that the darling little ones are only 3 and 4, a normal homeschool day is not that long for them but the question had me thinking…when I was a youngster, the amount of snow that fell would harldy qualify as a day off from school. In NJ, it had to really snow for you to enjoy a snow day. Do our kids have it much easier than we did in terms of getting time off from school? Are there some unintended consequences to these frequently called snow days because in June when they are made up, teachers are not continuing with regular class work, it is almost a free for all day.
As a homeschooler, is the public school calendar the calendar of choice or is it there as a guide towards achieving 180 days in the classroom? Do you homeschool on snow days?
The next snow day needs to have some measurable snow and not snow that disappears by afternoon.
LOL – I was just complaining about this while my little darling was with me at work today. (Pause for Praise – I am very thankful that I have the flexibility to bring the cherub with me on days like this). Being a JerseyGirl myself, I was appalled at the gesture of a snow day.
A coworker whose mother is a PG County School administrator gave me the history as to why these decisions are made. I’ll have to catch you up later…OK? I need to get back to work.
Love ya!
Well, the homeschooling guidelines and/or laws vary from state to state… but one of the beauties of homeschooling is picking the schedule that works for your family. I know some families who school over the summer months because where they live, it’s too hot to do anything outdoors in the summertime and they’d rather take a longer break over winter.
For my kids, I typically do a six-weeks-on, one-week-off routine, until we reach the 35 weeks that we are required to do, here in our state.
Honestly, for folks who hs, but stick to their local ps calendar, it’s usually so they can play with neighborhood friends more frequently, or they need to have their schedules mesh for some other reason (like being involved in an extracurricular activity that’s on the ps campus).
This week is our one-week-off, and we generally do special projects and extra cleaning during this week. But, when a neighborhood girl showed up on our doorstep at 10:30, I remembered that it was Presidents’ Day for “everyone else,” so I let the boys have a break the rest of the day.
I definetly just stick to what works for us, if I feel like the kids could use a break, we have a snow day or we may shorten the day. One thing that I have finally learned as I am in my 2nd year of homeschooling is that you do what works for you and there are no rules but the ones you decide on. My first year, I thought I had to stick with the county and do what they did, finish when they finished, yada, yada, yada and then I got over it. Oh the joys of homeschooling and I get to learn some great stuff right along with them. My brain is no longer dying!!
Yippeee!!!