Of course, we homeschool, so that won't impact us, right?
Au contraire!
Before our last winter weather event, I smugly read through the Facebook posts of my friends who either work or have children in the public schools. See, that's another advantage of homeschooling, I smiled to myself. We can have school and still have fun in the snow. We don't have to adjust our schedule.
Only, I forgot how intricately connected the rest of the world is to whether or not there is school, even if the roads don't seem that bad to this girl-born-in-the-North.
I forgot that my daughter's homeschool program at the YMCA runs on the public school schedule. It's been cancelled twice since the new year began.
I forgot that churches often cancel programs according to the public school schedules.
Our MOPS Bible study group cancelled because of a late start due to cold temperatures.
Our son's speech therapy was cancelled.
Even our homeschool classes that are not dependent upon school buses cancelled once because of the inclement weather.
And of course, once the snow started falling, my daughter's attention was on that, not on the books.
None of that is necessarily bad. We ended up tossing the curriculum for a day or two, having a playdate with a public school friend who had the day off, and playing in the snow with Daddy, who also had a snow day. It was great fun and, like the rest of the world, we will make up the day later.
It was also a good reminder for me that homeschooling does not isolate us from the rest of the world. It's not supposed to. Choosing to educate our children from home does not mean we are cutting ourselves off from the world around us, weather-wise or culture-wise. Homeschooling is more about what we want to give our children than about what we want to keep them from, more about investing in them than about isolating them.
I'm not so smug about the winter weather event this go-around. I'm watching the weather reports and the public school closing lists with the same attention as my friends, thankful for the reminder that though our choices may be different, our lives are intertwined in so many other important ways.
What do you love about snow days??