Friday, April 11, 2008

Is there such a thing as HOMEschool sick days?

This school week did not go as planned, what with passing around the germs to each other. Pretty much, as soon as one family member started feeling better, another would start coughing and sneezing. Unfortunately, we seem to be generous with that kind of sharing.

But since we really did not want to share our germs, our activities with other kids were cancelled.

Which brings me to this question: What do YOU do when your kids are sick, as far as homeschooling goes? (Yes, this is meant as the kind of question you can answer in the comment section of my blog:)

The average kid that climbs on the bus each day looks forward to having the occasional sick day from school (or so I'm told). But when home IS school, it's not quite the same.

I figured that since my boys like to play games on the computer regardless of how they feel, they can at least play learning games when they're sick.

And as far as crafts, projects, and maybe even reading books (?), those are all good things to help distract them from how they feel, unless they don't normally like those activities to start with. And I have to admit the VCR does a good job of distracting too...

I'm not talking about the bucket-by-the-bed kind of sick here, nor just the occasional cold. More the mommy-I-need-more-medicine kind, accompanied with achiness and congestion...the kind where you would hopefully keep them from sharing the germs with other children.

So we went pretty light on the heavy subjects this week...I wouldn't want you to think we play around this much all the time:)

I picked up this 30 in 1 electronic project lab at the thrift store a couple weeks ago. So I told my oldest child "no computer!" today (he's in the just-getting-over-it stage), and handed him the lab. 5 minutes later he informed me that "you have to know a whole lot about electronics to do this lab". This from the kid that can click circles around me on the computer!
So I set to work to prove him wrong...which was tough... it took me about 10 minutes to figure it out and set up the simplest lab.


So, three hours later, he is still setting up labs. And he runs in every time he sets up a new one (remember there are 30 of them) to demonstrate. And I'm feeling pretty smart...of course my simple lab had 6 wires versus the 20 required for his experiments. But I have to take my shining moments when I can get them.

My middle son (that would be the artist) has been laying down alot the last few days. He's had some headaches and fevers, leaving him much calmer than usual. He did manage somehow to make these molds of a dinosaur skeleton and paint them. I suspect he is planning to hide them in the sandbox and dig them up later, Lol.

And we put together these little critters with a few bananas, and a little imagination. This is the sort of thing you start doing when you're stuck inside a house of sickness for too long...



And now I find myself at the when-does-mom-get-a-homeschool-sick-day stage; I might just give a prize to the person who says to crawl under the covers and pull them up over my head!

5 comments:

Marva said...

Those look like great activities! I'm sorry you guys are sick!!! Hang in there and i'll be praying! Blessings!!!

Little Natural Cottage said...

My siblings and I were homeschooled and we kept up with at least most of our studies unless we were REALLY sick- like in bed with a fever. Depending on how bad we felt, my mom would assign a few less pages, or give us educational "busy work" until we were back on our feet. Hope you're all feeling better soon!

~Kristy @ Homemaker's Cottage

Mrs. Darling said...

Maybe the professor will take up a trade as an electrician when he's older!

I homeschool on sick days too if its not pukey sick. I just go lighter.

Unknown said...

Hope the family is feeling better soon. That is great that you stuck it out and made the day a learning experience anyway.
By all means you can use whatever you want of mine, I would be honoured. God Bless.

Meliss said...

Springtime seems to be the time to get sick around here. We've had two rounds of knock-you-down viruses. I keep wishing for a substitute teacher!