To tell DD's school that if they won't let her watch the solar eclipse, I'll keep her home until its over?

[listsandbudgets]

I asked today what they were doing about it and the head said they were just carrying on as normal.

I want DD to see it. DD is desperate to see it. Its 90% here so worth seeing. We can easily make a pin hole projector though I will try to get some eye protection.

AIBU?

Cute, you need it because if you want to see the moon move across the sun, you need to look at the sun, which is dangerous for your eyes. The other option is to not look at the sun, but project an image of the sun onto a piece of paper using a pinhole, and look at the image instead.

Darn, I knew I should have bought hundreds of the glasses - bought one set each for us from ebay a couple of weeks ago. I could be making a mint from it!

I sent my school an email asking what they're doing about it and whether I can take them in late. I have said that DD is worried about it and might freak out .

On reasonableness, what age is your daughter?

I've got 5 pairs of glasses - school is using it as an educational opportunity. So I should flog my spares on eBay then?! Or give them to the school...

Ohhh!

There was a partial one in Milan before DS was born, so 1999 sounds right. We all shot outside just in time and it was so wierd. Went much darker, and the temp dropped in a very noticeable manner. Was quite odd. You could understand why thousands of years ago people shuddered and worried that the dieities were hacked off with them.

Have to get DS to see this.

DDs secondary school are definitely going out to look at it. I think that perhaps primary schools will be more cautious as they may not trust younger children not to look directly at the sun.

Primary have a big event planned for the 20th so can't be doing anything.
I'll have to ask DD if her school are doing anything.

I remember the 1999 one. I was working in a day nursery and the old crow of a supervisor told all the children it would be pitch black, bats, owls, and other nocturnal creatures would all be roaming around and if they looked up to the sky their eyes would burn out.
Unsurprisingly the children were all too scared to go outside.
Some of us staff went out but it was a bit of an anti climax IMO.

Thank you, it makes sense now that I think about it!

I saw the 1999 one from Cornwall, in almost the best possible spot. Hugely memorable.

The daisies had all closed up on the lawn when we came home.

I saw the last one at the top of Glastonbury Tor surrounded by what seemed to be witches

I was pg with dd1 at the time, explains a lot

Yes, it did attract a bit of 'new age' activity!

Where we were standing there was a guy sitting astride a tom-tom drum and zoning out to a beat...:) However, I think at the crucial moment he must have stopped and got out his pinhole camera like everyone else.

I don't think you are BU at all.

I need to ask what the DC's school is doing. If they are doing nothing I will keep DS and DD off to watch it. We have glasses that we kept from 1999 when we went to France to watch the total eclipse.

We will make pinholes too and use a mirror to reflect the image onto paper and draw the progression.

I remember 1999 and it was everywhere. Wonder why this time is different?

Wasn't 1999 a full eclipse tho, and this is just partial? We haven't heard anything from school yet about special arrangements, I just assumed all would be as normal

I watched the 1999 total eclipse where I live in Cornwall, it was a bit meh from what I remember no eye protection for us

I'm not sure how far you are from school, but you could invent an appointment, and just take her out for that.

I looked it up and it said starting at 9.30 and finished by 10.41.

It actually a total solar eclipse, 13 Sept is a partial Solar Eclipse and 28 Sept is a Total Lunar eclipse,
There will be other eclipses happening, but not for many many years in our country x
www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2015-march-20

I asked the school's head what they were doing for the Eclipse. He replied: "What eclipse?"

DS's school have said they are going to watch it and to get glasses off of Ebay..There were non available from Amazon or a couple of other websites when I looked.

I'm sure in the past they have come with a magazine or something

My mistake, In Norway its total :D

I saw a full eclipse in 1950 something - at school. We were all shewn how to make eye protection. It had been suggested that we take in a glass plate or other piece of glass (I took a Pyrex dinner plate). Once at school, we all made thickly sooted plates by holding them above bunsen burners. At eclipse time, we took our soot-covered plates onto the playing fields and watched. I'm so glad we did it.

Why would you need to invent an excuse? Just tell the school then your DC can chat to their classmates about it rather than pretending they were at an appointment.

The Solar Eclipse in 1999 was a big deal because part of the UK - Cornwall - actually experienced a Total Eclipse, which hadn't happened in the the UK for about 70 years. There won't be another one in the UK for another 75 years.

Next week, none of the UK will see a Total Eclipse, though it should still be interesting and quite an experience assuming the weather co-operates. Our primary are all going out with their pinhole cameras to see.

I saw the 1999 one from the roof of BBC Television Centre, and remember being slightly underwhelmed! I don't think the weather was great though.

It's a rather massive partial eclipse though - a good 90%

Wow, how exciting. My DD's class are going on a school trip that day and I'm going along as a helper, so we should get to see most of it as we're leaving the school and 9.15am.

Wow... there was I thinking you'd all say I was being unreasonable to keep my child off school.

I've emailed the school and told them what I intend to do. I will await ther response with interest.