Homeschooling When You Are Sick All the Time

A challenging part of being a parent is having small children who get sick often. There are seasons in life where sickness abounds, and there are seasons where health is plentiful. When sickness is combined with laying aside other responsibilities, then it becomes even harder. For example, trying to homeschool with smaller sick children who have drippy noses and are fussy. That’s hard. What do you do in that situation? How do you go about homeschooling when you are sick all the time?

Changing My To-Do List

It’s okay to do less school with your older kids when everyone is hopping from one cold to the next. While the season of sickness can seem long, it does end. The world won’t fall apart if all your kids do for school is math and reading for a few weeks. What’s important to do change your priorities. When my kids are sick, instead of following my to-do list in my head, I need to change it. It should read, “Take care of sick children.” God gives me twenty-four hours in a day to do all that I am responsible for doing. He controls the circumstances of each day. If he gives me sick kids, then my manmade to-do list should fall by the wayside.

I tend to consider a day a good day if I got a lot of things done, but that’s not always the best way to evaluate a day. Not all work has visible results that merit praise from others. Some work is unseen, but that doesn’t make it less valuable. God sees the mom that leaves a task unfinished in order to nurse a sick baby or to clean up throw up. The task that a mom was in the middle of doing is not what needs to be accomplished at the moment a sick child needs her.

Good Works Prepared Beforehand

Ephesians 2:10 says, ” For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

All my good works that I will ever do are known and planned by God. Caring for sick children is work that pleases God and has been ordained by him– not matter how much throw up and snot is involved. When it seems like I am not accomplishing much, I have to remind myself that I am responsible for caring for my children, and I need to respond correctly to each circumstance that comes my way (as best I can!). My house might be a mess, but if all I did was care for sick kids, then I did what I suppose to do for that day. There’s joy in knowing that you’re in the right place and doing the right thing, even if part of the experience is unpleasant (throw up, snot, crabbiness).

One day I felt like I got nearly nothing done that I had set out to do, but I did take care of everyone, made three meals, read to my kids, changed diapers, folded laundry, picked up our groceries, and finally put everyone to bed. It didn’t seem like much at the time, especially when considering that I set out to do more, but we made it through the day and everyone was cared for. So, it was a good day. As for school work…well, homeschooling when you’re sick means less school work, or no school work.

Short Activities

What’s frustrating about a cold is that you’re not that sick, but you’re still sick enough you don’t want to do a whole lot. Homeschooling when you’re sick can be hard because mom probably had school plans all ready to go. Also, everything gets thrown off because you can’t see anyone or go anywhere. If you’re stuck in a cold rut, then try doing short activities to help feel like you’re doing something different.

• Read alouds (I do those all the time, but they work great when kids are sick. They need the snuggles on the couch)
• Painting (we painted some clay snakes from a project from last week)
• Did errands that did not require anyone to go into a store 
• Popsicles outside (Why get my dining room floor messy? We go outside)
• Super short walks
• Find toys that haven’t played with for a while
• coloring books

Early Bedtime and Expectations

It’s exhausting being sick. Usually, younger kids tend to be crabbier in the evenings if they are sick. Early bedtime it is! An extra half hour or so of sleep is helpful for them. It’s also nice for parents to have some extra time for themselves after a day of caring for sick kids.

Having sick kids means adjusting expectations may be necessary. It can be hard to decide what to do when a child is acting up more than usual when they are feeling sick. I show them a bit more grace when they aren’t feeling great. Afterwards, we buckle up and reset the standard. 

Quiet Activities

Doing quiet, calming activities help a lot. TV is great too, but you probably don’t want to let the TV be on all day. It’s hard to strike a balance, but what might work is separating kids and doing something quiet. Then come back together for a read aloud, and then separate or play nicely together. Here are some quiet activities.

• A board game 
• Drawing pad
• Cars
• Audiobooks
• coloring
• doll house
• magnetic tiles
• picasso blocks

Basic Things

There are some basic things that are important to focus on when caring for sick kids. Have they been drinking water? Did they eat a nutritious meal? If not, that can explain why they are very crabby even with a cold. Did they go outside? Playing outside and getting sunshine is good even if you’re not feeling 100%.

Last Thoughts

Getting a cold is part of life. When it comes to homeschooling when you are sick, taking a break is a good idea. Sometimes the smallest things, like caring for a sick kid, can be sanctifying. Mom keeps going and taking care of everyone, even if she is sick too. It’s a lot of sacrifice in some ways – feeding the baby in the middle when you’re exhausted, canceling plans, being home for days without seeing friends, managing the house instead of getting enough sleep.

I wrote a post on Common Place Quarterly a while ago about sick kids. Feel free to take a look.

https://commonplacequarterly.substack.com/p/uncommon-thoughts-about-the-common

Carly from DesertHomeschoolDays.com