As many of you know, I homeschool our five children. I generally don't talk about it much because I feel that it has just as many if not more misconceptions than diabetes. Both diabetes and homeschooling are topics that take a long time to explain to people. Some people get it, some don't, some never will. Today I decided a little glimpse into our homeschool life may be good.
I think it's interesting that we hear from a lot of people: "Oh, you are so lucky you are homeschooling. You would not want to deal with the schools while trying to manage J.J.'s diabetes." While I agree to some degree with that statement.....I can be thankful for not having to figure out how to teach the school personnel to care for J.J.....my life is not without it's difficulties.
Take for instance his diagnosis last December. WOW!! As a homeschool mom I have a pretty good schedule in place for subjects. It was established and in full swing by the time we found out J.J. had diabetes. But I still had to enforce it, and be on top of it, and manage it, and....and....and....all that while learning a new disease, and all the emotional and eventually from lack of sleep....physical challenges diabetes threw at me.
I don't know how we managed. The Lord was good and gracious to get us through the rest of the school year.
However, this year is not in place yet. I was trying to establish our schedule the day we found out he would start the pump a week later. I knew I would not be in any condition to start the school year. The kids are so resistant in the beginning. It's hard to re-establish the schedule.....attitudes are a big problem. So I knew with no sleep it would be virtually impossible to start a new schedule. I decided the beginning of October would have to be our "official start". Not a huge deal......
Yet, it is a huge deal. It's looming in the back of my head......yet, my body, my emotions scream........NO!!! STOP!!! I don't want to add that back in yet.....but I know I have to......
So.....today.....J.J. got his very first Math book!!! He was so excited. We sat outside and did 6 lessons!!! I couldn't believe how easy they were. He was getting bored, and I was getting worried that I should've placed him higher. But when he was done I peeked ahead and saw some things I know he needs to learn and decided to trudge through the easy stuff.
I'm almost finished completing the rest of the schedules.......that's a lot of my work right now. My sophomore takes good care of herself. At her age I expect her to "own" her education, which she does. I supply her with the materials, grade her work, and offer guidance....but she sets her own schedules. Usually they are much higher than my expectations. That is such a blessing to me.
So while it's not officially our first day of school, we've done a few things today to get our minds geared up. Hopefully we will be in full swing by October 1st. In reality we've been here before as we've added children to our family.....this time we're adding "diabetes". It's not easy but we manage.
"Where's my pencil, Mama?"
