Monday, September 03, 2007

Labor Day

Today is Labor Day, and is a regular school day for us. Later this afternoon we are heading to a picnic / pool party. The idea - have a school day AND a holiday all in the same day. And the children do not mind a bit either - it saves a good vacation day for later use.

This morning our younger children asked "what is Labor Day" .... which of course many people have wondered themselves but do not know either. WHAT IS LABOR DAY ABOUT ?? (The information below is from Writers Almanac email service)

Today is Labor Day, first celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882. The holiday was the idea of the Central Labor Union in New York City, which organized a parade and a picnic featuring speeches by union leaders. It was intended to celebrate labor unions, call for the eight-hour workday, and to recognize the achievements of the American worker.

Many of the labor laws those early activists wanted were passed in the 1930s, including the eight-hour workday and the 40-hour workweek. Most sociologists predicted that in the coming decades Americans would work steadily fewer and fewer hours. But in fact, the opposite has happened. Today, more than 25 million Americans work more than 49 hours each week. And 11 million spend 60 hours or more at work each week. Americans also take fewer vacation days than employees in any other industrialized nation, making Americans the hardest-working (or most overworked) industrialized nation on the planet.

Enjoy !!

2 comments:

MommaofMany said...

I had planned school today, but alas, My Honey decided to go fly fishing this morning with a friend that did not have a babysitter for his children, so we are having an unplanned play date instead! Oh, well, the beauty of homeschooling...flexibility!

Momma

Beck's Bounty said...

AMEN !! We love the flexibility of homeschooling!

We had a housefire last March, so despite many attempts to "finish" our school year, it never happened. It was planned finally that when we began our "new" school year (4 weeks ago now), we began it with the finishing of last year's lessons. We will ultimately finish school for this year at the end of July. We were blessed to be able to "drop" school in order to focus on God and our family during what was a very difficult time - it is by His Grace and Mercy that we have recovered so well. He bestowed more blessings upon us that we could ever have dreamed !!

Also we are hoping to do a fair amount of traveling this fall / winter / spring too ... so "picking carefully" our holidays will allow us to not only take school "on the road" but also to take time off when we are traveling to sight-see and such.

I just LOVE the flexibility of homeschooling - we plan and plan, but the day becomes what God designs more often than not.

Enjoy your Playdate !!

MomToCherubs