Do you let your children have the day off of school for their birthday?

[Baseballmom]

We have done both ways. Just wondering what other people do.

[Tammyla]

Yes!:D

[Tammy]

nt

[sleepy]

Yes, always. It's one of our unspoken homeschool rules - No one does school on any family member's birthday.

[Amy in Orlando]

:) Yes - but it's easy because one of my son's birthday is always on Labor Day weekend. My twins were born New Year's Eve. My fourth son is the only one who gets a "real" day off.

[GreenKitty]

http://easyfreesmileys.com/smileys/free-party-smileys-473.gif (http://easyfreesmileys.com/)

YES

http://easyfreesmileys.com/smileys/free-party-smileys-243.gif (http://easyfreesmileys.com/)

[Canada_Mom]

It's one of those little joys I love about hs'ing. No school on birthdays!:p

[Stephanie in FL]

LOL - same here. Oldest ds is 4th of July, second ds was Labor Day, oldest dd is Thanksgiving, and youngest dd is around Easter. We keep saying Baby #5 will be born on Leap Day, not a holiday, but a weird day. What I have done since they would most likely have that day off anyway, is I made them a coupon for a free day off. They do have to give it to me in advance though for scheduling purposes. This way they still get a free day.:)

[Needleroozer]

Yes, always. It's one of our unspoken homeschool rules - No one does school on any family member's birthday.
Same here, and it includes work as well as school. My dd's birthday was Wed, and ds had to be at the high school for finals. For fun, we figured out that in all our yrs of marriage and then kids, we have been able to celebrate this way on 62 of 66 birthdays.
This has always been very important to dh, as when he was growing up, they were too poor for birthdays. So we do them big here.

[Karenciavo]

No school on birthdays for anyone in the immediate family.

[Jean in IN]

We've done it both ways, too.
This year it was just lite work.
Jean

[Daisy]

Absolutely. Okay, unless I had a child who thought doing schoolwork would make their day. AAAHHHH. Yeh, right.

[Lorna in the boonies]

We take off for the kids' birthdays, but not for mine or dh's.

[Mary H]

nm

[Mekanamom]

Sometimes the birthday child will choose to go somewhere fun and educational, like the aquarium, or the tech center... I leave it totally up to them.

We generally don't do big parties. Just the family and maybe a couple friends off to do something fun.

[Heather in OK]

Yes we do. :)

And we take a day off for Mother's Day too. ;)

[momtolgd]

No school here on our birthdays either...although oldest ds' is in August and we take the month off anyway!

[Johanna]

it's always been our tradition.

[prairiegirl]

Usually the entire family takes the day off for the person's bday, but this year I had to revise it. This week we had two birthdays. If we all took off those days, there wouldn't be much work done, so I changed the rule to only the birthday person gets the day off. I didn't have any problem with carrying this out. We will see how it goes when everyone gets older. :)

Julia
mom of 3 (8,7,5)

[Kiva, SouthernGirlMusings]

No school here during birthdays which really only amounts to one day off as hubby, dd, and I are all in July/August. :)

[Adrianne]

Usually, my mom comes for a visit during the kids birthdays. (she lives in FL). So, if she is here, we take the whole week off.

Adrianne

[BritAnnia]

Yes! Though usually just the birthday child has the day off. Dh takes the day off work to spend doing an activity with the birthday child. Usual choices are movie, bowling or min-golf.

[Kate CA]

Yes. :) It only comes once a year. I would have loved that as a child!
Warmly,
Kate

[ArwenA]

Yes!!
But since the kids get educational gifts so there's still learning going on.:D

[jmgconner]

Well, I must be a big meany mom. If Dad is at work, we have school. Although, we do a 'lite' version of school.

[PariSarah]

Meanie Mom here, too. We all work when Mom and Dad have to work. It's just the way it is. It tends to be school-lite, and we usually will do something special, but we still do school.

[Lisa at Home]

I am surprised that so many do.

Generally, we only observe birthdays on weekends when dh is home and other family members are available.

My kids would just sit around doing nothing anyway, so I don't give them the day. Besides, if we want to be able to travel, which we do a fair bit of, then we need to work while we're home.

There's no fuss here, it's not a big deal.

~Lisa

[Excelsior! Academy]

Mine are all on holidays or very close to them, so we're off. Dh takes off, too.

2 Dd's are born in October. One is on Dh's brother's birthday. One is on my sister's boy's birthday.

1 dd is the usually day before or after Thanksgiving.

1 dd is New Year's day.

Since the 2 are truly on holidays. It would be unfair for the other two if we didn't do the same for them.

We usually do them up big. Last year dd #1 had 30 kiddos there. :eek: We cut back! The year we went concierge during Christmas to Disneyland we had them each invite 1 friend to a movie or sleepover for their birthday. We explained that Disneyland was a lot of their birthday and Christmas combined! I'm not a big fan of "this is for your birthday and Christmas," but have you seen the prices for Concierge over Christmas?!

[Amy loves Bud]

My big kids both have August birthdays, so we never start school until after they are over, even if PS has started. But I think we would definitely take the day off of formal studies, even if it were mid-year. Romy is a July baby, so it still won't be an issue for us when she gets older.

[Jackie in AR]

Yes, we take off for all dc's birthdays.

It's easy for the two summer birthdays, and then my twins' b/d is the other one so it is just one day for two dc.

[Plaid Dad]

Yes. We actually begin our school year right after our dd's birthday (it's in the summer) so that she has that day free.

[theodwyn]

Yes, but the other child has to do a modified day of work.

[cherryblossom]

We take the day off for the kid's b-days, but not for ours. Maybe we should implement a change! ;)

[King Alfred Academy]

No school for us TODAY! My ds is 7 today! :D and :eek:! We had a special breakfast, opened presents, are going to go out to dinner wherever he wants (which happens to be one of my favorite places :)), and then come home and eat junk food while watching a movie. What fun!

No school...woo hoo!

[MaryM]

Absolutely!

[LisaTheresa]

We always take off for the kids' birthdays.

Lisa

[Susan Wise Bauer]

AND the birthday child gets to pick the meals for the day.

Which can be interesting.

SWB

[JudoMom]

AND the birthday child gets to pick the meals for the day.

Which can be interesting.

SWB

This is what we do, too.

Imagine my surprise last year when my oldest (turned 8) requested pancakes for breakfast, Chuck E Cheese for lunch, and STEAK for dinner. I don't even get steak for dinner on my birthday :eek:.

[Lady Katherine]

While we were homeschooling, absolutely. In fact, we made a holiday out of every birthday in our immediate family. Now that they are in school, we can't do that, of course. But one of them has a summer birthday and one has a Thanksgiving week birthday, so there's only one screaming, "That's not FAIR!!"

[Old Dominion Heather]

We have a goof-off day. Sometimes we take off on the birthdays of homeschooled friends if they are going to take the day off as well. We will use any excuse!

[Stirsmommy]

yes we all take off for everyones birthdays. I love that little perk that comes with homeschooling.

[Baseballmom]

This is what we do, too.

Imagine my surprise last year when my oldest (turned 8) requested pancakes for breakfast, Chuck E Cheese for lunch, and STEAK for dinner. I don't even get steak for dinner on my birthday :eek:.

My son handed me a note and said, "Mom you're going to have a busy day." The note said, "For breakfast I want breakfast tacos, lunch out to eat at Logan's and for dinner your Chinese ginger chicken." Kids are so funny!

[Rhonda in TX]

We take the day off for the kids birthday and mine. We do school on DH's birthday, but that's only because he still goes to work that day.

[Night Elf]

Any birthday in our immediate family means no school for the day. There are only 5 of us, so that is 5 days off. It's but a mere drop in the bucket and make birthdays really special as they are a pure JOY day. The reason we all take off and not just the birthday child is that we go out and do fun things which would be difficult to do if some of us were working. Then the birthday child would be left with nothing to do on their special day. :)

[Rhonda@LivingWater]

Those are very important holidays around here! :)

[momofkhm]

.

[Karen in CO]

Everybody gets the day off for everybody's birthday. It is a family holiday.

[Krista in LA]

We take off for the kids' birthdays and for mine. They are school holidays. ;)

[Blue Hen]

AND the birthday child gets to pick the meals for the day.

Which can be interesting.

SWB

Same here; no school, birthday child gets to decide on all meals, and what we do for the day. We've had some great field trips as a result.

And if the birthday falls on a weekend then Monday is OFF.

[jail warden]

Well, ds b-day is around Thanksgiving and it usually works out that we take off, so we work it out for dd. I kinda like the idea of having it as a rule! Maybe making a crown and saying what's for dinner. That'd be fun, eh?!

[jail warden]

I just thought about the fact that the meal would kinda hard for my son. He's most likely gonna get turkey not matter what!:) OF course, I'd just do it another day.

[Sue in WI]

Yesterday ds turned 7. We went to the zoo in the afternoon. I wanted to stay home but he reminded me that I said that we could go. It was in the teens yesterday afternoon. We all wore our snowsuits, and moved very quickly between buildings.

[gardenschooler]

Absolutely, yes. That's one of the main advantages to homeschooling, in their minds!

[Chris in CA]

Absolutely!

[*anj*]

Yes, we do! One of the perks of homeschooling!

[mellifera]

Yes, we do, and the child gets to pick what's for dinner. Dh and I also get our birthdays off. :D I tell the kids this is one of the perks of homeschooling.

[godpoetry]

Yes, we always take off.

[Colleen]

I actually liked going to school on my birthday (March 2), when I was a kid. I felt sad when my b-day fell on a weekend b/c some how going to school made it all the more special. Having the teacher(s) and friends wish me happy birthday and so on. My family didn't typically do anything special for birthdays (beyond the cake and presents), so it wasn't as if I'd be more excited to stay home. Plus, I really liked school.

Anyway, we usually do something together as a family on my boys' birthdays. In the morning we eat donuts (a real treat around here) and then we enjoy and outing. My third son turns 8 on Monday, for example, and we'll head up to the Vancouver Aquarium. Then on another day my husband takes them with a couple of friends to do something like go to a wave pool.

[Melora in NC]

Yup! Birthdays are always a day off school here.

[GLOWAcademy]

We take fridays off,That is Library day,and we can go check out books and relax reading them :)

[Faithseed]

Although I am certainly open to change, it is working very well to only have the birthday person take the day off. It gives them a chance to be by themselves, and play with their gifts without having to share, as toy gifts usually become community property pretty fast.

DH works from home, and we both took the days off for our birthdays (which both fall around Christmas time anyway).

Also, the birthday child gets no chores, and gets to choose the meals for the day. New this year is going out to dinner with one of the parents alone. We'll see if that holds, but the first one went very well.

[Rhonda in WA]

But my oldest dd's b-day is August and the little one is May. But we take mine off in also.

[Lisawa]

Does it all depends on my mood count? ;) No seriously.... If one takes the day off, the rest lollygag... :) Come to think of it... they have had bdays off more than working.... because the only one of the 3 who has a bday during the school year is my 15 year old! The other 2 are in mid and late August.

[jubilee]

When my middle ds turned 4 (big bro was 6yrs/1st grade) we went to Disneyland for the day! My oldest has a birthday in December and it is before our scheduled break so we tend to do lite school!

[BarbaraL in OK]

Day off, definitely -- 'cause Son1's is the day after Christmas :) and therefore an automatic day off. Son2's day is in mid-February, a great time for a break.

Sometimes we take off for Dad & Mom's days (late Sept & early Nov).

Basically it works out very nicely for our family, so we do!

[Jenny in Atl]

Depends on the day it falls. This year dd 12's b'day was when we do co-op music classes all day. So they were "off" so to speak already. And we have more birthday months vs. day; with the grandparents and friends in the mix.