Unexpected Days Off From School

I remember when Charlie and Suzzane was in public school before we switched to #Homeschooling and I remember when the kids was out of school. The question in our home turned to what do you do when suddenly everyone is home? Because trust me there will be bickering and I’m bored and there is nothing to do.

I wanted to let you know there are a few things that can change the rhythm of a household faster than a phone call, an email, or a message from the school saying: “School is canceled.” Sometimes you know about a day off weeks in advance. Other times, it happens the night before.

A teacher workday. Bad weather. A power outage. A water problem. A school emergency. A surprise closure. Whatever the reason, suddenly the children who were supposed to be getting up, getting dressed, eating breakfast, and heading out the door are still sitting at your kitchen table.

And Mom may be thinking: “Okay…what are we going to do today?” The good news is that you don’t need to have a perfectly planned day. You don’t need to spend money. And you definitely don’t need to turn yourself into a full-time activities director even though it feels like you should. Sometimes an unexpected day off can become one of the best days.

The first thing to remember is that one unexpected day at home doesn’t have to be a disaster. If the children are excited because they don’t have school, let them be excited. You don’t have to immediately fill the schedule. Have breakfast. Let everybody wake up.

See what the weather is doing. Figure out what needs to be done around the house. Then decide what kind of day you’re going to have. Sometimes the best plan is simply to have a loose plan. Before you load everyone into the car and head to the store, look around the house.

You probably already have enough to keep children busy for quite a while. Books. Crayons. Paper. Puzzles. Board games. Playing cards. Building blocks. Dolls. Action figures. Blankets. Boxes. Old magazines. Craft supplies. Even the kitchen can become an activity area.

Children don’t necessarily need something new. They often need a little encouragement to rediscover what they already have. One way to keep an unexpected day off from becoming a constant stream of: “I’m bored.” is to let children help decide what happens and its okay when messes are made..

You could give them a few choices. Do you want a reading morning? A building afternoon? A board-game hour? A baking project? An outside adventure? A movie later in the day? A quiet afternoon? They don’t have to do everything. The goal is simply to give them some ownership of their day.

You don’t need a special activity kit to create a memorable day. Give children a stack of paper and ask them to create a comic book. Give them a cardboard box and see what they can build. Have them make a pretend restaurant. Let them create a fort in the living room.

Give them a pile of books and have them choose one to read. Ask them to design their own board game. Have them create a treasure hunt for someone else. The activity doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes the simpler it is, the more room children have to use their imagination.

An unexpected day off can also be a good opportunity to teach children that being home doesn’t mean somebody else does everything. Depending on their age, children can help with simple household jobs. They can put away their toys. Match socks.

They can fold towels. Straighten books. Wipe the table. Help prepare lunch. Feed the pets. Organize a drawer. Clean their room. Help gather things for a family project. And no, that doesn’t mean you have to turn the entire day into chores. It simply means that being home is part of family life. There is play. There is rest. And there is responsibility.

If everyone is home unexpectedly, even lunch can become an activity. Let the children help make sandwiches. Create a “make your own” lunch. Have a picnic on the living-room floor. Eat outside if the weather is nice. Make homemade pizzas. Turn leftovers into a tasting challenge. You don’t need fancy food. Sometimes changing where or how you eat is enough to make an ordinary meal feel special.

An unexpected day off doesn’t automatically mean everyone has to stay inside. If the weather is safe and pleasant, send the kids outside. Let them ride bikes. Play ball. Draw with sidewalk chalk. Look for interesting leaves or rocks. Play tag. Build something. Have a scavenger hunt. Sit on the porch and read. Even a short amount of outdoor time can change everyone’s mood. And Mom doesn’t necessarily have to participate in every minute. Children can play. You can sit nearby with your coffee. That’s allowed.

Of course, sometimes the reason school was canceled is because you shouldn’t be outside. That’s when you pull out the indoor ideas. Build a blanket fort. Have a reading afternoon. Play board games. Make paper airplanes. Create an indoor scavenger hunt. Have a drawing contest.

Or children can build with blocks. Sort and organize toys. Make cards for family members. Write silly stories. Have a family puzzle competition. And if you have a little screen time later in the day, that doesn’t mean the whole day has been a failure. The point of a screen-free approach isn’t perfection. It’s balance.

Here’s something parents sometimes forget when everybody is home: Children need quiet time too. They don’t have to be entertained from breakfast until bedtime. After lunch might be a good time for everyone to settle down. Read a book. Look at books quietly. Draw. Rest. Listen to music. Work on a puzzle. Play independently.

Even if your children are no longer little enough for a formal nap, a quiet hour can give everybody a chance to reset. And Mom may need that hour just as much as the kids do. Some of the childhood memories we treasure most aren’t the things we carefully planned.

They’re the unexpected things. The snow day. The rainy afternoon. The day school closed. The afternoon everyone stayed in pajamas. The blanket fort. The kitchen experiment. The lunch picnic on the floor. The game that got way too competitive. The homemade cookies that didn’t turn out quite right.

You don’t need to make the day perfect. You just need to be present for some of it. Take a picture. Laugh together. Let the children tell you what they want to remember. Those little moments are part of family history. Eventually, the unexpected day off ends. The dishes get done.

The toys get put away. The children go back to school. And Mom gets her normal routine back. But hopefully, everyone learned something. Children learned that an unexpected day doesn’t have to mean constant screens. They learned that they can find things to do.

They learned that ordinary household items can become entertainment. They learned that helping is part of being a family. And Mom learned something too: You don’t have to have a Pinterest-perfect plan every time life changes the schedule. Sometimes you can simply say: “Well, we’re all home today. Let’s see what we can come up with.” And then let the day unfold. Because sometimes the unexpected days become the days your family remembers the longest.

Grateful. Thankful. Blessed.

GreatfulMoments.com

Thank you,

Glenda, Charlie and David Cates