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Unusual "school" holidays/cancelations you have


Dmmetler
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We had a frozen pipe cancellation last month.

 

Today we had a mom hasn't showered in two days and all our appointments got changed at the last minute cancellation.

 

(Okay, not a total cancellation since I plan on making them do some work in the waiting rooms and car today...

 

But they don't know it yet! I am preparing for an Aspie meltdown of epic proportions, we've had so much change in the past few days. If you hear distant screaming an hour from now......it's probably him!)

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We don't take a Spring Break, but we take off the entire  week of the girls' birthdays (they're 3 days apart).  Right now I'm letting Rebecca skip grammar and holding off on the reading because it's nice outside and the girls wanted to play.  They can always do history & Bible right before bed, right?

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Yesterday was a "the pantry is bare because mom and dad have both been too sick to go shopping in a week" grocery day.

 

Today is "catch up on laundry or everyone is going commando tomorrow" day.

 

Last week was "gahhhhhhh, we all have the plague so we'll curl up on the couch and let the kids watch The Clone Wars all day", a favorite of DS1 and DD1.

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Yesterday we had a half day as it was too loud for school. The floor guy was using a saw to rip up our existing bathroom floor.

(Last week we had a half day due to plumbing emergency. Yesterday began the repairs.)

 

We took Tuesday afternoon off due to our 70F rule. We have such crappy weather 48 weeks of the year that we take our weather emergency days when it's 70F.

 

Monday was a half day due to baby not keeping down her medicine and needing an abx shot instead. It was followed by an educational field trip (ahem) to the paint store. We talked about water versus oil versus hybrid paints and about tinting paints.... :)

 

This seems to happen every Feb so I block time in my schedule when planning the year. We school, on avg, 42 weeks a year. I only block 6 off for holidays. The other 4 weeks come from weird things that pop up.

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We had a week off in the fall due to our city flooding and then being on a "no-flush" order for a week.  We are in the country and on our own well and septic so we could use our water and flush but the city could not.  Most businesses and all schools and daycares were closed.  We had people coming to our house throughout the day all week to take showers, wash clothes, use the bathroom, etc.  We had a houseful of teens everyday and we fed them several meals each day.  We opened our doors at 6 am and closed them at 10 pm.  We also helped at the Red Cross shelter in town as well.  It was a great learning experience for all of us.

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Oh, jeepers...hmmm...

 

Worst cancelations: "Your sister is in the hospital again."

 

Fun cancelations: "Netflix Day!" When we first signed up for Netflix and discovered all kinds of interesting shows. That was kinda like on the Office when Michael said, "When I discovered YouTube, I didn't work for five days. I did nothing. I watched Cookie Monster sing Chocolate Rain about a thousand times."

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LOL, we had a milk emergency a few months ago. (Well, with an infant, we have milk delays all the time, but this was different.) 5yo knocked an almost full gallon of milk off of the table, and it splattered everywhere. We have an old house, and it started running into some cracks in the floor and into the basement. So we got to scrub it all up with towels, and DD and I had to go wipe off stuff in the basement. We had a toilet overflowing emergency a few weeks ago too.

 

This winter, we've had a number of "Principal is working at home because the roads are bad, and even though *he* is working, the students think it's a weekend and can't seem to get much done" days. Such is life. :)

 

We had a "cow is in our yard" delay once, and also a "raccoon is in the snow and bothering our cat" delay. We also routinely have "cool truck" delays. But thankfully no snakes. I don't like snakes (sorry OP).

 

Oh! Last week, we had a "there's a bird in the house" delay! That was funny!

 

I far prefer the "baby did a new trick" and "this book is so good I can't put it down to do math/I love my math so much I want to keep going and skip reading today" delays. :)

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We had a half day yesterday because Daddy forgot his lunch and offered us a tour of the new factory if we brought him some turkey and cheese sandwiches.  We took almost 2 weeks off in January because my nephew was in hospital and I kept my niece (who's ADHD is getting better ;) .  There have been "mental health" days, I'm a "hormonal pre-teen" days, and "I'm tired of your whining, just go away" days. Today was a 3/4 day due to having the "Blah's" (a.k.a. I hate winter).

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I generally don't give my kids snowdays, but things seem to happen. Last year the dog had to be rushed to the vet in that storm that shut down the roads in NH and MA - me and a queasy lab were one of the last ones on the road for that one. For the storm last Thursday I had to drive my daughter to the ER.

 

Last spring we got ducklings and chickens. That's caused a fair number of hiccups. You just don't come back from chasing teenage ducks and chickens through the spruce cover in the neighbors yard with a kayak paddle for three hours.  The raptor migration caused some stress too, as they seemed to pass over the free ranging birds just as we were hitting our stride in the homeschool room. 

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Today we had a 'figure out what creature are the peanut butter/birdseed treats kiddo made and hung in the tree to attract birds to her window box bird house." We spent the entire morning looking for clues:)

Mom is certain it was a opossum, especially since we have seen one around lately. But we didn't tell the kid this, other than as a possibility. Instead she hauled out the magnifying glass and we brainstormed ideas on how to figure it out...she spent 15 minutes crawling around on the ground in search of scat (thank you Wild Kratts!). Time on the computer for Internet research, a stack of printed animal footprints/pics/poop were necessary of course.

 

We spent the afternoon making new treats to tempt the bandit, and she is up late tonight, hiding in a blanket/pillow nest in the dark inside the window to see if the 'creature' comes back to the scene of the crime, lol! I suspect daddy will need to carry her to bed soon:)

A fantastic day...

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We've had "Grandma is lost and we need to go find her" days - even after we got her a GPS tracking device - because they would forget to put it on her or wouldn't check to see that the battery was dead.  Fortunately we haven't had one of those calls in a few months.  

And now that you said this.... please check those batteries again.

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Tomorrow is the first day of the age group (14 & under) short course state swim meet, so one student will have a very-much-abbreviated school day (2 hours max at the swimming venue) and then will spend the rest of the time watching Dr. Who on Netflix on my laptop.  The other student will just swim her three events, including the 1000 free.  We pretend that we block schedule and that this is P.E. day:  if you can swim a 1000 free in under 11 minutes, you get an A.

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In the interest of full disclosure.....

 

We once called a day early because the teacher was distracted by a heated debate on the virtues and vices of cupcakes.

 

Half days have also been occasionally declared over issues like diaper changing in Starbucks, watermelon eating dinosaurs, and common core book recommendations.

 

 

Thankfully other gripping issues have fallen on days we were off anyway!

 

:P

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We have had to take off at different times.  Sometimes we have had to take off a lot.  The only scheduled days we take are birthdays and Family Birthday.  The rest of our time off is unscheduled, but we do know we have to take time off in the spring to plant the garden and time in the fall to butcher.

 

We've had lots of I need to take Hannah/Papa to the doctor/ER right away days.  Three weeks off to set up the lot for our new doublewide.  Three weeks to move into the doublewide.  Work days off to butcher, fence, or plant the garden.  Fun days like kids (goats) being born.  Emergency days like the cow is out and the sheriff wants you to come get her because she is bothering the road crew or the delivery guy broke the water line.  Crazy days like last week when one of the calves pulled up all my daffodils, and we had to replant them.

 

Usually it comes in little bits, but sometimes we just have one of those weeks.  This week we have gotten very little scheduled stuff done.  It started with the repairman we have been waiting on for two months to finally come.  Plus friends stopped by to see if they could take one of the children and buy groceries for us.  The post office called to say the chicks were here and for us to come get them now.  The repairman came back with parts he ordered to fix the rest of the stuff.  Another friend came by with her children to drop off a party favor bag since I couldn't come to her "old hen" party.  Finally, today we had a "person who was taking Steven to clinic, doctor visit, and chemo can't come so Mama has to do it" day.  Add in a visit to a friend who just had surgery since we were already at the hospital.  Add in a stop at Natural Grocers since the friend in the hospital is a doctor and he recommends several supplements to help dd get over Mono.

 

Sometimes things go smoothly and without much interruption, but the last almost three years since Hannah's cancer diagnosis and now Steven's cancer have really made things unpredictable for us.  Add in living on a farm with live animals that get into lots of trouble and that makes life really interesting.

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Tomorrow is the first day of the age group (14 & under) short course state swim meet, so one student will have a very-much-abbreviated school day (2 hours max at the swimming venue) and then will spend the rest of the time watching Dr. Who on Netflix on my laptop. The other student will just swim her three events, including the 1000 free. We pretend that we block schedule and that this is P.E. day: if you can swim a 1000 free in under 11 minutes, you get an A.

I was on the same track, thinking our days off revolve around swim meets. Next month they get a week off for an out of state meet although I will try to squeeze some in on the ten hour drive each way :).

 

We also have to cancel school unexpectedly if youngest has a growth spurt. Usually we will need to get to her prosthetist six hours away for a new leg within a couple of weeks or we are all miserable. Adjustments might mean a two day trip, a whole new leg is a week.

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We had a delay while I get rid of the scorpion day when it was warmer.

 

I was not happy, why can't the scorpions come out when my husband is home? (They were both fairly small. Only one came out on a school day.)

 

They don't get snow days, but they get off on their birthdays. We also take off any federal holidays and unexpected days my husband gets off, I plan out some slop days in our schedule.

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Last week's ice storm took out several huge trees in our yard. School was cancelled during the storm (no power, no water for 4 days), but the storm also caused a cancellation yesterday. Apparently, the fallen trees and assorted debris were "just right" for constructing a huge fort and bird-watching blind. Engineering and science, you know.

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