Feb. 21, 2008 - 'We didn't do school today."
We have had more sickness in these past few weeks than we've had in a few years! Everyone has had a basic cold; but we've also had two diagnosed sinus infections, four cases of pink eye, and just yesterday I was at the clinic for the fourth time in three weeks with my oldest daughter who was diagnosed with strep throat.
The sickness in itself puts a kink in schooling. Those with pink eye couldn't do much when they couldn't see and those with sinus couldn't concentrate for the pain. So then the others didn't want to do much either, or at least not follow our regular routine. Then add in the hours we spent sitting at the clinic and it's seemed as though we've missed much of what we'd do here at home. I would find at the end of a day, however, that despite the interruptions there was still learning going on.
I felt it was great timing for us that the Homeschool Minute yesterday was all about "a day in the life" and that many of the writers talked about how school does not look much like "the perfect homeschool day" in their homes much of the time. They talked about how school goes on around and within the rest of their daily living activities, the kinds of activities that in public school would not be considered learning at all.
The one day that we had been at the clinic we had a two hour wait just to see a doctor. I brought a magazine to read, but the kids 'conveniently' left the worksheets & books I had brought for them in the car. Oh well, I wasn't well and I wasn't going to pick a fight about it. If they wanted simply to be bored, then so be it. So they spent a good hour just people watching, watching the goings on of how the clinic operates, and my youngest daughter occupied herself with counting how many times the automatic door opened and closed. Then brother chimed in and they began to count the door openings in Spanish and by skip counting. Soon all three kids were hovered around me and my magazine(American History Magazine) and asking questions as to what I was reading. The two boys then began reading sections of the pages over my shoulder and asking more questions. My youngest daughter then began to look for words on the pages with the phonograms that we had been working on at home. When I was finally called in to see the doctor, and I went to put the magazine away, they were all saying "Wait! Wait! I didn't finish!" And ironically, when dad came home that day from work and asked how school went for the day they all said "We didn't do school today." Hmmm? Spanish, math, social studies, history, and science(one article in my magazine was on double exposure photo fakes from the Civil War).
Then yesterday when my daughter was at the doctor and diagnosed with strep, he told her she was to be out of school for the next two days. She replied that she homeschools and that she'd even been doing her grammar while in the waiting room just minutes before! He jokingly told her that today she should just not study as hard then, "doctor's orders".
Life goes on, day in and day out, with the good and the bad, and learning goes right along with it!
