How to Homeschool with Morning Sickness...or Other Difficult Times
Since she read about the hyperemesis gravidarum I experience during pregnancy, I was asked if I had any tips to share by a younger mother having difficulty keeping a routine with her morning sickness. I realize these tips might not work for every family because requirements for homeschool vary from state to state as do individual teaching styles. Take what you can use and leave the rest.
Our family uses an eclectic style of learning. Whatever works for our children and our family, we use. We will not pigeon hole ourselves into one method or the other since we have seen God work through various means. It breaks our heart to see Christian homeschoolers become pride filled or dogmatic about one approach or another to the point they exclude others who do not follow their own approach. Be open and stay flexible to God's leading in your homeschool.
Pray. Ask God for direction, wisdom and strength. Ask Him to work out His will for your children's education through you. Our imperfections and limitations do not slow Him down at all. He knew we are fallible and weak before He ever called us to this mission field of mothering and homeschool.
We firmly believe that hard times are great times of spiritual growth and maturity. Ask God to help you and your family learn all you can through the adversity facing you.
Ditch the routine and adapt to your needs. If you feel better in the evenings, rest in the mornings and teach in the evenings.
We homeschool year around. If I am expecting, this gives me time to take off when the hyperemesis is at it's worst.
We homeschool longer when I am feeling better. On a day I feel almost normal, I will homeschool up to 10 hours with appropriate breaks, snacks and playtime to keep it from being too stressful on the children. A good attitude and a spirit of fun keeps everyone interested in the learning.
Homeschool when you have that good moment. Remember: An hour of individualized instruction goes much further than a few hours of classroom instruction. You cover much more material in much less time.
We homeschool on extra days. Saturdays, snow days and holidays are good times to catch up on work.
Once my children can read a chart, they are responsible to get their books and do a certain amount of work in them each day. Afterwards, they bring the work to my husband or me to be checked for errors. If they need instruction on something, they come and ask for assistance.
For those who can not read well, the chart may include a picture of their book with my picture. This tells them to get a particular book and bring it to me. If I am bedridden due to the vomiting or medicated and can't think clearly, it still gets done.
Enlist an older child to teach the younger. Not only is this a learning exercise and often a "refresher course," it teaches servanthood character.
Enlist your husband. Because teaching Algebra required more time for instruction than I have with my busy schedule, my husband assumed the responsibility of overseeing this. Brandon goes to Clint when he has a question and they take time each week to go over his work. Because he has been so successful with his self-learning in Algebra, Brandon's confidence in his ability to learn difficult material has skyrocketed and he is now eager to take on bigger challenges. It has also allowed for extra father son time which is a blessing to both of them.
Clint and I do not have family to help out, but a grandparent to listen to a child read, help with math work or to take them on a field trip would be a blessing. Let your family help you if they are willing and supportive.
Focus on the basics. When things are really tough, I just concentrate on Bible, Language Arts and Math. The rest is easy to catch up on later.
Make use of home made cassette tapes. Material that has to be learned by repetition, like multiplication tables, I make a Learning Book with cassette tape for. This allows the child to read it, hear it and say it so it fixes firmly in their brain. Once made, it requires no energy from me other than telling them to put it in the tape player. Using printable learning sheets I have found on the internet, I have made learning books and tapes in less than 30 minutes.
Make use of learning videos, educational movies, commercial cassette tapes, posters, online learning, educational software and other forms of media. Leap Frog has some terrific learning videos for Math and Reading.
Teach one subject a day, if your children are good at retaining material. This was a blessing to me for many months when I was really ill.
Basically, look for ways to temporarily take the bulk of the burden off of you. I have not used all of these tips with every pregnancy. I have varied it to what our needs were and what worked at the time. Rest in the knowledge that learning continues whether you are actively teaching or not. One year, we made very little progress in the area of instruction. The children still advanced along with their peers, as proved by testing that year, due to living in an environment full of learning opportunities.