Snow Days?

[Southern Ivy]

The public schools in our area have missed a couple days this week due to snow and sleet. Country roads were horrible for the buses and this is the first day back. 
So, I was just curious what everyone does when the public schools are out. (Not that their schedule determines yours, obviously.  :001_smile: ) 
Do you go ahead and do school work or do you let them have a fun day with the snow? 

[MEmama]

We have snow on the ground 5 months of the year. Snow days are pretty much meaningless. :)

[Amira]

If we're in a place where the kids get off school for a decent amount of snow, then we do.  But not when everything shuts down for an inch of snow because there's nothing to play in.

[MrsMommy]

My younger son goes to our local public school, so his schedule dictates ours somewhat. If it's a good snow for playing, we might take the day off with him. If it's just icky and icy, we'll probably have school. Today he actually has off because of the cold, and I think we'll have a half day, mainly because I already had too much on my schedule today, so it would be easier to just do school in the morning, and let them have the afternoon free.

[Luckymama]

We did in 5th, 6th, and 7th grades (started homeschooling in 5th) because her same-age cousin and the little cousin would come over to sled. They live about a mile away, so as soon as my sister could get out of their street, they'd come over.

 

Last year (8th) we just had sooooo much snow and half the time it was too cold to sled. Some days we took off; other days she'd have a 3/4 day, depending on what was happening.

 

There's been just one snow day this year, this past Tuesday. Alas, as a high schooler now, dd doesn't get s snow day. Her cousin has a snow day schoolwork schedule, as well.

[ikslo]

Depends on how much momma needs a break.

 

 

[Chelle in MO]

We generally do a partial school day on the first day of a significant snowfall.  

[mom2scouts]

No way!  We save our days off for Sun Days!

[Dmmetler]

We do schoolwork. Since outside classes, co-ops, field trips, the library etc are closed, we have plenty of time to do school AND have time to play outside. This has been a very productive week so far :)

[Ethel Mertz]

If my spouse can't make it into work, we have a snow day (we've had 2 or 3 of those this year). If it's a decent snow for playing in, then he gets to go outside and play in the snow before starting homeschool lessons.

[trulycrabby]

A true snow day is so rare here that we will take the day off if there is enough for outside fun.

[TheAutumnOak]

It depends...If it is the first snowfall of a storm and nice, fluffy snow then yes because my boys love to play in the snow...If it is slushy, not good to play in snow then no...If it snows more than one day, no...But that first day of good snow is for playing outdoors...

[Baseball mom]

Rare to get snow here.  Depends on the amount we get and the forecast as to whether we take a full day or a partial day.  

 

 

[sarahbobeara]

If there was enough snow to play in, we would still do most of our school day.  I look forward to the spring days (late March/April/May) here in VA before it gets too hot; we'll do our work now and go adventuring outside when it warms up. 

[DragonFaerie]

We don't see snow very often, so if we get enough that school is cancelled, I usually cancel ours, too, so the kids can go out and play in it.  Those are great days for a fire and hot chocolate and movies after they get soaking wet and freezing playing outside. :D

 

OTOH, if schools are cancelled for ice or power outages (where we still have power) or other things, we usually still have school.  Those days aren't fun.  They're just cold and icky.

[Sherry in OH]

If there is significant snowfall, we have a partial day.  We clear the driveway and sidewalks before lessons and/or play in the snow after lessons.  

 

Fog, freezing rain, or extreme cold, we do lessons.  We like to be able to take advantage of May weather.

[AK_Mom4]

When I had a mix of kids in public school and homeschooling, the holschool kids always got the day off too because it was too hard to carry on with the others home.

 

Now if there is a snow day, DD13 gets to sleep in because she doesn't have to go to her 8am band class at the local junior high.

 

Regular school holidays (like President's Day), we usually take off so she can play with her friends.

[SKL]

My kids go to b&m school and I give them work on snow days.  :P  I work at home, so the kids need something that will keep them busy and quiet without making a huge mess.  Plus I have a big stack of books for afterschooling and we don't use them as much as I'd like.  Plus it's a good opportunity for the kids to build up their AR points.  If they finish all their work early enough, they can watch educational DVDs.

 

Last year, they had so many snow days that they needed to make some of them up.  Since snow days happen every year, I think the teachers should send home blizzard bags pre-emptively and just tell kids that they need to complete one every time they have a snow day.

 

This time around, the day off was for cold, not snow.  With the snow all old and hardened, it isn't that great to play in anyway.  They aren't asking to go outside, and I'm not pushing.  We will still go to TKD tonight to get our exercise.

[Reefgazer]

Generally, no.  But if all their friends are outside playing, we end early or do our work after playtime.  Today, no on eis out because it is also bitter cold, so it's a usual school day for us.  So I clicked "depends".

[wathe]

No.  Snow from Nov-Apr is just a fact of life here.  If anything, we get more school done on snow days because extracurriculars tend to get cancelled.

[Garga]

DH works at a college.  When the college is closed and dad is home outside shoveling all that enticing snow I let the boys go out with him.  Then then tend to play for another hour or two.

 

After they come in and drink hot chocolate, we get done whatever we can in the remaining hours of the school day.  We school from 8-3 or 9-4 each day, so we can still get in a good 4 hours of school on a snow day.

 

There are no neighborhood kids.

[73349]

Definitely not.

 

Since his PE class, activity group, piano lessons, etc., are canceled, there's time to play outside and still get the schoolwork done. Yesterday (PS has been closed since ~noon Monday) he played outside three times, had cocoa twice, talked Daddy into playing with his marble track with him, and still had time to do all his schoolwork and watch Wild Kratts.

 

Today he's played outside once and is sitting around reading old ASK magazines. We'll still get school done easily and he'll probably play outside again later.

[Amy in NH]

I let the kids go out to play in the snow whenever they want to.  Sometimes it happens to be on a public school snow day, and sometimes not.  Sometimes I let them off their schoolwork for the day, and sometimes not, but that depends on what other things *I* have going on.

[Miss Tick]

We do at least an hour's worth of work to let the sun get a head start. Then they can go out for break. They are usually done by lunch, so we can repeat in the afternoon if they want. We have a few, random days off sprinkled in our schedule.

[catz]

Generally not.  Extreme cold would cause a cancellation more than snow here (I've seen school buses run with 12" of new snow).  I'd rather save some skip days for GOOD weather!  We have had a few self declared snow days, although we haven't had great snow this year.  I'd love a good old fashioned blizzard with some milder temps.

[Soapy]

If my kids realize that the ps kids are out, we might do a little reading and math and call it good.  Today the schools are out, but my kids haven't noticed the neighborhood kids yet. :) They're out sledding right now, but we will still get everything in today.

[Lolly]

Schoolwork with snow breaks. Adjust schedule but not destroy it.They can't play outside the entire day in this cold.

[marbel]

When my kids were little, we got 1-2 good snows every other year or so.  So yeah, we'd take off.

 

Now that they're older, we live in a place with more reliable snow, but the morning of a snow day is spent removing snow, not playing in it.  Ah, the joys of growing up.  But if my kids wanted to go outside and mess around for a while, I would let them.   Typically after the driveway and sidewalks are shoveled, it's time for hot chocolate and reading aloud.  So, a different kind of snow day for the older kids.  Usually  math and Latin, at least, go on.  

 

 

[SKL]

My b&m schoolers normally ride the school bus, have school recess / gym, and a few other things we don't need to make time for at home.  Add it up and that is enough time for them to go out and play if desired.  My kids are not big on spending hours outside in the cold.

[LatteMama]

It depends. Dd doesn't notice if neighborhood kids are out playing but she does notice if Dh is at home instead of work! If he goes to work, we try to do a regular school day (maybe a little quicker) so she can go out and play. If Dh is home and not on calls or otherwise working it is impossible to do school with him around! He is such a distraction!!

 

Btw, today will be 60 and sunny and this weekend we are expected to get 15" of snow and then another snowstorm midweek. So, yeah snow days!! :hurray:

[QueenCat]

As long as he is out playing in it, that is fine. Once he is back inside, it's school time. All work must get done each week, as it's high school, so it's really his choice whether to go out & play in it and make the work up during the week, or just stay in. Usually, he'll be out for no more than an hour, so no big deal.

[PeachyDoodle]

Everything stops here when it snows. If we aren't going out for our other usual activities, then we have plenty of time to both school and play in the snow. I always remind dd that she'll be smiling in May when we're starting our summer break and her friends still have a month of school left!

[Rachel]

We take a week off every 6 weeks and it just so happened that the local public schools have been out all week too. However, we normally still school on their snow days. My oldest is only in 1st grade so he has plenty of time for playing outside when his schoolwork is completed. We may reevaluate as he gets older. We don't get a ton of snow here so if we don't play in it the first day it may be gone the next.

[AppleGreen]

We do if we have enough for sledding. I can say that because we don't generally gets mounds and mounds of snow. Typically, it snows, we enjoy, and then it melts within a day, maybe two. Our local schools have all been cancelled since Tuesday, but we have plugged away. They still got to go out and enjoy the small amount of winter weather we received, but we also completed our work. If we lived some place with significant snowfall or had a winter that was particularly harsh, I would make some amendments to our "policy", but in 8 years this has served me well.  I also tell my kids, "They are making up those missed days, sometimes on the weekend. Are you interested in doing that?" 

[regentrude]

We do not usually have snow days when ps is closed. But, if DS' ps friends are all off school, we may shorten the school day so he has some time to hang out with them.

[MyThreeSons]

The Co-ops where I teach each had to take a day off this week because the roads were too icy. 

 

When my boys were in school, we didn't do a lot of regular school subjects on the occasional snow days, but turned them into mostly Science and P.E. days. By the time evening rolled around, they were usually ready to sit and listen to some read alouds.

 

[Loowit]

We don't get snow very often, so yes if there is snow on the ground I let them take the day off.  It is nice to have an unexpected break once in a while that isn't a sick day.  However, the schools sometimes close for snow and the snow is only on the surrounding hills and we don't have any, on those days we still do school and the kids don't know the difference.

 

We haven't really had any snow here to speak of this winter.  It is like spring here, some of the tree are already blooming and bulbs are popping up.  My kids are still hoping for a sudden cold snap and some real snow.  The older two were terribly disappointed on their winter snow retreat with their youth group that there was no snow.

[Zinnia]

If there is snow, we do nothing.  *I* take a snow day, and I revel gloriously in the laziness of it.

 

Last year, dh got caught in Atlanta's snowpocolypse.  One inch of snow made a 30 minute commute into a 14 hour odyssey.  You bet we are even more than normally scared of snow this year. 

[HeWillSoar]

My oldest is in public school so if he is out, my other kids are too.  It just works better that way than to try to do school when one kid is playing video games.  It will probably be different when he graduates. 

[BrookValley.]

Depends. This winter we haven't really had any snow--then earlier this week we got a good 7", followed by serious cold temps, so the snow isn't going anywhere soon. My son is having way too much fun in it for me to stop him, so this time we're taking snow days. It's likely the only storm we'll have this season.

 

If we had several storms this winter, or if the snow hadn't been much for playing and schools were just closed because of an inch of slick stuff on the roads, we wouldn't take a snow day.

[Saddlemomma]

We have snow on the ground 5 months of the year. Snow days are pretty much meaningless. :)

 

Same here.  My DD has only ever been granted 1 snow day here in 7 years.  I did that just so she could experience at least one snow day like other kids.

[redsquirrel]

When I had two at home it used to be never. We would start the day with a good romp in the deep snow, and then start lessons. That was enough for them.

 

Now, I have one in public high school, and if he gets the day off, there is No Way I am getting ds2 to sit down and do his work. Well, he will do piano and math but that is it. Its quite frustrating.

[The Girls' Mom]

Not always, but if it is a really good snow then we'll take off.  We don't get them often here.  We ended up taking the entire week off this week.  My niece was stuck at our house from Sunday until Tuesday (when they decided to walk to her house..lol) Plus, my college has been out all week too AND my dh is out of town.  So, we are just goofing off and being lazy.  It wasn't even a good snow, but there was enough ice to effectively shut down the state for most of the week!  We'll pick back up next week.  Since we were on schedule to finish our year early anyway, it doesn't really even matter.  

[EKS]

I tell my kids that I'll cancel school if there is a foot of snow on the ground.

 

We've lived here 15 years and the most snow we've ever had was about 9 inches.

[Mom22ns]

When we first started homeschooling we always did. Otherwise the kids thought they were missing out on the best thing about ps. Through the years, we gradually got pickier. If we had great snow that we could go play in we certainly did. If we felt like sleeping in a bit more than usual, we could because a lot of our extra-curriculars were canceled so we had a more relaxed schedule. I didn't always just cancel completely though.

 

This week, our public schools haven't had school all week. President's Day Monday, 2 days of snow, and today because of a water main break. We had President's Day off in our schedule. Tuesday, we got up late and were moving slowly. I finally took each kiddo, picked what they most needed to make happened and said forget the rest. Yesterday we started late again, because dd CC class was canceled so our schedule was looser, but we did everything, even catching up a bit from Tuesday. Today, no leeway at all for the broken water main.

 

 

[Susan in TX]

Snow is rare around here so if there is enough of it to play in we will take the day off even if the public schools don't. And we also take the day off if the public school has an "inclement weather day" because having my two high schoolers at home instead of at school causes too much disruption to our homeschooling.

 

Susan in TX

[Ottakee]

When I was homeschooling full time we took off SUN days instead...........living in West Michigan means snow from Oct-April some years.  Our public schools are now on 6 snow days and tomorrow is not looking good.  They likely should have had a snow day today as well but didn't.

 

We would always work through the snow days so that the first nice day of spring we would take a SUN day and go to the park, the zoo, etc.

[marbel]

When I had two at home it used to be never. We would start the day with a good romp in the deep snow, and then start lessons. That was enough for them.

 

Now, I have one in public high school, and if he gets the day off, there is No Way I am getting ds2 to sit down and do his work. Well, he will do piano and math but that is it. Its quite frustrating.

 

At least some of the schools around here have assignments online for snow days.  That may just be high school, not sure.  But, the impression that I get from people I know with kids in high school (public and private) is that snow days are not necessarily days off.  Not sure though if they still have to make up the days at the end of the year. 

 

[beaners]

Schools here have been closed all week. One of my kids attends preschool twice a week and my schedule is planned around that. On school closing days when he ends up being home I might skip the day, or I might just do math and reading and call it good. I definitely don't attempt my full planned schedule when he is home unexpectedly because it would be impossible to get a lot of those things done with him interrupting. Our weekly schedule is variable anyway because we take off my husband's days off which are always changing and never on the weekends, so taking off a Wednesday and doing school on Saturday can both be part of our regular routine. If I didn't have a kid using the school system I would never know that the local district was closed though.

[ddavies]

If the local ski hill is operational, I might get an hour of school in with my boys before their friends start calling them to meet up. I give in, drive them, and spend the day in the lodge with the other teachers and stay-at-home-moms. On days that we are actually stuck in the house, we have a normal school day in our pajamas.