The Homeschool View
Holidays???
By Hunter Fell

October 28, 2010

As you probably know (unless you don’t live in Dillsburg), we just enjoyed the town’s annual Farmers Fair; which brought up an interesting question about ‘what days off I get as a homeschooler’? Do I get school off for the Farmers Fair? How about Columbus Day? What about Teacher In-Service days? (Does anyone really know what those are?)

As usual, I can only speak for my family since the freedom to schedule school calendars looks different in each homeschooling home. The law states that we must complete 180 days or 900-990 hours of school, depending on how you choose to track it. Like many, we find educational opportunities within field trips, family vacations, and activities throughout the year which “count”, putting us way over the required amount of days/hours, which in turn adds flexibility within our calendar. However, as a rule, my family runs our “official” school year from Labor Day to Memorial Day, with days off changing as the need/want arises.

Traditional schools get Columbus Day, Presidents’ Day, and such off; those in Northern School District include Farmers Fair; we don’t. Instead, we may alter our normal routine to learn about those holidays. For example, on George Washington’s B-Day we could study the life of this great man by reading a biography, on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday we may explore Gettysburg, on Columbus Day we might trek Columbus’ voyage … you get the idea.

Now before you go feeling too sorry for me, we do enjoy time off for the big holidays like Thanksgiving Day (and black Friday), and take ample time off at Christmas – sometimes the whole month of December. Not taking time off for the smaller holidays, or snow days for that matter (we can always get to class), helps us end our school year earlier, which is fine with me. Mind you, our birthdays are big holidays around here, so we usually get those off too!

One of the best things about being able to freely schedule time off, are vacations. We can go places – off season, without the crowds - when most people can’t due to their school calendars. A few years ago we went to Disney World at this time of year and it was practically empty (for Disney, that is). That meant NO waiting in lines, NO traffic, NO heat exhaustion, and my little brother got to meet every character in the park (without long lines so that we could get to more rides). We easily explored all four parks in four days which was great!

Thanks for taking time off to read my “Homeschool View”; and since my time is flexible, I’m never too busy to read your questions and comments at dillsburgbanner@dillsburgbanner.net.