Monday, February 20, 2012

Homeschoolers – vacation days and snow days

Is it time to party? Today is Presidents’ Day. My daughters’ friends in public schools have the whole week off as Winter Break. I went to work today and the parking was only lightly used. Lots of my friends were given the day off or took it off. Many people in our area are heading for the snow or other fun destinations.

Others might normally have gone to school, but were forced to stay home today. My brother and his family live in Virginia. Yesterday they had a snow storm and their schools were closed. The children were very excited. They had a great time today playing in the snow.

With ideas of Winter Break and Snow days my daughters asked this morning if they could have the week off. Janine and I said no. (They would have been happy to have today off, but that wasn’t an option either.) We usually save our down times when everyone else is in school.

I wonder if most homeschoolers end up taking more vacation or less vacation? Janine and I have a high need for achievement. We like to play, but we really want our children to do well in life. It is important to us that they have a solid education.  As John Wayne said in “The Sands of Iwo Jima”

Life is tough, but it’s tougher if you’re stupid.”

It is a balance. I would have to research back through our calendars but I think we take off about the same number of days each year as our friends but just at different times. Sometime in the next month or two when everyone else is in school we’ll have to take a “snow day” and do some fun family activity.

4 comments:

Karen said...

Oh, I'm sure our "off" days are about the same in number, but different days entirely!
We love to work on snow days. We take OFF on gorgeous days! LOL

Harvest Moon by Hand said...

We do the same thing also with scheduling "free" days on days that kids in public school are in school. In that way, when we go on a field trip or take a learning vacation, it's quieter and less crowded than on other days.

Natasha said...

I've noticed, with my son, that we have a lot less "off" days than other kids in traditional pre-K programs. But on the other hand, we aren't doing endless repetition and spending all day doing things he's already mastered. Also, I don't count off days as days when we go to museums and stuff - but that is what traditional schooled kids do on off days. So we spend more time learning, but much less on traditional learning styles.

Henry Cate said...

My daughters love to go to the library during the day, when all the public school students are in school.