Snow days have certainly been a way of life lately in the Holt household. While snow days can be special at first, there are plenty of downsides to them. Those downsides can occur both while the snow days take place and once the kids go back to school.
Last week marked our first snow days of the new semester.
The great thing about Ellie’s school district is that the first three snow days
of the year are free and clear. In other words, she has no work to do and no
responsibilities. That means that there was plenty of fun for us to have.
Between watching movies, drinking hot cocoa, and playing in the snow, Ellie,
Ethan, and I all had a ball for those first few days. I will say that I was
plenty sore and exhausted after all of those trips down our sled hill though.
However, all good things must come to an end and that end came on Tuesday once
Ellie officially ran out of snow days.
Now, when I say Ellie was officially out of snow days, I mean
that she was out of those free and easy snow days. That means that instead of
pure fun, it was time for us to do distance learning. Now, I know that some may
be wondering what distance learning looks like for a second grader. If I’m
being honest, it feels a lot like busy work.
Starting at 9:00 am, Ellie logged onto her school iPad for one
of three brief lessons from her teacher. After each call, she was given an
assignment to complete. Altogether, she had assignments in reading, writing,
and math by the end of the day. She also had an assignment from her PE teacher.
I actually did that one with her and I have to say that I was plenty tired by
the end. Still fun though. The one good thing about distance learning is that
she was completely done by noon each day meaning that we had the afternoon
available for fun!
For Ethan, distance learning is not a thing that preschools
engage in. Instead, to keep him busy while Ellie had school, I dug out some
preschool/kindergarten workbooks that we had around the house and set Ethan to
work tracing and writing his letters. I will say that I underestimated how much
he would enjoy the workbook. I honestly expected him to only complete a couple
of pages but instead he did every page of the workbook. What a trooper, right?
Now, I mentioned how there are downsides once the kids go
back to school, right? For the record, I’m not just talking about myself and
how I have to deal with the quietness of an empty house (although that is a
rather big change to adjust to). During the couple of snow days Ethan has had
lately, he had adjusted to being around me all of the time. Therefore, it was
apparently quite a shock to his system to go back to school today. So much so
that he found himself crying over missing me during the day at school.
Honestly, this happens to Ethan now and then at school. I
think a big part of it is that he only goes to school two morning a week.
However, that doesn’t make it any easier to digest. It’s pretty hard to hear
that your kid was crying at school due to missing you. The lone positive is
that Ethan has some great teachers that are pretty talented at helping him work
through those emotions while also finding a good activity to distract him with.
By the time I picked him up from school at 11:30, he was none the worse for
wear.
I certainly wish I could say that distance learning and
Ethan missing me are in the rearview mirror. However, I doubt that’s the case. In
fact, there’s still plenty of bad weather to come meaning that there will be
plenty of snow days to go along with it. However, one good thing about snow
days is that I can guarantee there will be plenty of fun playing in the snow,
lots of hot cocoa to drink, and snuggles under a blanket while watching a
movie. You honestly can’t beat any of that!
#DaddyWrite
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| Ethan says not to forget about all of the snow to eat. |
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