She IS The Class

Some of you may remember my sick day post where Gwen was watching movies in my bed and pretty much spreading all her stuff all over my room. Well, It was strep (ouch, no wonder she was miserable), so there went a whole week of school. I planned on getting back on track on Monday, but she still had a fever and a cough that wouldn't let either of us sleep. After some back and forth with the Doctors office we came home with meds for pneumonia :( not only was it scary, but there went another week of school.

Over the long Holiday weekend I worried and tried to plan for how we were going to 'catch up'. How much math, science, geography, history, and language I can squeeze into each day. How quickly I can expect her to memorize spelling words. If I can get her to practice an hour of music a day.

I looked at timetables and schedules for days and then I realized that we don't have to 'catch up'. We homeschool. She doesn't have to try to cram as much in her brain as she can to keep up with the other kids in class who weren't sick for 2 weeks... she IS the class. This class moves at HER pace. If she learns something quickly, we will move on. If she needs more hands-on, or books about, or lessons pertaining to a subject we will continue with it until we are confident in her knowledge. (A little extra leg work is something that is a parent's responsibility whether they homeschool or not. Teachers are amazing, but they can't be one-on-one-ing with each child all day... They are only one person)

And remember all those in service days and ridiculous holidays that the kids in public school don't have to go in for? We don't have those. You know what we do on Martin Luther King Jr day? We learn about Martin Luther King Jr. The books we read and activities we do on that day might not be our regularly scheduled stuff, but there's no reason to do nothing, after all... we're in the building anyway (LOL). I am not a state employee who is guaranteed certain days off. I am a mom. I don't get days off!

We have plenty of time to make up for those weeks. It may take us awhile, but that's why my lesson plans are labeled Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, etc. and not with specific dates.

We'll make up the time... eventually