Snow Days for Homeschoolers: In Defense of Taking Snow Days

What would be so
special about these words? It’s not so much these words by themselves as what those words mean together with words like “Four to six inches of snow.”  Since the school district that both my husband and I attended has many areas that are into very rural areas, blowing and drifting of snow would often make roads in the country difficult to pass and would cause a snow day for all of us.

As a parent, with our kids attending the very same school district that we attended, all of these words became no less magical.  It meant the promise of a jammie day at home with my kids close by.  I never knew who was more excited – them or me.

But, then we began to homeschool.  What was to become of nervous energy of watching a ticker move across the local TV station waiting for our school district’s name to pop up?  And, then what about the sheer ecstatic joy of everyone in the house when the name came up with a “Closed Tomorrow” next to it?  There would be, of course, no reason to cancel school because of snow or blowing and drifting.  It seemed that one of our favorite memories was not going to be one that our kids would share with us.

Once our first winter came of homeschooling, however, we realized an important truth.  We are the ones who decide what happens in our home.  Can we still make it to school in a blizzard?  Sure, of course we can.  But, will we?  We decided that the answer for us was no.  We decided to hold tight to one of our favorite winter occurrences — the snow day.

Even though there is no logical reason for it, we still anxiously await if the school district that we live in is closed for a snow day when a big snow comes in.  And, when they do cancel, we laugh and dance around like crazy people, because it means a snow day for us too.  That’s the beauty of homeschooling.  You can embrace what is important, even if it doesn’t make sense to the outside world.

In an odd twist of fate, I decided several weeks ago to write about our snow days.  And, wouldn’t you know it — in God’s infinite sense of humor, we got all kinds of snow (and blowing and drifting) one day last week, and ended up taking a snow day, right along with our public school counterparts.  And, I assure you, it was wonderful.

Angie is the founder of The Homeschool Classroom and the co-founder of Homeschool Lifestyle Media.  She can also be found writing at her personal blog, Many Little Blessings.

photo by Professor Bop