A Year in the Life of a Homeschooling Family: Day 19

I am surrounded by sick people! It’s so hard, as a homeschooling parent, to know when to pull a sick day, and whether it should be for all or just the ones who are sick. Usually I fall somewhere in the middle. As a family who thrive when working, choosing not to do any school work often backfires on us. Doing nothing tends to lead to bad attitudes, lethargy and difficulties getting to sleep. This then begins a cycle of negativity. Best to have them doing something rather than nothing.

I tend to pick the most enjoyable parts of their school to get through and leave the stuff they hate for when they are well again. This is different for each child. For example, Charlotte loves to read – so she finishes all her reading.

Also when one is down, every well person rises to the occasion, taking over chores and making sure the ill person is snuggled up, medicated and as comfortable as possible. Divide and conquer is the name of the game!

Today, I had the little ones complete their workbooks and then we completed the lesson on Abraham from The Mystery of History, focusing on the fact that God was going to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. The girls made sand and star globes:

I had sewn together some clothes for Abraham and Sarah, but I wanted the girls to get a taste of how they would have travelled from Mesopotamia to Egypt. The first thing we did was make a bed which Abraham would have rolled up and carried, and a bag come eating rug which Sarah (or their camels…donkeys…) would have carried. Here are the girls making one each:

The bed:

And the rug being used for lunch:

The girls then used some plasticine to fashion some bowls and cups and food they may have eaten along the way:

Whilst they were busy with that, I attempted to make a tent. It was going to be a great tent made with twigs, string and material… Oh the frustration! We could not, no matter what we tried, make that tent stand up. I even took to using some gaffa tape, to no avail!

Eventually I stole Charlotte’s laptop table and a strong piece of wood, which I gaffa-ed to the wall, threw a table cloth over it and called it good:

Not very, very authentic, but the children liked it and played with the whole set up for HOURS:

And, as Abigail so rightly pointed out, ‘Imagine how difficult it would have been for Abraham to have put up and taken down a tent each night’

Quite.

Currently, the little ones are building a tent upstairs in their room, which they will be sleeping in tonight. I love it when our school overlaps into our regular life 🙂