The Rough Days

Lest you get the idea that homeschooling my Munchkin is all wonderful, let me set you straight.  There are a lot of good days and we've seen a lot of growth/improvements.  But there are rough days.

In the start, the rough days out numbered the good days.  Hard but honest.  My son had a lot of bad habits to overcome.  And a lot of sensory issues to get worked out.  As a result, while we had lesson plans, I spent a lot of time during those lessons helping him with those issues.  I would often finish up lessons feeling like nothing had been accomplished, either behavorial or educational.  I was only looking back that I could see just how many changes occurred over that first time period.  Keeping a journal, even impromptu, will help you with that.  When you get too overwhelmed with current issues you can look back and see just how far you have come.

Nowadays, we have more good days than bad.  But there are still occasional bad days.  Normally, like this week, they are when my son is sick.  In truth, a bad day of "school" is generally one of the signs that makes me look for illness if my son doesn't give me signals.  But this week he got an eye infection and the doctor found the starts of an inner ear infection.  Add to that the tooth coming in that seems to be causing all sorts of issues of its own, including headaches, and we had a doozy of a week. 

So what does a rough week look like.  Well it starts with him wanting no lights on at all throughout the house.  Even if he's a couple of rooms away.  And no sounds unless he's watching the big TV which he only does for short periods because of the noise.  His preference is one of his small players with the sound turned almost completely off.  And he tries to spend most of his time curled up in my bed under my very heavy comforter.

So what do I do?  I adjust the lessons.  When I can get videos watched, I do, with the sound turned down low.  I climb into bed with him and read.  We play counting games that involve tickling or other play things.  If we have a really good segment to a day, we will do a worksheet or two.  But I don't push excessively because he really is feeling bad.  All of the missed videos, worksheets, and etc can be worked through rather quickly once he's feeling okay again.  And in those first few days of suddenly feeling good again, he doesn't mind the extra material because he has the energy.

What I don't do?  I don't abandon the lessons completely.  Even if we are doing a much shorter, simpler lesson.  Even if we are curled up in bed and hiding under comforters, I make sure that even those lessons are continued.  It is much easier to get back to a normal level of schoolwork if you don't let it disappear completely.  And sometimes, on especially bad days, all the lessons may be is curling up with him and watching the videos while snuggling.  And we'll watch those videos again later when he is mentally processing things better.  But the general structure of lessons remains.

Don't let the rough days get you down too much because you will get through them.  One day you'll look back and realize just how far you and your child have come.  And then, for a while at least, you will face the new day's issues with a smile because you know that you both have overcome things before and will continue to do so.  And heck, sometimes that smile and lessening of stress is all that is needed this time.  :-)