Morning sickness, a sudden relocation or an unexpected illness can turn your home, and your homeschooling, upside down. In theory, you have your school year mapped out. The curriculum, lessons and field trips are, for the most part, in order . Then, life happens. Even if you have given yourself some wiggle room in terms of allowing for days off, there are seasons when a big, unexpected event can happen.
What do you do when this happens?
Don’t panic.
What you do next can deeply affect your child’s life, and not necessarily for the bad!
…all things work together for good to them that love God…
Romans 8:28
Believe it or not, good can result from our difficulties. Our child can grow and develop in character from these experiences. Things might not go according to plan but all things will work together for good if we love God.
What does it mean to love God? Well, the opposite of love is hate. Difficult circumstances can cause us to become bitter, frustrated, angry and yes, even hateful at times. We never intend for this to happen, we never want our hearts to go that direction. When we allow these emotions to consume us, then it is easy to question God and why he is allowing this difficulty to happen to us.
Instead of allowing these emotions to fester and infiltrate our children’s lives, even if subtly, we can still give thanks to God. We can thank him for the opportunity to teach our children how to handle the hard things of life. We can thank him that they will grow up knowing that life isn’t a string of perfect events, just perfect opportunities for God to work powerfully in our lives.
Once you’ve set things right with God and are okay with the situation at hand, be prayerful and realistic about your goals. You might have to change some things up a little bit or a while and that is perfectly fine. Remember, your children will learn to become flexible through this and not to be so regimented. They will learn to go with the flow and expect the unexpected.
A few years ago I hit my head and had a slight concussion. Somehow, this messed some things up causing difficulties that were caused from a minor car accident that I was in several year earlier. This was, and still is at times, a trial for us. For days I was unable to speak intelligible words. I could think and communicate through writing but that can become tiresome. I was unable to drive for over a year and stuttered often when I would speak. Needless to say, homeschooling was difficult. I certainly wasn’t ready to give up quite yet but I did change some things.
At this point, I went to the internet. I found some excellent sites that could help teach math (CTC Math), science (Science4Us), history (Veritas Press), and piano (Hoffman Academy). I was still able to be at home with my children and teach them but I used these resources at times when things got tough. What a lifesaver!
If you are faced with a hard time, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Maybe a friend or family member can help tutor, maybe you could use internet resources or maybe there are local homeschool classes that your children can be a part of. Remember, this is only a season and you will get through it!
