Creative Homeschooling

While packing an entire house in 2 weeks is in full swing, making last minute appointments with familiar doctors and dentists; trying to squeeze in all those visits and playdates that should have been occurring all along, and wanting to see as much of Tennessee before we leave it, homeschooling is going to be very creative, to say the least!

Yesterday was no exception. While I love spontaneity, I would classify myself as a person who thrives in a scheduled oriented atmosphere. Homeschooling for our family pretty much has a routine. It gets changed up a lot. How can it not when there are younger siblings! But, when we're all in a groove, it's pretty routine around here.

So, what I'm about to tell you may occur in your homeschool everyday. And it probably occurs in our homeschool more than I recognize, but yesterday was an epiphany for me.

We just returned from a week long trip to buy a house in Texas. You all know how trips go. No one sleeps in their own bed. The long trip (13 hours) home trying to sleep upright. Well, we rolled into the driveway about 930pm on Sunday night. We had to be home by Monday morning for a series of dental appointments on Monday morning.

The kids woke up the same time they do every morning. I was in hopes that the long, tiring day would help them sleep later, but not a chance! They wanted to watch some TV, something we don't do on school days until all school is finished. I said my usual no and informed them all that it was a school day and we were getting back into our routine. Micah scans the playroom and tells me that the school table is a mess. I turned to look and saw boxes on top of the school table, and various school books everywhere on top. It was discouraging to see the table and realize we had to leave the house in an hour for dental appts. Okay, it wasn't going to be routine today! I wasn't even sure, at this point, that school was going to happen at all. But, I was not going to tell the kids that!

With only minor frenzies, we made it to our dental appointments on time with clean clothes on and brushed teeth (very important if going to the dentist is why you're leaving the house) :o). It was a new dentist for our family and to top it off it was Sarah's first time to the dentist. She was very familiar with our old dentist's office, but now she was going to be the patient and it was a new dentist on top of that. This little tidbit is not part of the story, but I added it for a little more drama!

We waited, and waited and waited for our names to be called. We were there for over an hour before they called any of our names. The funny thing is, we really didn't even notice how long it had been. This is why. Right when we got there, we found a magazine on the chair next to where we were sitting. It was the only magazine (or so I thought) in the waiting room. It was a Town and Country. If you aren't familiar with this magazine, it is very thick. It was a travel edition. Sarah and I proceeded to look at the magazine from front to back, looking at each page carefully. I would ask her questions about what was on each page. After about 15 minutes or so, both boys (Isaac stayed home with daddy) started to get interested in what we were doing and wanting to contribute their observations and answers. Then I started to notice the people around us in the waiting room. I could here a few giggles from some of the teens that were listening to our conversation when one of the kids would make a comment about something on the page. We continued to look through each page and talking about where this or that was located, where do you think such and such is, would you want to go there. You get the idea. I continued to occasionally look up or around and noticed that we had become the center of attention in that entire waiting room. It was a long, somewhat narrow waiting room with about 10 people or so. Mostly younger teenagers with a parent here and there. These people had obvious facial expressions that told me there utter amazement at all the things my children were discussing and answering. I even heard one girl say to her friend when Micah answered what continent a certain country was located, "I didn't know where that was."

It finally came time for the 2 boys to go back for their appts. Sarah and I found the magazine rack which we did not see at first and looked through several more magazines before her turn finally came.

I don't know about you, but it really made me feel good to observe people observing us. I feel as if we may have positively affected some of those people in that waiting room. Maybe those parents will go home and read more with their kids. Maybe it will inspire some of those teens to want to learn more in school. I don't know! I do know one thing. I left the house thinking that the school day was already shot! But when I returned home, we had already had a full day of school! All from just a few magazines in a waiting room.

Now THAT'S the beauty of homeschooling!

BTW, Sarah did fantastic at her first dental appt.! A few gags trying to get the film in her mouth to take mouth pictures. But she didn't panic and was very brave. She had her teeth poked, polished and shined! And no cavities! Yeah! Both boys had a "no cavity" day also!