Homeschool, Interrupted…When Life gets in the Way

Last week was quite unexpected in our home. The boys were feeling poorly at the start of the week, and it pretty much continued until the end. As a result, it was one of those times when I had to adjust my plans, expectations, and homeschool.

I struggle when there is no structure and routine. Admittedly, I have this flawed mindset of basing my self-worth on how productive I am during the day and how much I have “achieved”. I also find it challenging to be flexible. When I don’t have the “right” number of hours to run the homeschool, my tendency then is to:

1. Get bewildered,
2. Throw in the towel,
3. And wait for better times to come!

Interruptions in the Past

We’ve had many such “interrupted” weeks during the course of our homeschool adventure. Certain interruptions were serious and required the time and space to thoughtfully reflect. Sometimes that meant ceasing homeschool altogether because certain situations warranted it. It was the wisest thing to do. Sometimes it meant working with or making the most of the time I did have. I find the latter more challenging because there is a sort of start-stop motion you have to adapt to, and it can get quite exhausting. You feel like you are trying to keep multiple plates spinning, juggle many balls, or keep in step with a crazy dance partner, or…I think you get the point!
It can be quite frustrating.

I like things in neat packages. I appreciate knowing in advance what my day is going to be like and what interruptions I might have. A strategy to cope with distractions is something I love to have in my back pocket as well.

But then I have to stop, think, and reflect. Pray for wisdom and trust that God will give it. He meets me where I am and helps me.

Homeschool Benefits

I remember that homeschooling is for the long haul and try to keep that perspective in my mind. Ultimately, does it really matter whether you miss a week or two here and there? Was I being demotivated and lazy or was this a genuine case of needing to stop and take a break? This is of course, a no-brainer. Anyone would concur that a break was the right and sensible thing to do, but I am a type A/list-checking type of homeschool mum. My mind was playing all the videos of schedules being broken, work getting delayed, and repercussions of delays. Not to mention the anxious feelings of being unproductive.

I had to do some self-talk then: I told myself that this was why we home educate and why home education was so beneficial. We could take a break when we wanted, and more importantly, we got to decide when those times were. In the grand scheme of things, losing some time was not a big deal at all – in fact, we had missed many more weeks in the past and had recovered happily. It hadn’t affected our journey at all.

Once I had accepted the fact that we needed some respite and that it was useful to get some, I paused to think about how best to use the time.

Things like:

For me:

Do I need to take a rest?
How are my bible reading/spiritual disciplines? Do I need to get back on track?
Am I taking care of my body, eating healthy, and exercising?

For the kids:

How are the kids’ habits and spiritual disciplines? Do we need to get back on track?

For the homeschool:

Are there areas in the homeschool that I had set aside (or procrastinated) because I just couldn’t get to them on a busy homeschool season?
It is worth doing a health check on our homeschool day and week:
Is the homeschool day/week working out the way we planned?
Does a new subject need to be introduced or an old one removed from our schedule?
Does the schedule need changing?
Do subjects need to be moved around?
Does anyone need remedial work or more focus on a particular subject?
Are there areas that are problematic or time consuming that are just not working? How can they be changed?

In the end, getting some time to rest was the best thing for us.

How do you handle interruptions to your homeschool?