Sick days. How do you handle them when you homeschool? This week, Em and I didn’t feel well on Monday. Tuesday, I was better, but she still felt puny. Wednesday she started feeling better. With winter (and cold and flu season) comes the dilemma of what to do on sick days.
Do you “do school” when your kiddos are sick? For us, it depends on how sick they are. As much as I try to be relaxed about our homeschool schedule, there is a timeline that we try to follow so we have our summers off. So, if possible, we try to accomplish a few things if at all possible on sick days.
Homeschool Sick Days
Take it easy.
When Em feels less than great but isn’t “down-for-the-count” kind of sick, we try to attack some of her school lessons. She can take a spelling test snuggled in her blankets on the couch. She can get her reading done in bed with her electric blanket. We don’t tackle any hands-on science projects, but there are enough “little” things on her assignment sheet that she can manage as she feels up to it. This way, neither of us feel as if the day was a total bust.
TV is a good thing.
This week, we watched a few extra Christmas movies since we’re light-schooling anyway. However, sick days are great for watching documentaries and educational shows. Or, we may choose to watch a movie based on a book we’ve recently read. I keep a running list of movies that we can watch to tie in to a lesson or book that we touched on recently or will in the near future. Sick days are great days to pull those out.
Let it go!
There are, however, some days where we just have to let it go. She’s too sick to focus. She has zero energy to get assignments done. The beauty of homeschooling is that we can do just that. When she’s better, I can adjust my lesson plans accordingly so we can catch back up. Maybe there are two lessons we can combine into one. Maybe there is a review lesson or two we can skip.
How do you handle sick days in your homeschool?
We usually skip math and other activities that require a lot of brain power when a child is sick. We will still do parts of the lesson that I read to the kids like history or reading a novel/story and science if it happens to be mostly reading. According to how sick the child is, I may encourage them to do part of their written work but may only do half the lesson. I have three children so if only one or two are sick then I will focus in on the well child to give them a little extra school attention for the day. Perhaps working on an area that needs extra attention or practice that usually we don’t have time to work on.
Typically we just Let it go! My kids don’t concentrate well when they are sick, and I’m pretty intolerable about lazy learning. It’s one of the things I have to work on. I don’t like it when they are sluggish and try to take shortcuts. It works better for all of us if we just cancel the day. That way, they focus on getting better, and I have peace of mind.
Thanks so much for sharing on the #homeschoollinkup!
I have struggled a bit with this, love the idea of tying in a book or a course of study with a movie on sick days. You said you keep a list, perhaps you could share some time? I am always at a loss as I don’t watch very much tv, but a list or two would go a long way!
Kay, that’s a great suggestion! I’ll work on a list to post this month.
Looking forward to seeing that list!
I’m usually pretty good about letting things go when the kids are sick, but it grates on me to take a sick day for myself. Momma-guilt is evil.
Yes, that momma guilt is awful! I will get that list together soon.
We tend to let it go BUT if there is some movie or documentary that goes along with whatever we’re studying, we usually try to get that in (along with extra TV or IPAD time..because..well, being sick is no fun!!) I don’t really stress it though- I know when I am sick, depending on how sick I am, I don’t feel like doing ANYTHING!