Sick Days

Laura woke up yesterday morning with a fever and the symptoms of the same cold that has been running through our house.  I gave her some medicine, had her take a shower, and then let her go back to bed.  An hour later she came to me and wanted to do some schoolwork.  She ended up doing a full day, and felt much better by lunch.  However, I wasn't sure we would get anything accomplished in the morning.

There will be sick days.  Unlike the public school, I can't just call her off but have the day count.  If Laura misses school one day, we have an entire day to make up to be in compliance with state law.  If she's sick, I don't mind.  She never has homework or make up work.  An extra day or more is usually easily made up in the winter when the public schools have snow days.  I even skipped half of Spring Break one year because we missed a bunch of days when I had surgery. 

Life happens and with it are the unexpected challenges and surprises.  With homeschooling, I've learned to be a bit flexible.  I have goals set for what we will accomplish, but if we don't meet them on a given day or even a week I don't stress.  Usually we are ahead of our goals, and that gives me some playing room.  Even the goals I set are often just a little ahead of the slowest progress we could make to finish all the work in a school year.  Yet, I've also learned not to overload Laura or myself.  We keep a steady pace, not rushing and not moving in stops and starts.

Unfortunately, in our home, as in most I assume, when an illness starts in one child it often travels to the others.  This time the cold began in my oldest and traveled to each child and both parents.  It is a quick cold that comes on strong but fades within a couple days.  Today, Laura has gotten up and is feeling good.