Why We Need Snow Days

As I write this, we are deep in the midst of the Blizzard of 2015. Everything from New York to Maine seems to be shut down and waiting it out. Our ever dependable mail and ferry service have even waived the white flag of surrender to this storm. Since we have yet to experience our first snow day in my district, we were all excited when the call was made a day ahead of the storm. I’ve enjoyed checking in on social media to see how my friends and colleagues are spending this day off from the usual routine. Though a blizzard is nothing to take lightly and can be quite dangerous, the mood that I’ve seen has been distinctly upbeat and even giddy!

So why do we get so excited about snow days? A break from our usual routines can awaken us to new possibilities. It can remind us there is a different way of life outside of our classroom walls each day. I can share a few that I’ve heard and experienced for myself. Maybe you can add to the conversation with your own reasons!

We can remember and relive the simple joy and excitement of our childhood days.
We can sleep through the alarm if we want or wake early to enjoy even more free time.
We can sit down to eat a breakfast that doesn’t need to be wrapped or packed.
We can see what are pets are up to when we are usually at work!
We can eat lunch and go to the bathroom when we want to!
We can stay in our jammies, skip the makeup and ignore the hairbrush… yup, appreciate our natural beauty!
We can surround ourselves with books and experience new lives and worlds.
We start to appreciate our own children’s teachers a bit more each hour!
We can increase our sense of guilt and jealousy when we catch up on Pinterest.
We can grade that pile of papers that’s been haunting us for too long.
We can repeatedly explain to our non-teacher friends that we really aren’t being paid for a day off.
We can pay bills, balance our checkbooks and organize files just for the fun of it!
We can take a nap!
We can watch a movie during the day without falling asleep.
We can binge-watch a tv series we never thought we’d have time for.
We can clean up our homes that are often flooded with the clutter of our busy lives.
We can take a bath in the middle of the day!
We can listen to music that isn’t cataloged as a sing-a-long.
We can shovel, make snow angels, ski, snowshoe or sled like a kid again.
We can drink hot cocoa and cover it with marshmallows or whipped cream!
We can join a twitter chat we’ve never tried before and follow people we never knew existed!
We can cuddle with our pets or snuggle with our kids and be totally present in the moment!
We can work on our blog and not feel like we should be doing 5 other things instead.

The gist of the snow day happiness is that we feel like we’ve been given the precious gift of time. It’s okay to do any, all, or none of these things and not worry that we are falling behind. When the world gives us pause, we feel less stress that it’s passing us by. We are reminded to live in the moment because we are no longer on auto pilot. We feel a bit more rejuvenated and rested. We have refilled our wells so that when we return to our classrooms we have more to give. So embrace those snow days whenever they come your way, I mean, what’s the alternative?

What’s On My Book Radar?

I met Sarah Albee at our latest nErDcampNNE. She is an incredible nonfiction writer who basically tells the history of the world with some unique perspectives. Have you ever thought about how bugs, poison or poop have shaped our history? Well, Sarah has and her humorous writing style will have you laughing as you learn how POOP (yes, I said “POOP”) played such an important role in the development of modern civilization. If you think nonfiction is dry and boring…race to your local bookstore or library and check out Poop Happened!