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Have You Ever Played Hooky WITH Your Kids?

Have you ever played hooky WITH your children? Did your parents ever pull you out of school when you were little just for a special day? Not a sick day or kids cutting school… but something special?

OAKLAND COUNTY MOMS BLOG ENTRIES

Have You Ever Played Hooky WITH Your Kids?

When my husband was in elementary school, he would look forward to the one day every holiday season when his mom pulled him out of school to decorate Christmas cookies. He tells me about it every year and how as a child he loved it and truly felt it was a huge bonus to not have to go to school for the day; he thought it was a pretty cool thing that he got to stay home from school to do something fun. He has such fond memories of this tradition that he thought it would be a great idea to start a tradition similar to this with our own children.

Being that my husband is a big fan of the Fall season, he thought we would start an annual cider mill family day. The day is filled with cider, donuts, hayrides, animal farms, corn mazes and more. Sure you can go to a cider mill any day in the fall but you have the whole place to yourself if you go on a weekday (school day) and don’t have to battle the crowds. This year we went to Three Cedars Farm (highly recommend), last year we went Blake’s for Funland.

 

On the surface, it doesn’t seem practical. Hubby has to take the day off from work, I have to take the day off from work, and we kind of have to make sure our kids aren’t going to miss anything big at school. Despite the coordination problems, we truly love playing hooky with our kids.

You know how everyone always tells you how quickly time goes when you’re raising kids? Pulling our kids out of school to play hooky is our way of finding ways to cherish the time. Certainly a day off of work or school is worth it for us.

 

OAKLAND COUNTY MOMS BLOG ENTRIES

True story, my kids and I have played hooky nearly every year and now they’re too old and heading to college. We still talk about all the fun fall days we had together when we all ditched our responsibilities and enjoyed each other’s company as a family. NO REGRETS AT ALL!

Have You Ever Played Hooky WITH Your Kids? The moral of the story, and why I encourage it… my husband has had a complicated relationship with his mom, but he’ll always remember the times he was pulled out of 3rd grade for a day by his mom so they could hang out together. I’m sure he didn’t miss anything at school that day that was more important than that.

Have You Ever Played Hooky WITH Your Kids? Some Ideas…

Late Fall, in my opinion, is the best time to play hooky with your kids. They’re settled into their school surroundings. It might be the end of the first school semester or the very beginning of the 2nd semester so nothing crucial is happening at school. There are PLENTY of Fall fun events, cider mills, parks, and playgrounds to visit. When my daughter got to Jr High / Senior High School age we would play hooky and do a little pre-holiday madness Christmas shopping at Great Lakes Crossing followed by a meaningful lunch and some quality bonding time.

My children eventually outgrew fun at the cider mills and our latest ventures have included Cedar Point, Dave n’ Busters, shopping trips, movie days, and plenty of lunches.

Have You Ever Played Hooky WITH Your Kids? If you did, where did you go?

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