Homeschooling During Unexpected Seasons

The last two months have been filled with doctor's appointments and lots of time in waiting rooms. I have to take the younger 4 with me as I just don't quite trust them at home alone and the 14 year old is not really ready for that kind or responsibility. 

I've watched all my grand plans for this year fall by the wayside in order for one of my kids to get the medical interventions she needs. Some weeks, nothing happens; other weeks, we manage to do something "school-ish" for a couple of days. I can't recall the last time we were home and did school every day of one whole week. 

I still have to grocery shop, do laundry, manage my kitchen and keep house.

Oh yes, and my oldest son is getting married in the Spring.

I've been feeling like a failure and a slacker. The kids take school work with them, but waiting rooms are a bit distracting, so little gets done. Oddly enough, the one who is spending all the time being cared for by a variety of medical professionals is the one getting by far the most done. I'm not really sure how that is possible, but it is.

So, I've had to pare things down and lower my expectations and desires. I picked the things that I felt would be most beneficial to the children.

1. Bible study and prayer. We are working through a Bible study, so sometimes we do that, or sometimes I just read aloud from Psalms or Proverbs and we discuss. We pray together. 

2. Math. Even if we only do 15 minutes (I shoot for 30-45) their brains are stimulated and they are progressing. Instead of doing every problem in every chapter, we might learn the new concepts from several chapters and practice them and move on. They might do an entire chapter's worth of problems once a week or less.

3. Latin. Latin is kind of the language equivalent to math. It makes them use logic, like math. It reinforces English grammar and expands their vocabulary.  Sometimes we review lists of Latin roots.

4. Piano. I've invested the money already and I don't want it wasted. It also forces them to think and figure things out by themselves.

This is all I am doing on a formal basis, and depending on how many appointments we have, we do it when we can. The kids read science and history on their own, and I sometimes read aloud from a story book or a history book. I realized a few weeks ago that I had whittled their schooling down to subjects that make them think. Subjects that encourage logic and reasoning. 

And in the meantime, the 14 year old is writing a fiction story with illustrations, reading the Encyclopedia and spending a lot of time down at the creek; the 11 year old is designing clothes, learning how to cook; the 8 year old is pouring over military books and drawing free-hand what interests him as well as copying out the captions under the pictures; the 5 year old is finding words that she can read all around her, helps me with chores and plays outside by herself in her little playhouse.

Mom, if you are going through a season in life where life seems too much to balance with school- take heart. They will learn in spite of you. It won't look like traditional school and it won't be what you planned. Trust that their little minds and hearts and hands will find things to enrich them. They might make some messes, which creates a great opportunity to learn how to clean up. They might get bored, which presents them with opportunities to be creative. They may fight and argue a bit more, which gives them the opportunity to work on conflict resolution.

They are learning. I can't stop them. The world around them can't stop them.