What do you do with holidays?

[irizarry4]

Maybe a silly question. And I'm not talking about Thanksgiving, or Christmas. But what do you do with holidays (President's Day, MLK Jr. Day, Veteran's Day). You know all those days that regular school kids have off. Do you let your kids have off too? Most curricula are designed with 5 day weeks in mind. How do you handle that? :001_huh:

 

You can probably tell I'm inclined to check things off, and the thought of skipping a lesson makes me cringe, a little. :D

[5LittleMonkeys]

In my opinion my dc aren't ps kids so why should we follow the ps calendar. Why should we take off for President's Day unless we are going to spend the day honoring past presidents? We have our own scheduled days off that are important to us. We take off for birthdays because we have a reason for not doing school. We actually spend the day making the birthday person feel special and celebrating their life. I don't follow the school systems schedule for summer either. We take off earlier in the spring when the weather is so wonderful then start back earlier in the summer when the weather is too hot and humid to even step foot outside. It works for us.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

We don't bother to follow the public school schedule here either. We start early August and take off a week in October for our trip to the beach. After breaks for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we take a week in March for testing. (The girls find the tests so easy they consider it a birthday break.) We finish about the beginning to middle of May to enjoy the spring weather. HTH

[patchfire]

The kids around here have today off because some cities in our county have elections today. Needless to say, my kiddos still have schoolwork to do. We take off their birthdays and go on trips at random times that we otherwise could not, but even if we did have an election to vote in today, we'd still do school.

[stripe]

Maybe a silly question. And I'm not talking about Thanksgiving, or Christmas.

I am not sure that non-Christian homeschoolers take off for Christmas. Or those who don't believe in celebrating it.

 

But what do you do with holidays (President's Day, MLK Jr. Day, Veteran's Day). You know all those days that regular school kids have off. Do you let your kids have off too? Most curricula are designed with 5 day weeks in mind. How do you handle that? :001_huh:

Have a 5 day "week" cover 5 days over various weeks. I imagine this might also come up if a kid needs a bit of extra time on one lesson, or already knows the material.

 

I am not certain that every homeschooler follows a M-F 5 day week, either. I suspect that some observant Jewish and Muslim families might treat Fridays differently than other families. I also know families where one parent always works on the weekends, so they don't "do school" on the weekdays when parents are off work.

 

You can probably tell I'm inclined to check things off, and the thought of skipping a lesson makes me cringe, a little. :D

As long as you are re-assigning, rather than skipping, I see nothing to cringe about. I think it's a reason to celebrate having a flexible schedule.

[nukeswife]

If my dh is in port then we usually take the day off, but only because then he's usually off of work as well so we spend it as a family. If it falls on a day he's at sea then it's just any other ordinary day.

[TheCoffeeChick]

We don't take the day off for any of the "minor" holidays ... President's Day, MLK Jr. Day... in fact I forgot all about Columbus Day this year and my MIL was horrified to find out my 6 year old didn't learn about Columbus this year! LOL :D I told her that we are learning the Presidents and the Ancients, but that is nothing compared to Columbus Day I guess. :tongue_smilie: I tried to reassure her that we would eventually get to Columbus in our history, but not until next year. Oh well :)

[NavyWifeandMommy]

I will get a book or a print something out to add to our schooling about the day. If hubby has the day off, we have the day off. If he still has to work, so do we. We follow his schedule instead of the school system. Our time with him is limited because he is going back to sea really soon.

[Lolly]

We usually just school as usual on those days. Sometimes we take the day off. If the kids have an opportunity to do something with ps kids that is special, we will take off to allow them to take advantage of that opportunity.

[christielee7278]

We only take those days off if dh is off of work. He is in construction so doesn't get many of those little holidays off anyway. I might throw in a lesson or craft on the holiday.....or not. Depends on whether or not I even realize the holiday is approaching and can prepare something.

[Avila]

My rule of thumb is that when DH is off, we are off. That is mostly because when he is off, we are too distracted to school well. ;) He only gets the "major" holidays off, so we school through all the rest of them and take other days off that we really want to take off instead.

[2_girls_mommy]

I will get a book or a print something out to add to our schooling about the day. If hubby has the day off, we have the day off. If he still has to work, so do we. We follow his schedule instead of the school system. Our time with him is limited because he is going back to sea really soon.

 

 

This is pretty much what we do too. Instead of regular history (SOTW middle ages this year) we read about Columbus that day, and learned a poem about him, and looked at the map and find his route, etc. Last year I taught them a song about him and had some coloring sheets and maps for them. For president's day, I will read about some presidents and have the girls narrate back to me and do a coloring sheet on one or two. We just incorporate the day into our homeschool. When we get to these events in our regular history rotation they will be a little familiar with them that way.

 

To the poster whose MIL had a fit about them not learning about Columbus one year... LOL!! We had the same thing here w/my P.S. mother one year that I did not do Groundhog's Day!! They were 5 and 3 at the time, and I could not imagine what she thought they were missing because I didn't do a unit on groundhogs:confused: But the next year I did a little lapbook on them, so I guess she got to me:D

[WTMCassandra]

My rule of thumb is that when DH is off, we are off.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

[Harriet Vane]

We don't take those holidays off. I don't see the point.

 

We do enjoy taking a day off from our regular schoolwork to enjoy a museum field trip or some such though. Such days rarely if ever fall on official public school holidays, as I hate-hate-hate the extra crowds on those days.

[Cranberry]

I don't think you have to take off the days that PS would normally have off. Take off special days important to your family. We are Catholic and so if we have a day off, or a lighter day, it is usually for a special feast day or holy day. For instance, we have lighter work days on the kids' patron saints days and days like All Saints Day (although this year it was on Sunday).

 

Since I only plan school about 3 weeks in advance I can adjust our workload to account for those days. But usually I just fudge the rest of the week to get things done, maybe work a little longer, spread that one days work out over the rest of the week. One day double up on phonics, one day double up on math, etc.

 

But then again, it's easy for us to do with a first grader and a pre-Kinder.

 

Do what works for your family and don't worry about which days the PS has off.

 

Sometimes I find it better to take days off that PS does NOT have off. That way we can go out in public, like nature parks and such and have the place to ourselves more!

[razorbackmama]

We take all federal holidays off. But that is because my dh is a federal employee. And, let's just say, it's much easier to not do school on his days off than to do school.;)