I loved snow days as a kid but as a parent, I have a love/hate relationship with snow days. Remember the days as a kid you knew snow was coming overnight so you would get up extra early to watch the local news to see if your school was closed for that day? We didn’t have mass emails or texts that were sent out. We watched that little ticker at the bottom of the screen and if you blinked and missed your school name, which was in alphabetical order, you had to wait until it came around again. I think the worst was when it was getting ready to switch to your school name and the local news went to a commercial break. It seemed like every time it would have a technical glitch and sometimes skip a school name, so yet again waiting for the whole list to run through. Kids don’t realize how easy they have it today. But in that same breath, we didn’t realize how easy we had it when we were kids. Why is it when we are kids we always want to grow up so fast but now being an adult I wish I could go back to a simpler time when there were no bills to pay and I wasn’t worried about everything.
Mom, Dad I’m sorry if I rushed growing up because I couldn’t wait to be older, and thank you for everything you did to help me be a kid as long as possible. As a parent now I understand so much more and I really get the phrase “when you are older and have kids of your own you will understand”
This past week and a half have been filled with snow days for my girls. They love playing in the snow, but I know the day will come when they have to make up those days missed. I have just one question, how do kids have so much built-up energy? Even when we go out and play in the snow for hours they still have so much energy to burn. By the way, we have the best hill for sledding so the snow has been a lot of fun, but being stuck in the house is not so fun. Do you have kids that have so much energy you don’t know what to do with? Here’s an idea for you. Yesterday was the coldest day of the year and even though my girls wanted to go outside I knew we would probably spend more time putting on all the warm clothes than we would actually spend out in the cold. So I pulled up Youtube on our TV, not for the girls to watch a show but instead I found a really fun Disney family workout. It was 20 minutes long and it just got them moving. They both had a blast and I got up and moved right along with them. Talk about a workout. Whew, it got my heart pumping and since the girls were having so much fun they didn’t realize the benefit it had. Sometimes as parents we have to give off the feeling of fun and that the activity is a game instead of a workout or a learning experience.
My daughter’s kindergarten teacher is great at this. If you ask my daughter what she learned that day at school she may answer back with “nothing” but later she starts reading words to you or even adding and subtracting without a second thought. So obviously she is learning but the teacher has made it so much fun it doesn’t feel like a lecture. Which is very beneficial for kindergarteners.
We will try to make the best of snow days, but I know I am ready for my girls to go back to school because we personally all do better with structure and a schedule. And after a pandemic and being off school the second half of last year they are ready to go back too and hate missing a day of school. I am thankful for their teachers who work so hard to make learning fun in an uncertain world. So my love/hate relationship stands with snow days. We do get to have fun together as a family but I know for my girls how important it is for them to be in school. Here’s praying the worst of winter is over and we can get to some warmer days. I know I’m ready for the sunshine and to hit the pool and the lake.
I pray that this blog today was an encouragement to you and can help in your daily life. Always know I am available to pray with you or just be someone to talk to when life gets hard. E-mail me at megan@churchanywhere.us if you need prayer!
Talk to you next Monday!