Wednesday, January 28, 2015

A Different Kind of Snow Day

I asked lots of teachers at church Sunday if they were excited about the possibility of snow days this week. The great majority of them said no, explaining that it generally complicated things for them and their students later on in the year. 



Others asked me a similar question as they headed out the church door, "Do you give your kids a snow day when all the other kids get one?" I often do not give my kids snow days as our school generally prefers to take its weather days when the weather turns sunny and warm such as on those chance days in April or early May when it would be impossible to focus on our math or science studies. 

Yesterday, however, I didn't want us to miss out on the specialness of the snowfall and so we did school only halfway. I took a few subjects off of the kids' must do list and declared that they were to read as much as possible from some books of their choosing.

Throughout the morning the little girls had to be threatened with "a full day of school" if they didn't sit and read but by afternoon they'd figured out that I was serious.


It is always fun to sit near by as the kids are reading and listen to them talk to or about their books or, since we've still got a new reader in these parts, often I'll listen to questions whose goal is to confirm the proper decoding of a word.

"Mom, what's this word? L U G G A G E..."

"It's luggage. Like your suitcase."

"I know WHAT it means Mom. We have read that word in so many things."



Every so often, I'll hear a comment like the one above which insures that far, far into the future there will still be reading in our little world, both aloud together and to our own selves, no matter what is happening in our days whether the sun is shining or the snow is flying! 

Wishing you the warmest of snow days and the most loveliest of stories!

NOTE: What we are reading from under our blankets...

My Man: Dancing on the Head of a Pin by Robert Benson
Molly: Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary



Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are. 
~Mason Cooley

No comments:

Share button

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails