displace Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 When you're sick and cannot really teach well, do you push through anyway, modify your day, do half days, skip a day but make up for it later? I'm struggling as I'm recovering from an illness, my preschooler is in a funk (yelling and crying and screaming on and off since she woke up) so I think she's sick too, but DS is fine. I worked as much with DS as I could but got maybe 20% of our work done after four hours because of me and the preschooler. I finally am putting little one down to rest and DS has audiobooks on, but I'm wondering if I should just give up on today or try to do more after lunch. What do you tend to do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 When you're sick and cannot really teach well, do you push through anyway, modify your day, do half days, skip a day but make up for it later? I'm struggling as I'm recovering from an illness, my preschooler is in a funk (yelling and crying and screaming on and off since she woke up) so I think she's sick too, but DS is fine. I worked as much with DS as I could but got maybe 20% of our work done after four hours because of me and the preschooler. I finally am putting little one down to rest and DS has audiobooks on, but I'm wondering if I should just give up on today or try to do more after lunch. What do you tend to do? :grouphug: When I'm sick, I'm sick. There's no Official School Stuff. Have a jammy day. Watch your favorite movies. Let the dc free-play. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherry in OH Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Public schools have calamity days for weather. We have ours when mom is sick. The children listen to audiobooks, watch video, or otherwise entertain themselves. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
displace Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 Sounds good to me! :). I survived lunch and we may read some books and do a little math as I'm feeling a little better. I feel better if we at least work on some reading and math. We have had too many half days already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loowit Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 If I am just a little sick I push through. If I am just not feeling up to it I call it quits until I am well. Pushing through when I am too sick will only lead to short tempers, me not being clear or helpful, and just general chaos It also tends to lead to me being sick longer because I am not getting proper rest. When kids were younger DH would take the day to work from home and help with meals and such while I rested. He didn't take over teaching, but could help with making sure I got rest and running kids to activities. Now that the kids are older they take care of mom. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexi Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 I take the day off. If I feel unwell then I'm not a pleasant teacher. I can usually only be mom on those days. I give my kids thigs to do with a new activity every 30 min or so. For example: 30 min of iPad games, then I dimp out Legos and let them build for about 30 min, then they listen to an audiobook, then they play a game... I've found that by changing the activity every 30 min they are too busy to have time to fight and argue. My kids are still young and need some direction from me. I usually hang out on the couch with a book so I can still supervise. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco_Clark Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Last year I would have said, if I'm sick then I'm sick. We aren't doing school. But I have been struggling with a mystery chronic illness since last December, so now there are levels of sick each with its own procedure. Blinding pain, cannot leave my darkened bedroom- Chaos rules, lol. If the big(ger) boys can keep the littler happy and quiet than that was a successful day. I call it life-skills and move on.Not functioning all that well, but getting around- I asses my state honestly, and then prioritize. How much CAN I do? Whats MOST NEEDS to be done; chore-wise, school-wise, life-wise? Sometimes school loses out and it's just overseeing that independent work gets done (math practice, writing something, reading something, listening to audio, ect), sometimes I can hit the most important subjects for the day. Sometimes I start strong and fade fast so I do try to go in the order of priority. Functioning ok, just not feeling well- I push through it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 When I am sick, I call my sub. Miss Frizzle takes my classes and the kids go on fantastic field trips with her. :) 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 I take the day off. We school year round, so I take off when it is needed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebbyribs Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 I haven't been sick beyond a bad cold while homeschooling (fingers crossed that trend continues!), so we have a light day and skip (or push back) some of the more teacher-intensive things. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
displace Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 When I am sick, I call my sub. Miss Frizzle takes my classes and the kids go on fantastic field trips with her. :) That was so funny! DS has seen all the magic school bus episodes! I tried to sell popular mechanics but an audiobook won out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
displace Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 My problem is my own grumpiness and inability to have patience that's the biggest problem when I'm unwell. Thankfully preschooler slept and I did math and reading and a little read aloud with DS. Then I quit. We still have to go to swimming so I'm going to pick up take out. I'll quiz some spelling while we drive too (maybe). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 If the kid is old enough where missing days makes a difference (ie, high school), they're old enough to work on their own without mom. If they're not old enough to do that, an occasional day off for mom's sickness isn't going to hurt them in the least. I rarely get sick enough to need to call a sick day. Obviously chronic illness is different. At that point, you have to figure out some way to educate your kids. I had a complicated pregnancy this year. We had a lot if partial days. We didn't do a million subjects. We are not the poster children for classical education this year. That said, my kids have still progressed in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Since this was a long term issue, I stripped our subjects down and used less teacher intensive curricula. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 When I'm sick: My oldest does her work on her own. Next two do their independent subjects as best they can. The youngest two get the day off. I've been known to do the public-school-substitute trick & hand over movies for them to watch (Liberty Kids, Carmen Sandiego). I usually wait until the afternoon so eldest gets a chance to get some work done. (I'm all tylenoled up today so that I'm not in bed shivering with a fever. Kids are all recovering from the same thing, so they had limited school today.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 I'm the persevering type so I tend to take a short break, regroup and then plod on. Even if we are working at a snail's pace, we are still getting something accomplished. This morning I had a migraine right as I was looking at math with ds12 so I took a break, he did something else, and when we returned to school, I put in a DVD that was slotted for viewing this week on WW1. My older two can be mostly independent, if needed, so this helps. I have no toddlers to wrangle. That would change things. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 I have never taken a day off for being sick, however, we have worked a VERY modified schedule. When my kids were younger, they would bring all their books in on my bed and they'd read to me and if I was up to it I'd read to them. We did MUS back then, so we could usually still get math done (DVD drive on the tv in my room). Science might get done if it was reading, but if it needed activity, it might get skipped. I had a year with some fairly severe chronic health issues. If we didn't do school every time I couldn't get out of bed for the day, I would have had to send the kids to ps. We did everything planned for the year, but we did rearrange the schedule to make it possible. If I was rarely sick, I might just take the day off. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 :grouphug: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 today I asked my kiddos to do what they could on their own, then to do their "computer work" (duolingo, xtramath and typing web), then I asked DS to research a famous building and build it in minecraft, and gave DD a list of castle features and asked her to build be a castle with those features labelled (also in minecraft). Then I made my way through three boxes of tissues and a fair amount of paracetemol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckens Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Philosophy: Sometimes half a loaf of bread is better than no loaf at all.1) What things can my child(ren) do independently?--Piano: Send dd to practice independently for 20 minutes, rather than the usual 30-with-instruction. I don't even care what she plays, as long as her hands are touching the piano keys.--The math facts sheets in the math lesson. --Writing with no expectations of spelling or grammar. We can fix those on another day.--General workbook pages (Explode the Code, Test Prep Practice, etc). 2) Science Documentaries, until I feel so sick that I give in and let them watch whatever they want while I lock the door and go lay down. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 I powered through yesterday but now I feel worse :( All our discussions did me in. Dd will need to do her work totally independently, and we'll just return later to discuss the finer points (PreCalc, chem, ancient history, urbanization in AP Human Geography). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 I'm sick. Bronchitis I feel like garbage. But, my kids need structure or they fight all day, so we push through. I make a detailed schedule on the white board, give kids worksheets when I can, cut out subjects that are too teacher intensive (like Greek) and the rest, do from my bed. Yesterday I laid in bed all day, the kids came to me with their stack of books, we went through what we needed to do and off they went. It worked out all right. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2ndGenHomeschooler Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 We just take the day(s) off. We school year round though and only deal with the "normal" winter illnesses. If we stuck to a typical school schedule and/or were dealing with chronic health issues it might be different. During the past 2 months we've had the cold/cough/fever thing and the stomach bug thing. And boy, did we stretch them out! We had both going through the house at the same time but only one or two of us sick at a time for 6+ weeks. We did no school on the fever/puking days and limited school on the less sick/recovery days. We usually stick with a few minutes of math and some reading. We also watch more educational TV on light days - How The States Got Their Shapes, Brain Games, Liberty's Kids, Curious George, CyberChase, Magic School Bus, as well as a variety of nature and survival type shows are all enjoyed on sick days around here. We are finally all healthy again and back to our full schedule this week - minus the extracurricular stuff since my van is in the shop for the second time in 2 weeks. If it's not one thing it's another.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto4inSoCal Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Generally I plow through. I have lesson plans I try to stick to and I don't like to get behind. We will skip things like cursive, reading, xtramath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 When my kids were sick, we used to just do stuff that could keep them busy and educate them without me getting off the couch. Free play is not a good idea because I would fall asleep and find them tearing up the house. Some things we used to do were: read aloud them read aloud documentaries (educational stuff like Nova, BBC Nature, Reading Rainbow DVDs if we had them on hand. etc.) Let them play outside for a little while, when I had to be up and about anyway. (if you have your own yard) Water Color paints Now, if I was not sick enough to feel like I need to rest at all (a very mild cold) I would do all school stuff, because I knew the kids either had been sick or would be sick and would need several days of rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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