When YOU are too Sick to Teach

It's that time of year again. Allergies, colds, and flus, oh my! This past week, we've all taken turns fighting off a lovely cold and stomach bug. Just as the kids were getting better, of course, I came down with it. Due to their illness last week, we're already a couple of days behind in our Sonlight curriculum, but now that I'm sick? We're going to end up a whole week behind! Time to panic.

Or not.

We all know that one of the perks of homeschooling is that we get to work at our own pace. The other is that we can take advantage of other learning opportunities! So what if we're sick? So what if they're sick? We may not be able to sit at the table and pour over projects and books, but that's okay.

What can we do if WE are not able to teach?

* Netflix/DVDs--While I'm definitely not an advocate of letting the TV babysit your kids on a daily basis, every once in awhile it isn't going to hurt them. And with DVDs and programs like Netflix, you have control over what they watch. There are plenty of educational cartoons, documentaries, etc. And I'll bet we can find a show that relates to something we're studying.

*Books--Whether they snuggle with you or find their own little corner, books open other worlds. Fiction, non-fiction, picture books--they all have potential for learning. Keep a fresh stash from the library, add to your own library regularly, maybe even keep a few "new" ones back for special occasions like this.

*Games--Board games, card games, video games, etc. Each has their own educational benefits (or CAN have their own benefits). Some require adult supervision, some don't. Some can be played with other siblings, some are solitary. We can invest in games and have our own arsenal to dive into when need be.

*Let them be the teacher--If you're well enough to sit up on the couch (or lay on the couch even), let them tell you about what they've been learning. They say mastery comes when they can teach someone else. Let them explain their math problems, talk about their science experiments, etc. You may not be moving forward, but it does reinforce previous teaching. 

*Call on family--The other day, I literally could not get out of bed, couldn't stay awake, but my husband had to go to work. We are blessed to (finally) be near family, so hubby called up my mother-in-law and asked her to take the kids. Now, I know they didn't really do anything "educational" that day, but I know that the kids got out and had a good time with their grandmother. I also know that in the past they have done educational things like visiting parks, baking/cooking together, etc. 

*Learn through play--With any child, but especially with young children, they learn as much through play as they do from regulated school work. So don't be afraid to turn them loose outside or in their playroom/bedroom to just enjoy a day off. 

So, don't panic if illness steals a few days. Remember that half the joy of the home school journey is to train well-rounded children. Curriculum isn't the end all, be all of training and learning. Diversity definitely has its place.

What do you do when you're too sick to teach?

Summer School

"What?  School over the summer?"  Perhaps this is your child's response.  Maybe it is even your response.  I understand.  It is exactly what my children and I said the first time we pondered schooling over the summer months. 

Our summer vacation is a time of rest from the hectic school year, and we envisioned summer school as enslavement to a hectic school schedule.  But, schooling over the summer doesn't have to be like that.  It can be fun, low-key, relaxing, and quite beneficial.

Though we do not do school year round, for the past five years we have done school over the summer.  Some summers we work through a unit study about a particular country or time in history.  Other summers, we do minimal work strictly to maintain the children's abilities in math and language arts.  One time, we tried a different approach to homeschooling.  And, during one summer break, we did some remedial work.  

Summer school may not be the choice for all families.  If you hold near and dear to your summer break, then schooling through the summer may not be an option for you.  However, there are some good reasons to consider using those warm vacation months for school. 

Reasons to consider schooling over the summer months:

• Your child needs tutoring in a specific subject.  The summer months can be a great time for concentrated tutoring in one subject while not teaching other subjects. 
• You want your child to retain a working knowledge of what they learned during the school year.  (i.e.  you don't want their brains to go to mush while they soak in the sun rays and play in the pool)  If this is your motivation for summer school, then about half hour or so of math and reading a few days a week are probably enough to maintain the learning over summer vacation. 
• You want to maintain some type of organized schedule or organization to your week days.  Schooling throughout the summer months will help you stay organized and in your school routine.
• You want to finish the curriculum, or books, you started during the school year.
• You want to do some special activities or projects, that you weren't able to squeeze into the past school year.
• You want to experiment with a new teaching or learning style.  The summer months can be a great time to explore different homeschooling methods and approaches.
• You want to teach one or two subjects over the summer instead of during the school year.  This can work well for subjects like typing, art, music, and creative writing.

 

  

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Dorie enjoys being outside, photography, art, writing, a strong cup of coffee, and good conversations seasoned with much laughter. She and her drummer husband, Jerry, share a life built on faith in Jesus, love, and grace. They have been blessed with four active children. Each day, whether easy or trying, is a wondrous part of this grace filled journey, and Dorie blogs about them all at These Grace Filled Days. Their homeschooling adventures can be found at Homeschooling Just Next Door.

Amidst Chaos...

"Amidst chaos lies opportunity."
-Albert Einstein

I admire mothers who have it all together. Or who have it together enough to appear, you know, to have it together.

And while there are limited areas of my life where I do have things pretty well together, I will admit that homeschooling isn't one of them. It gets crazy around here.

I was more organized with 2 children and only 1 of school age, but adding children seems to make it harder. I certainly don't feel that God has called me to homeschool and limit my family size to make it happen in an, um, orderly fashion...

ON THE CONTRARY! It began to occur to me that the 'chaos' of a large household is actually a true benefit to a homeschooling family, depending on how it is received.

Whaaat?

Well, look with me. With a smaller family, I as a mother, have more time and energy to make plans and execute them smoothly. As more children, and more pregnancies, come along, I am stretched thinner and- let's be real here- formal lessons don't happen with the regularity they would without those pesky morning of puking, or those insane growth spurt days where I nurse a baby so much I hardly have time to go pee.

And did I mention those mornings when the 2 year old wakes up screaming because he's not in his shark pajamas... and he won't calm down... till 10 am???

So what's a responsible homeschooling mama to do?

I'm not sure- hehe- as sometimes I'm definitely not that picture-perfect matron, but I can tell you what I, an average, sometimes wiped out, sometimes cranky pregnant lady with three wild and wooly kids, do on any given day that is so nuts-o I can't even remember what's for lunch, or if there is even anything to fix for lunch.

I sit back, smile really big, and open my eyes to the grace.

While I was calming the 2 year old down, or laying in bad trying not to throw up from ravaging morning sickness, my 8 year-old snuck off to write in his secret journal... or to copy Chinese characters from some packaging material (he's currently obsessed with all things Chinese)... or to build a block tower using every block in the house. And my 5 year old choreographed a dance to the Blue Danube which she can play over and over and over and over on the keyboard... or joined in the block building... or made her own slingshot.

Are these things somehow less educational, less important to their development both academic and human than math pages and grammar excercises? Not to me.

Is a day spent playing with siblings (and yes, fighting and making up with siblings) less worthy than a day spent memorizing verb charts or slaving over math facts? And if I think it is less worthy, why?

I remember very clearly the day I took the school books off the high shelf and put them down on the shelf with all the, well, normal books. And something happened. Learning became somehow more normal... more real to us. Interestingly, my kids choose their 'school' books as often as they choose their other books, but it ceases to be a point of contention if today that poetry anthology doesn't get opened. Am I worried that my children won't learn 'what they need to know' because I don't direct their choices like I did in the days of yore: those everyone-has-quiet-time, snacks-at-3 (and ONLY at 3!), march-to-my-drummer days?

No. I see to much evidence that, for me at least, for my children at least, learning happens ALL the time. I can't stop it, hold it back, even if I want to. And as sick as I get of homemade catapults crowding my yard, endless keyboard jam sessions (WHERE ARE THE HEADPHONES YOU GUYS?!!!), art projects that overflow from the 'art table', and requests for math worksheets to be printed at 10 pm (yes, this happens... it seems to be the time of night when the math angel whispers into my children's ears "don't go to sleep... go wake up your mother and ask for math to do for fun...") I wouldn't trade the exuberance, the shouts, the wild adventure, for anything.


My other realization was that I can't schedule every minute of my children's learning and expect to grow self-motivated learners. I need to trust more that their interests will blossom if they have the time to pursue them... and not just on the 2 hour lesson-break planned every Wednesday afternoon!

Some mamas need to be in control. They want to lead. Some mamas let go of all control and give it over to the children. They let the children lead.

But for me, there's Someone else who leads.

And when life hapens- and OH! does it happen- I remind myself Who is in control. Who is the real Educator. Who gives the Light. Who more than me communicates the important stuff directly to these precious souls in my care.

And He will never let me down.

Five Ways To Welcome Spring to Your Homeschool

Spring fever is here! Embrace the opportunity you have with the flexibility of homeschool and enjoy the changing season. These are five suggestions for simple ways to incorporate welcoming spring into your routine.

1. Get outside! Do your reading sitting on the porch. Take chalk to the park and do some math on the sidewalk. Encourage children old enough to work on their own to take their materials out of doors to complete their assignments.

2. Plant a seed! Whether you scoop some dirt into a pot or let your children trowel up some flower bed throwing off it's winter sleep, let them try their hand at growing something. It is extra special if children choose their own seeds and do all the work themselves. This past week, without my even knowing, my third grader planted three rows of peas and twelve seed potatoes while I was working with his little sister on school.

3. Take a nature walk! Gather up some small storage containers for samples, carry a small backpack with drinking water and sketch books. Find a place for an unhurried, schedule-less walk and encourage your little ones to touch, feel, and save samples (in ways that are respectful to mother nature!). Find a warm, comfortable spot to sit and help them draw something they see.

4. Eat something fresh! Most of the farmer's markets in our area haven't begun yet, but a trip to the store can help you teach your children about seasonal shopping, the benefits to your health and the earth's that comes by way of eating fresh foods, and a tasty treat! Spinach, radishes, and green onions would make a wonderful salad or dipping tray.

5. Watch for and talk about signs of new life! At our farm, the chickens are laying eggs now, the mama cows are birthing their little calves, the bulbs have shot up their first greens, the wheat is thickening. Point out these things to your children as you are going about your daily lives and enjoy the renewal that spring can give your spirit and home. Open your windows and let spring into your homeschool!

Schooling Amidst A Crisis

The past month, my mother-in-law has been hospitalized. This stressful situation is further complicated by the fact that my husband and I are in partnership with his parents as farmers, so her workload is passed around among us, along with our worry over her. There are also her personal things (bills, cleaning, rescheduling) to be tended to. We also like to have one of us at the hospital when the doctors come around (there are six of them, and they come at random times). So our life has been a little messy and everything that can give, has gone.

We started fall harvest (THE busiest time of year on our farm) and my husband had an emergency appendectomy.

We had intended to begin school on August 1st this year, but that was not a possibility. I decided to wait until my mother-in-law was out of the hospital, but as the weeks stretched on and the pressure from other responsibilities increased, I began to have concern as to whether there would EVER be a "good time," so after discussion with my husband and children we started school this past Monday.

Did we finish *everything?* No. But we were so happy to be back around the kitchen table together. The next morning, I was needed at the hospital very early, so a sitter watched the kids and we fit the rest of school from the previous day's plans into the afternoon. It took two days to complete what would normally be fit into a morning, but we are able to be flexible about when and where we can work on it.

While my dyslexic middle child was in tutoring sessions yesterday afternoon, I worked on phonics with my first grader while my fifth grader did his math lesson. We listened to a song based on our memory work on a CD in the van going to and from the tutoring session. My oldest child read out loud to us from one of our literature study novels.

Is it perfect? No. But it was fun and satisfying. My daughter (six next month) took a lot more from the Native American Indians lesson for the older children than I imagined she would. Her journal entry was about it. Was I able to do everything according to the plans I had laid out? (Laughing) No, but does anything ever work that way?

The most enjoyable part for me was the undivided attention and time I was able to give each child separately. I have felt pulled in so many directions and had so many hats to wear lately, my connected relationship with each of them has been put to the test. It was so wonderful for me to have conversation with, lap time for, and intense interest from each of them without having to worry about what I should be working on instead.

I was doing exactly what I am meant to. The most important work I will ever do is raising these children, and I'm so thankful that homeschooling is a part of that for my family right now.

The School of Life

 So, over the past few weeks, we have had a steady flow of family members coming to visit. This may not seem like a big deal, however, in our world, this means our every day lives are put on hold temporarily. Schooling, in essence, stopped, as our schedules were thrown to the wind and we embraced the fun of having family at our new home - being military, we recently were restationed from the southeast, near where we are originally from, to the midwest, where we'd never been before - so this was the first time in approximately 8+ months that we'd had family come out to visit.

At first, it was a nice break from the day-to-day to just sleep in a little and get up and go exploring and sightseeing with our loved ones... but then, after a couple weeks of it, while still having fun, I began to feel concerned that my kids were getting out of the habit of doing school and the schedule that I had worked so hard to get them on... I was worried that they weren't really learning anything and wouldn't be interested in going back to our normal "routine" of just reading and practicing writing, etc... All of the fun of going to museums and historical landmarks and rock climbing/hiking our way up to waterfalls was going to make regular school seem drab! How could I get them interested in learning again?? 

Then it hit me: they had been learning all along! For example, my son learned the difference between a canon and a missile launcher when we explored the field artillery museum on the post we live on. He learned about the Apache Indians and how they fought with soldiers like his Daddy when we went to visit Geronimo's gravesite... He learned about how flowing water slowly erodes away at rocks and that's why certain waterfalls might have alcoves or caves behind them sometimes... My 4 year old can explain erosion to me! He learned that some fish eat algae, while others like bugs and worms, when we took him fishing... He can tell the difference between a bison and a water buffalo, and a buzzard vs. a vulture, and that Roadrunners are not just cartoon characters that get chased by coyotes, after visiting the wildlife refuge near our home. He learned about heights and how binoculars and telescopes work when we walked around the top of the nearby mountains and used different tools to look down at the beautiful views surrounding us... He learned about Bible stories when we visited the life-sized replica of the Holy City nearby and got to visit places that could be similar to the stable Jesus was born in, or King Herod's court, or the tomb Jesus was buried in, etc... He learned that crawfish like to burrow under rocks in creekbeds to hide, and that they pinch as a defense mechanism (guess how he learned that ~ haha) ... He might not be proficient in addition and subtraction quite yet, but he is still learning... 

So, what have I learned over the past few weeks we've taken "off" of school? I've learned that school - homeschooling, teaching, learning - is about much more than book knowledge and learning to read and write your ABC's... It's about letting life teach you and having a passion for knowledge. It's about teaching your kids to have that passion by allowing learning to be fun. It's about looking for a learning opportunity in everything you do and everywhere you go, because in the end, we are teaching our kids in order to enhance their lives, and by teaching them to love living life and to let life be their school in the most positive of ways, we are giving them the best education they could possibly have. 

What are fun, interesting, and/or unique ways you have found to teach your children, or what activities/experiences have you had with your kids that turned out to be a wonderful learning opportunity?