Sick days exist for home educating parents. We had one ourselves just this week. I rarely get migraines, but one kicked me to my knees fairly early in the morning and I was down for the count. A mommy sick day can be rough no matter what age group you have at home. My tactics for surviving those days have adapted over the years.
When I had kids under 5, my tactics were kiddy videos and a safe room. I had a baby gate on the kitchen door so that no one could get in there and into dangerous things like knives or the flour bucket. We have always limited the TV watching in this house and encouraged creative play outdoors (we have many boys). But when mommy is sick, that is the perfect time to fudge on the rules a bit and go into survival mode. Your children will not be destroyed if they spend a day in front of the TV while you are miserably sick in the bathroom or under a pillow laying on the bed.
Now that I have older kids, I have the older ones read to the younger ones. I also have them pull out Candy Land, or UNO or even Dominoes. They love it. It is still out of the ordinary to not do schooling and have a play day. I was so sick this week that I didn’t require any of this interaction, but they played well together and my oldest even managed lunch for everyone. I was also very thankful when I heard my hubby come in the door very early from work.
If you are task oriented, you will still spend your sick day wound up over the ‘wasted day’ for schooling or projects or whatever. I am task oriented and driven, so it’s hard to have this experience, but you know what, it’s ok. It really is ok if we have a day around here that is a ‘waste’. You are already feeling horrible, you surely don’t need to beat yourself up over all the things that are not happening while you are sick.
It’s really ok to let the kids have a day to practice all the things I have been teaching them. Even if you don’t homeschool, you are still teaching your kids to interact, play together and live together in some sort of symbiosis. Your sick day forces them to put into play all that they have been learning. So take a big breath, rest as well as you can, and don’t ever be afraid to call for reinforcements.
Homeschooling 