Surviving snow days

We received two extra snow days this week due to extreme temperatures. Some folks feel stir crazy the moment school cancellation is announced and I completely get that. However, we divided up our Christmas break with some traveling and I think I needed a day or two more at home with just the kids.

Traveling is nice, but I love my house and having the kids with me. Time here helps me get my head back on track.

During breaks, I like to try a little "homeschooling" and, no, that doesn't mean we are slated to become full-time homeschoolers. However, I've found some really awesome books to help me work with Anna on language and writing, and Abe's letter recognition work is an ongoing thing. Honestly, the kids think it's fun. If it was merely whining and complaining, I wouldn't force it, but if we all enjoy this, then why not?

We baked a loaf of pumpkin bread on Monday morning just to get the kitchen warmed up a little...

Must have liked it... it was gone in less than 24 hours

And then I drafted out a brief schedule of what I wanted to cover: reading, writing, math and art.

Story time/reading simply meant I read aloud the Magic Treehouse book, Christmas in Camelot, and afterwards Anna happily read on her own. Abe lately only wants me to read his new superhero compilation story book over and over again so I indulged him. Should you need to know any of the backstories of the Avengers, just private message me.

Our "art" class was really just a Kiwi Crate project leftover from the summer.

Oh the irony... they were building kites.

For writing practice, Anna started writing a page of a book, but grew discouraged and didn't finish anything. Abe tried one of Anna's tracing pages and some mazes. The mini-ipad that Anna uses for school houses her math practice (just 10 minutes) and Abe did some pre-math skills pages in one of his workbooks.

I loved it. It felt very Little House. And I bet it lasted two hours total, spread out over the day and with lunch in the middle.

Granted, I think part of the reason this works is because it's a novelty. They like having something fun and atypical to do. Anna loves learning in general and Abe seems to enjoy the "big kid" activities that Anna gets to do. And lest you think we had an idyllic academic day, the kids watched movies for nearly two hours between 4-6pm. So, um.... yeah.

One of the blogs I read is posting a "day in the life" series of homeschool mothers. I find this fascinating and inspirational. I don't think I could have ever put my mind around the concept until I started reading about other families. Now I find it fascinating.

What are you doing to keep busy during the snow days?