RALEIGH, N.C. — Just about all the major school systems were closed Friday because of the weather. But not all students got the day off.

The words "snow day" are not in Kayla Shaw's vocabulary. Because the sixth-grader is homeschooled, bad weather does not affect her ability to get to class in the family bonus room.

Sometimes, she wishes it would.

"Well, because I just want to be off from school and want to have fun with the other kids," she said.

It is not all work and no play for Shaw on snow days. When she starts looking out the window in her classroom, her mother knows it is time for a break.

"We do have some focus problems occassionally," her mother, Charlotte Shaw, said.

Kayla certainly was not the only student in class Friday. Nearly 40,000 children in North Carolina are homeschooled.

Ironically, Kayla said the snow is not her biggest distraction. It is her nephews, who come over when they have a snow day.

"When the boys are here, it just gets complicated," Kayla said. "They are running around in the house."

Nevertheless, Kayla thinks her school year will end a lot earlier than her friends' public-school year. That all depends on whether the clouds and snow continue to drift south.