Thursday, September 10, 2015

Staying focused while facing one distraction after another

One issue often discussed among homeschoolers is that of routine and schedules. Having a program – a curriculum, goals – and a plan for how you are going to reach these goals, is pretty much necessary, unless you are completely unschooling. However, while it is true that a structured regularity might make homeschooling easier, it is futile to think that you can maintain a strict schedule like a public or private school. If you homeschool in your home with a regular family, things are going to come up, planned and unplanned incidents, or sometimes illness, that will disrupt your schoolwork. The best way to deal with this is to embrace the distractions and learn to work around or with them while staying focused.

This our first week of school was extra challenging in this regard, as it was filled with a few scheduled (dentist visits across town and first week of teaching for my philosophy husband) and several unplanned events. I got sick over the weekend and was out of commission until Monday afternoon. We had a major plumbing problem in the bathrooms with raw sewage leakage (which had to be cleaned up once it was fixed). Then the sandstorm hit Lebanon, which you might not think would have much impact on homeschool activities, but we ended up housing or hosting a dust storm play date for the afternoon, with kids of all ages filling up the house. Last night, William went to bed with a stomach ache, and today he has been very sick.

One more day left of this week, Friday. What might happen tomorrow?

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