How to get through "times of crisis"?

Wonderful advice and encouragement from MelissaB.  Obviously, we want to work the plan we set out to do, but LIFE happens, to everyone, in one way or another. I have handed over most, if not all, of what my older dc need to accomplish on a daily basis.  They have lists on clipboards (best idea ever) and they work on it all at their own pace, with what guidance I can give them and help when I’m feeling up to it.  My oldest has continued most Fine Arts, but for my younger two Poetry is about it for now.  

You need to give yourself some Grace and realize that in public school,or anywhere else for that matter, students are “behind.”  I would seriously be giving your children more of the planning for themselves and maybe even resource out if you have to.  I had to come to a place where home schooling was more important to me (no matter how that looked) than my dc going to ps (which I couldn’t manage anyhow), so, yes, we have added in workbooks, online classes, etc., not all CM, but that is OK.  

I handed over my older dc’s blank templates for their daily schedules and asked them to fill them in.  They could use the old one they had as a guide, but they needed to decide how they would accomplish their work on their own.  I looked them over and only made a few changes with them present…we discussed why I changed them and they agreed. 

If you’d like, I could PM you with some more ideas I have had to do. We’re all different but maybe you can find the same peace I have found that only the Lord can provide.

PJ,

I think every family will be different but for us, the basic idea is to have trained my children to love learning and to learn independent of me.  We have faced many times of crisis with Mason’s health and his many surgeries.  This week the crisis is my own, as I had emergency surgery Monday when we discovered my newest pregnancy was a tubal pregnancy, the baby was implanted in my fallopian tube and would not survive, but if left until my tube ruptured I would be in danger of not surviving either (bleeding to death internally).  So now I’m recovering from major surgery, loss of a much loved and wanted baby, and the postpartum issues that come with a pregnancy ending.  For us, homeschooling has gone on auto pilot.  I talked with my children and we agreed to a basic amount of work to do each day to help fill our mornings.  So math, independent reading, and scripture study happen.  Then each child chooses to do a writing project or read a science book and narrate it.  My children all know how to work independently, other than me helping the 5 year old with learning to read.  Our routines carry us through. 

I suspect your children, who are much older, are quite capable of planning out their own workload and getting it done.  Will they make mistakes?  Of course!  But it’s a much needed skill to learn (directing your own time and schedule) so use the life situation you find yourself in to encourage this lesson!  And don’t forget the joy of reading aloud or audio books.  You don’t have to do the reading aloud – they can. 

I’m sorry you’re hurting. 

One last note – you are never ‘behind’.  You are right where God placed you.  Life is much more than finishing academic assignments on an artificial schedule.  Let them serve you, serve one another, and stretch out their wings a bit to direct their own learning. ((HUGS))