How to Handle the Chaotic Homeschool Day!

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On second thought, this post should be called how water can rearrange your homeschool morning.

On third thought, maybe it should be the importance of having a relaxed homeschool schedule- har har har.

This “lesson” was a two part series for me. Hopefully this post will give you some wisdom, and a good laugh as well :-).

One morning I got up and had this “brilliant” idea. I thought “today, I’m going to put all activities on a time block schedule”. (Some times that ingrained rigid time block schedule that I’ve try to live by for so many years tries to takes over my brain.) I believe what sparked this idea was a devotional I’ve been reading that has all these schedule layouts in it to help you have a “perfectly organized day”. I felt so accomplished when I looked at my great master plan on how “smoothly” my day was going to go. So I decided I’d “plan” the next day as well! How awesome was that?!

As you can see, this day was “planned for success”. I even threw in a load of laundry first thing! As I was buzzing around enjoying my superbly organized day, my daughter yells, “Mom, there’s water all over the washroom floor!”. Thinking this must just be a water jug leak, I peered into the washroom to assess the situation.

I was horrified!

There was water alright. Lots of water. And the water was pouring out from the washer! ( Side note- I know you don’t start a sentence with “and” but it helps emphasize the chaotic happenings at that moment :-).

Then someone notified me that the water was pouring through the basement ceiling! I began to envision taking everything off the basement shelves, and the possible need for an extra rumpke garbage truck visit.

Ugh. I should have notified my washer of my plan for the day. Mph.

Let’s fast forward a bit- I cleaned up the water mess in both rooms, and haven’t tried to write out a perfect schedule since :-).

A week later, the outdoor temperature had dropped to 12 degrees!!!! If you have raised chickens, or have any outdoor pets, you know that you must change their water often because it quickly freezes in frigid temperatures.

My oldest son poked his head in the door and asked for hot water to unthaw the chicken waterer. I pass out a jug to him. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Typical chicken routine. He then pokes his head in again to announce the top of the waterer has a hole in it! No big deal, chickens drink from the bottom, so it won’t leak right?

Since I brought the water in the house for inspection and repair, I filled it up in the tub (which now I had a tub to clean also), and carried it out to the kitchen.

It slowly dawned on me as I stopped in the kitchen and stared at the floor:

Water was leaking all over the kitchen floor from the bottom of the container! Bye bye waterer!

My son tried to fix the situation but cutting a water a water jug in half to take up to the chickens for a temporary water solution. While he was cutting the jug, water drenched the counter and the other side of the kitchen floor because it had water in it!! (I forgot to drain it when I handed it to him. Duh moment.)

When we tried to move on to school, my mom called and said her hot water tank wasn’t working.

(Might I add on my way over to make sure everything was ok, I got a jury duty notification in the mail, and a piece of my van fell off in her driveway??!!)

On this particular day, school was canceled! We had a funeral viewing to attend later anyways.

As you can see, my homeschool day doesn’t always go as planned. Life happens right? (Which is why I don’t operate my day in the same fashion as the public school system!)

You too, sweet mama, will have days that you just have to shut the books, and say “let’s go to the park”, or “who wants to check out what’s living in the creek”, or “how about hiking the mountain?”. This is not opening the door to giving up on homeschooling, or marking the day as a big fat failure. Look at these days as a providential happening to redirect your attention to the point of homeschooling- making memories while learning together and fostering a love for learning. Remember, learning is more than worksheets, knowledge can not be fully measured by tests and quizzes (maybe 1/4 of knowledge can be!), and education isn’t bound by textbooks and curriculums.

One day, sweet mama, your kids will be sitting around the Thanksgiving table, reminiscing about their school days with their children. What do you think they will be talking about? More than likely, it will be these chaotic days that school was disrupted for a day to explore life through hands on adventures!

So, to wrap things up, here are a few lessons i learned from water….

1.) Always keep up on the maintenance on your washing machine. Or anything for that matter.

2.) Don’t have a schedule so rigid that one morning mishap puts you in emotional tizzy.

3.) When water freezes, it expands, and can cause plastic to crack (the most educational one right? Awe puts my mind at ease……!).

4.) Learn to laugh at life! Life it’s too short to be serious all the time!

5.) When your textbook learning hits a roadblock, look for opportunities to redeem the day!

I hope this made your day, and your 12 sets of ribs are aching from laughter. 🙂