What to do when the sky falls & you have to homeschool

In 2009 when my son began having grand mal seizures, we tried to maintain as much normalcy as possible.  As the years went on in school and the seizures began affecting his work, we knew there had to be a change.  I had toyed with the idea of homeschooling when the kids were little but I never thought starting to homeschool in 7th grade would be a good idea.  My daughter was going to start 10th grade and she asked if she could also homeschool.  She sealed the deal when she said, "I think it would be nice to spend more time with you."

More Time...

Time is the one thing our culture says they don't have enough of!  We are chasing dreams and dollar signs at the speed of a bullet train and suddenly we look and all the time is gone.  Our kids are getting off at the next stop before we have even had a chance to know them, as people, or them to really know us.

The world has officially been put on pause and many of you are being handed your children to work on their school at home.  This was never in your wildest dreams, but maybe neither was a global pandemic.  Look at this time as a gift.  A gift of time.  Here are a few things I learned and benefitted from while going from just a couple hours a day to every hour with my children.

1)  You probably don't know your kids.  Get to know them!
"Say What?" is what you are saying back to me right now, but if you think about the time you see your kids between rushing out the door, to school, to activities, you are just their driver.  You probably know their friends names and the other basic "what's the weather" kind of information, but do you know what they believe about the world?  About life?

2)  You're kids probably don't know you.  This was one of the things that struck me as a surprise.  I don't know why, but as parents we think our kids will learn about us, our family history, our life stories, through osmosis.  If they are close to us, they must know our story, right?  Before we began homeschooling, I would begin to tell my teens a story and they would say, "I've never heard that...".
My heart sank.. I was sure I'd told them more about what had shaped my life, my family's life, over the years.  Maybe I had, but in the hurry, they couldn't hear.

3)  Be creative!  Take time to sit on the floor if they are little and interact.  Have a picnic, indoors or outside.  Build a fort, play with playdough, make silly home movies.  Use tablets and phones as a teaching tool.  Imagine you are allowed to travel and begin taking virtual trips around the world.  Learn a little about their landmarks, food, and even use your translator app to see how basic sayings sound in another language.  As you do these activities, you will become more human to your kids, they will see your heart and creativity.

4)  Be intentional!  Intentionally share some basic manners at the table.  Teach them how to set a nice table for a three course meal.  Look up place settings and table etiquette.  While sitting at the table, share your personal faith stories.  Your kids may have never heard why you believe what you believe.  Talk to them about what is scary to them during this crisis.  There are hundreds of verses about not fearing in the Bible.  Pick one a day and have them write it on a note card and as a family, hang it where everyone can read it.

5)  The possibilities are endless.  Go outside, learn to cook, do that one project you have been trying to make time for, the list is infinite.  It may sound silly, but your imagination is really your only limitation.

Enjoy this pause on the world.  I feel as if we have all been given the task to be organic.  Be simple, take out the pesticides that are poisoning our families and just be.  We have been given this time, which is scary and unknown, but when we all jump back on the crazy train called "Normal", I hope it has brought families closer together.  I pray it has created memories and bonds that will last years into the future.  Honestly, we have needed this reset.  We need our families to be healthy so our world can heal.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." -Romans 8:28 (KJV)

-Melissa Pyle