If you've been homeschooling for any length of time, you have had to deal with those days when kids in public school get the day off.
Do you take the day off? Do half the day's work? When those days hit you out of the blue and the neighbor rings the doorbell to ask if your kiddos can come outside and play... those were never my favorite moments as a homeschooling mom. When the school day is rolling along splendidly, it's hard to just up and stop it all! And when public schoolers get a snow day, it doesn't exactly apply to us. I mean, the drive to school on slick roads is very different than the walk from the bedroom to the kitchen table in a cozy-warm house.
I did come up with a fun little way to add some "zest" to the long winter months.
Whenever the forecast called for snow, I would issue to call for the much sought-after "Snow Prize".
Here's how it worked in our family's homeschool:
Whoever saw a snowflake first would receive some special "prize" from me. Whichever one of the kids got to me first with their claim of seeing snow - even just one tiny little baby flake floating in the wind - would be given some special gift.
This was not at all difficult to pull off. I'd grab items here and there and tuck them away, so I'd have some things on hand whenever snow decided to make its presence known. Small boxes of candy or chocolates, gift cards in the amount of $5, a small Lego set or a softcover copy of a book they'd been hoping to read... things of that nature.
And it became such a fun tradition that I actually got text messages from my children when they went off to college letting me know they'd seen a snowflake and wished they could still get a "Snow Prize".
So, what about your family? What fun traditions do you have that brighten up homeschooling in ways that would not be possible if your children went off to school each day? I'd love to see your thoughts in the comments!
And I'd also like to invite you to implement the concept of "Snow Prizes" into your family. (Now, say you live in sunny Florida...you may need to mix this up a bit - perhaps a "below 40 degrees" prize?)
Happy Homeschooling to You!
~ Jan
Also, of the three books I currently have available on Amazon, my book "The Homeschooling Mothers Bible Study" has been selling far more copies than my devotional & my prayer journal for parents combined. It seems as if the interest in homeschooling is on the uptick, and I love that so much! I'm kicking around the idea of a cover redesign (when I self-published the Bible study, creating a cover was far more difficult than it is now...). So that may be changing in the near future, but the content is still the same! I'm just so encouraged that moms are grabbing the book & I am praying it is a blessing and encouragement to every single mom! If you've bought a copy, thank you so much.
More fun stuff is coming your way soon here on the Encouraging Moms Who Homeschool blog, and I can hardly wait! Encouragement will be served up again and again! Thanks for reading this post and if you start doling out Snow Prizes, I'd love to hear about it! Leave a comment or find me on my All Things Homeschool with Jan L. Burt Facebook page (I'll be sharing this post there so people can leave comments).
Have a wonderful end of January and start to February!
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