ElCloud Homeschool: When your homeschool day gets derailed!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

When your homeschool day gets derailed!

My kids have allergies, but not severe allergies. Usually we muddle along with over-the-counter allergy medications, vitamin C, and lots of tissues. The hardest part is actually that my kids feel tired and lousy, which ends up affecting their behavior. Sometimes I don't realize the pollen count has gone up until I start wondering what in the world has gotten into my kids, and why are they fighting so much.

We're in that season now. Unfortunately, I just discovered that our 4 year old (V) is going to be one of our allergy kids. She started with a sniffly nose yesterday, then she got hit with croup at 2 am. Really it was one of the worst croup attacks we've ever dealt with. I woke my husband up and we discussed whether we could treat at home or needed to go to the ER. We do have a nebulizer from when our 9 year old had repeat bouts of Reactive Airways as an infant, so we gave her a breathing treatment. It helped a lot and after 1.5 hours, we were able to settle down and try to sleep again. Of course, we had 2 wide-awake little ones to get back to sleep, and the four of us were all in our king size bed.

So our day started with Steve and I oversleeping. He woke up two hours late! V was sleeping well at that time so I let her rest. When she woke up at 9, she was still hoarse and sounding congested in her chest, so I called the doctor's office. We got an appointment, and I took her to the doctor mid-morning. That meant leaving the 14 and 15 year olds in charge of their siblings for awhile, with instructions for everyone to work on whatever part of school they could without me. Yeah, that went well. Nothing got done. So now we're playing catch-up on a scaled-back school day.

But that's okay. I'll snuggle my girl through some breathing treatments, give her the steroids she was prescribed, and hope for a better night's rest tonight. We'll also start her on allergy medications, along with her other siblings. Hopefully tomorrow, and next week, will be better.

Real Life Homeschooling requires flexibility, and grace. Grace for yourself, and your kids. Grace from your husband who comes home to a messy house and leftovers more often than he'd like. But it's so worth it! We may have to lower our expectations for school today and tomorrow, but I still get to be the one here snuggling my girl, and my kids won't fall behind for long.

So if your week was sent a little topsy-turvy by unexpected illnesses or other trials (flooded basement, broken washing machine, lost math books, whatever) just remind yourself that you're developing perseverance, patience, grace, and flexibility. And the benefits are completely worth it!

April E.

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