Working with a Very Ill Student

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            Below is the follow-up of the question from last week regarding homeschooling a very sick child.  We know that this can be a very difficult time for families.  If you have a sick child and need more help figuring out how to do school during an illness, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Q: What if my student is really sick and we can’t complete 180 days in a calendar year? 

A:     When a public school student is really sick, the school puts the student on home bound instruction.  A teacher comes out a couple of times a week and works with the student and the workload is greatly reduced.

We are not the public schools and cannot do the same thing, but we can work within our law to care for our student and still meet the requirements.  How this works depends of course on what is wrong with the student and if they have a chronic or progressive disease or if they have suffered an injury and need time to heal while still remaining within the law. 

Sometimes, the family can work with the doctors to provide documentation and doctors’ orders as to what the student is allowed to do.  We know a student who suffered a traumatic brain injury that required suspending school for a period of time.  The family needed to figure out how to continue doing what the law required while mostly taking time off to recover.   The doctor ordered no testing and several other specific things for the student.  We provided some suggestions for how to fit school in around the recovery time. 

Another student was in a car accident which required multiple surgeries during the recovery time.  That family essentially home schooled year round in order to take off the needed time for each surgery and recovery.

By law homeschoolers are required to teach each of the five subject areas within the 180 day school calendar.  But within those parameters we have a great amount of freedom to tailor our school to our student’s needs.  There are no restrictions or guidelines as to when to teach those subjects or how often they have to be taught during the year.

For families with a sick child, this means that subjects that require a student to sit at a table and work like math or handwriting can wait until the student is physically able to do that work - as long as you do some of each subject during the year.  You may spend many days or weeks focusing on subjects that can be read quietly while resting, and other days, when your student is feeling better working entirely on math or other more difficult subjects.

We encourage you to allow your student to heal and recover as much as possible.  Meanwhile, there are some subjects which can be done more easily with a sick student.  If the student is able to read in bed, subjects like Reading or Literature, Science and History can be covered on a regular basis. 

                We have known some students with brain or eye injuries who were not able to read for prolonged periods without getting severe headaches.  In these cases reading material aloud might be a good solution.  In fact many subjects can be done orally if a parent acts as a “scribe” for the student, including composition and math.  Not only does this help accomplish the necessary school days, but it might help develop better listening and thinking skills in your student.

Of course the solution and the extent to which you are able to cover certain subjects will be different for each family depending on the circumstances.  These are just a few suggestions to get you started thinking of  ways to fit school in around a prolonged illness.

For families with very sick children one of the major concerns is that the student might fall behind.  While we do encourage you to do what school work your student is able to accomplish, we would also encourage you not to worry about falling behind.  One of the great freedoms of homeschooling is that there is no exact standard for where the student should be academically.  You may need to lower your expectations for what the student will be able to accomplish during the school year.  You may also find that after the student recovers you are able to pick up the pace again and make up for lost time.

The concern about falling behind is doubled for high school students because they are trying to earn credits in order to graduate.  While the standard for a credit earned remains the same, 150 hours of study, your student may need to spread those hours over more time.  For example, it may take two years to complete one credit in Algebra 1.  If your student is severely ill, you may need to add a year or two to high school so that you can work together at a slower pace.

The bottom line is this: if your student is sick, take the time needed to recover.  When possible do some school work; seek creative solutions for putting school into the day, but expect to work at a slower pace.

180 Days

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Most of us are finishing up the school year.  Some of us (well, me) are counting down the days to go until we have finished our 180 days and can take a long (and much deserved!) break.  We do get a number of questions throughout the year regarding the requirement to school for 180 days and exactly what that entails.  Here are the answers to some of them.

Q: Do we have to do school for a certain number of hours each day?  Unless you are registered with your school district, the answer is no.  You are free to set the length of the school day.  So a child in early elementary may very well only take an hour or two to complete each day’s assignments. 

Q: How many days of school does my high schooler need to do to receive a credit in one subject?  High school credits are based on the number of hours worked and subject matter completed, not the number of days completed.  Each credit requires 150 hours of time spent on that subject (spread between lecture, research, study and other assignments).  To complete on credit in 180 days, the student would need to spend 45 minutes on the subject each day.  Keep in mind though that different students take longer to grasp the material.  If a student takes twice as long to grasp Algebra 1, it is still only one credit.

Q: Do we have to cover each of the required subjects in order to call it a school day?  The law requires you to teach certain subjects (Reading, Writing, Math, Science and Social Studies, and in 7^th grade and above Literature and Composition).  When and how you teach them are up to you.  I teach most subjects each day – our curriculum is laid out that way and it seems to work pretty well for us.  My mom used to switch off science and social studies so that we had a little more time for science experiments and map studies that we might have if she was trying to cover both subjects each day.  So plan your days so they work best for your family, but make sure you document that you did teach each subject. 

Q: Do we get any sick days?  The law requires 180 days and we do have to complete them.  If you have one child sick while everyone else is working and you later work in the missed work into the school days to ‘catch up, you can leave your lesson plans showing the work as you made it up.  If everyone is out with the flu, you just have to put those days in elsewhere.  Doing Math review once a week during the summer is a good idea to keep those math skills sharp.  Add reading a novel to that day and it will also give you 10-12 ‘make-up’ days for any sick days you missed.

Q: What if my student is really sick and we can’t complete 180 days in a calendar year?  It is possible to do home schooling with a student who is really sick.  The details of how that works is complex and too long for this post.  I will post a more detailed answer to that question later this week.

Q: 180 days, are you kidding me?  How can I keep my kindergartener busy that long?  Your child may be so eager to learn that you breeze through all the books and workbooks in half a year.  If you have an eager learner, consider moving on to the next grade level even if you are in the middle of the year.  The freedom to move at the child’s pace is one of the great things about homeschooling.  If you don’t want to start on next year’s books, find other educational things to do with the rest of your time.  Try some science experiments, or take some field trips.  Even if you don’t use Sonlight, I highly recommend checking out their book lists for each year.  Most of the books can be used apart from the curriculum, and many of the titles are available at the library.  Their website has a list of readers, history books, science books and read-alouds for each grade level.  Mix and match, pick and choose as needed!

Some (Belated) Thoughts on Motherhood

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   I know Mother’s Day has passed – I meant to get this out last week, but it didn’t happen.  Still, I’d like to throw in my two cents and say something about motherhood in general and motherhood as a homeschool mom in particular.  As I’ve spent the last couple of weeks thinking about what I wanted to say, and watching my kids play, I’ve decided on this:

  One of my favorite things about being a mom, and particularly a homeschool mom, is that I get to teach my kids, and then see how my teaching influences their lives.  This ranges from the mundane – “Hey Mom, I just figured out, four plus two is six!” to the slightly embarrasing - “Hey Mom, I’m your slave!  Tell me what to buy.”  Which happened in the middle of Walmart, and I was not able to explain to the world in general that we were learning about slaves in Ancient Egypt and had yet to get to the American Civil War and its implications for our own times. 

  Generally if I think about it I can tell where an off the wall comment or question is coming from.  My five year old and I had a very serious conversation the other day about whether or not pirates will be in heaven.  But I could trace his logic from our discussions about sin and the need for a Saviour to his thoughts about pirates; after all pirates are sinners right? 

  And those are the times that the little daily struggles over addition and subtration and identifying past particples are worth the trouble.  Those are the times that I can tell, no matter how much they are wiggling or appear to be daydreaming while I’m teaching; at least some of what I’m saying gets through to them.  And when I can see my children growing and learning, I know that all the time and energy I put into homeschooling pays off.

  And by sharing these little anecdotes, I know I’m not the only one with these kind of stories.  Every mom has had similar experiences.  So in honor of Mother’s Day, or maybe just because every mom needs to hear this sometimes, watch your kids – and see how you are influencing their lives.  You are doing good work.