Taking Advantage of the Schedule

Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2016



Patrick Bailey


This is our first year of homeschooling and it has been a challenge and rewarding as far as educational matters go.  But I wanted to go over taking advantage of some of the freedoms homeschooling has offered us with the schedule.






Major Surgery


My wife went through a major open heart surgery just a few weeks ago.  Homeschooling let us push pause on education for two weeks while my wife recovered.   I was going to start doing some teaching, in fact we had planned on that and my wife had prepared three weeks of lesson plans for me to teach.  But, it turned out she needed a little more tender care from me so I spent more time in the hospital with her nursing her while family watched our kids.

Once she was feeling better she started back into teaching at about ½ pace for a week.  (She even fell asleep a few times while teaching) 
A week later she was back up to a full pace and with them and catching up on work.

If we were in the public school system we would still be playing catch up with our kids and their missed assignments with their teachers.  Adding undue stress on an already stressful time. 

It sounds counter-intuitive, but homeschooling and open heart surgery are easier than public schooling and open heart surgery.  Mostly because we have the power as homeschoolers to press pause.




Vacations


We are currently on our first vacation of the year wahoo!  My mother-in-law has been gracious enough to take us up to a lodge in Breckinridge CO.  I know, I know it’s not ski season we did not really come up for that.   We came up to relax for the week and soak in the hot tub and enjoy some nature.





We are having a great time.   And guess what?  We are doing it, at what is for most, a school/work period (the week before thanksgiving).  So the prices are cheaper and we have the run of the place almost to ourselves. 


 I am working remote the entire week so no downtime for me.  (If it were ski season I would probably have taken at least a few days off)  I am putting in my time everyday and in the evening I am enjoying a dip in the heated pool and eating out.

Now we could have pushed pause again on our kids’ education for the week.  But why?  We did not teach on Monday since their cousins where here so they could all enjoy the day together.   But for the rest of the week we are teaching.



It’s a light schedule but still they are up here doing their work every morning then by noon they can head off and have fun (me I am still working… but at least the rest of the crew is enjoying)

We could have taken advantage of the area and put some school work in about the mountains or high altitude… we did not this time around… give us a year J

But I did notice one thing I am going to teach the kids today or tomorrow.   While we were in the elevator my son noticed the company name on it Otis.  He asked what that meant I started into explaining it but he was too excited about the pool.  I am going to teach them about Elisha Otis inventor of the safety elevator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Elevator_Company [1]


Conclusion


Take advantage of the homeschooling freedom to schedule your classes and the freedom to run your classes anywhere at anytime! 

·      Go to Disneyworld on the off season while everyone else is in school!  
·      Ski in the middle of the week not the weekends!
·      Teach while on vacation!




References



[1]       Otis Elevator Wikipedia page
Accessed 11/2016


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