School calendar re: holidays

imaamy ↓

Sun, Aug 21 2005, 10:16 pm

I was just marking our new calendar with school dates. I realized that in October my kids go to school only 7 days out of 21 weekdays! Of course I expected off for RH, YK, etc., but this year they are off for all of Sukkot. In the past (it is my son's 5th year at this school) they went to school on Chol Hamoed. What will I do with them for all those days when there isn't camp or much going on? Does anyone else have any experience with such an amount of time off for holidays?

stem

Mon, Aug 22 2005, 12:11 am

play with them, feed them, take them shopping, to the park, visit friends, relatives, talk to them, sing with them, dance with them, go on chol hamoed trips, um... I can't think of any more off the top of my head, anyone else?

↑ imaamy

Mon, Aug 22 2005, 11:27 am

Yes, Pesach we expect two weeks off. However for the past years they've not had so much time off for Fall holidays. We pay a ton of money for them to go 7 days of October. My husband works at the state U. so he can't take off that many days as it is midterm for them. I'm not fond of taking them on a trip by myself because the bickering gets to me. Also with gas $3 a gallon how far are we going to go?? shock

My son likes to be busy with sports which means boys his age and most of them are not out of school at this time. Thanks for the suggestions!

elisecohen

Wed, Aug 31 2005, 1:36 pm

I know--the school won't even consider taking one of my sons til after sukkos, and I realized that that means he'll only miss the month of Sept and 5 days in October! Even including post-Sukkos, there are only 8 school days in Oct at the school.

Around here it is very common to go apple picking during chol hamoed, and we often go before RH too so we have our own fresh-picked apples to dip in the honey. Usually we do the c-h Hershey Park trip but that is cancelled this year because of the YT schedule I know. We'll maybe go to the zoo, the aquarium, etc depending on weather. Lots of arts and crafts, lots of cooking projects...don't know what else to suggest. Good luck!

shanie5

Sun, Sep 11 2005, 12:22 am

we've never had school on c"h. we do trips, or self entertainment.
every succos we try to go to a corn maze. all my kids enjoy that trip(ages 4-18 ). if we cant go out, I try to go to a craft store and get them a project (or 6) to work on. shock

jewgal84 ↓

Sun, Sep 11 2005, 12:50 pm

We've never had school either on C"H. My family would go visit my grandparents or causins during those days and spend the 2nd days with them in their location ie: NY

A great idea my family does and is good for all ages:

We buy a whole bunch of assorted toys (you can get from the 1 $ store) you can let every kid pick one out, go to a park, bring lunch and have a picnic with them. The older kids can play ball, or put up a kite etc while the younger ones can enjoy the playground.

It's saves money and it's so much fun!

TzenaRena

Tue, Sep 13 2005, 3:53 pm

jewgal84 wrote:

go to a park, bring lunch and have a picnic with them. The older kids can play ball, or put up a kite etc while the younger ones can enjoy the playground.

It's saves money and it's so much fun!

Nice idea! kids love the park. But...don't forget we're talking about Succos here. You'd need to have a sukkah nearby (unless you're an all-girl family Very Happy

) . How are those new pop-up sukkahs? do all Rabbonim hold that they're kosher? I think there were problems with the original ones, but they've been revised.

↑ jewgal84

Tue, Sep 13 2005, 5:24 pm

LOL- nopes, definately non an all girl family!

My bros over 13 wouldnt join us and I was assuming that "imaamamy" was asking questions refering to her little kids.

In my family we werent too strict for younger boys and girls (even 12 +) eating out of a sukka.

As far as the pop up ones, we bought one while travelling to ny ,they seemed ok, I didnt know there was a concern? it had 3 walls and schach?

Then we realised that on the way to ny at a local store in Albany, Price chopper to be exact, they have a sukka built in their parking lot- for all those travelling in direction of mtl- ny, it's a great stop and alot of kosher food.

And as far as Jewish organized amusement parks or carnivals have sukkos on their premises. I was at 6 flags in NY and they had a sukka there!