Is there anything better to a kid than a snow day? I don’t think so! Speaking for myself, waking up to find out that there was no school because of snow was like waking up on Christmas morning.
I remember when I was young, going to sleep on winter nights praying we’d get snow and enough of it to get a snow day. Then waking up to find out it did indeed snow and we got to spend the day at home was the best feeling.
I spent the majority of snow days with my sisters outside sled-riding, building snowmen and having snowball fights. We could spend our snow days outside enjoying the snow because we didn’t have “Flexible Instructional Days” or Arctic Academy Days, where we had assignments to do.
Now, my kids have “snow day packets” and they are expected to complete a certain number of assignments.
To my understanding, Flexible Instructional Days are to prevent snow days piling up and pushing school into the summer months. In theory it sounds like a good idea to me, but it does make me a little sad that my kids won’t have the same excitement over snow days as I did.
Now, my oldest is just in kindergarten. So, this is the first time I am dealing with snow days vs. Flexible Instructional Days, but I think what I’m about to say will hold true even in years to come. I think it’s just as beneficial to my children to spend time outside in the snow as it is for them to get their assignments in their snow packets done.
There is something to be said about kids being able to enjoy being little and not forced to grow up too fast. My kids will be in school for a minimum of the next 12 years. How many snow days will they have in those years? How many of those snow days will happen when they are still young enough to enjoy the magic of snow days and building snowmen and sled-riding?
I feel like it is my job to make sure that their childhood isn’t just me preparing them educationally for the future, but making sure I give them great memories of their childhood and experiences that they will take with them throughout life.
So, what did I do on my kindergartner’s first Flexible Instructional Day? Well, I let her be a kid and at the same time made sure we got her assignments done.
I’m not sure if every school is like this, but our school sends a mock schedule for how students should be spending their snow days, breaking it down by the hour. Some parents may love this, but I didn’t want to take the magic out of the snow days. So, I let my little one sleep in and wake up on her own time.
Once she was awake, we shared excitement over getting to stay home together and seeing all the snow.
We had breakfast together and took the morning slow. I didn’t rush into doing her school work as soon as she woke up because I didn’t think it was necessary.
The first thing we did after breakfast was go outside to enjoy the snow. We built a snowman, we practiced our snow angels, we had a snowball fight and went sled-riding. All while sharing lots of laughs and giggles. Once we were about frozen solid and needed to warm up, we came inside and got warm with hot chocolate.
After the snow day fun and excitement was starting to wear off, we sat down to do the school assignments before lunch. She had eight assignments to do, so we did four before lunch and four after. Each assignment didn’t take long, maybe 10 minutes each, so I didn’t feel like I was overloading her. But the thing to note is that she had all her assignments done by the end of her normal school day and still had time to play outside.
The thing I’m trying to convey is that I hope when my kids are older, they don’t just remember what they learned in school, but that they also remember some of those magical moments of just being a kid. That’s the most important thing to this mama.
ANN BURNS is a Morgantown native, raising two young children with her husband, Drake. She writes weekly columns for The Dominion Post. Contact her at Columns@DominionPost.com.
