10 Ideas for School When Mom is Sick

When you have kids and they see other kids (or leave the house at all...) getting sick is just part of life! And one of the blessings in the midst of a season of sick kids is the extra snuggles and stillness that comes with sniffles (amiright?!). But what happens when MOM gets sick?!

Some cold is blowing through our house, and I have never been more grateful for Amazon, curb pickup for groceries at Smiths, and my mom's homemade stew! While we're staying away from people and trying to avoid sharing with anyone else, I also want to salvage some of these school days--but my energy level is ZERO. And while some days are just a bust for school--and that's ok; we need to rest and heal!--some days we can adopt an adjusted, gentle-learning style for a few days, and it can end up being a very restful but enriching little season in the midst of a a busy school year. So, without further ado...

10 ideas for Homeschool when Mom is sick:

1. Documentaries and Short Informational Shows. My kids have enjoyed documentaries on things ranging from WWII to Maple-Syrup-Making to Animals. Youtube, Disney+ and other streaming services have a ton of titles and options, and depending on your topic of choice, you can look at NASA, the Smithsonian Institute, or National Geographic. We especially like some of the resources from Answers in Genesis. I like to look for something connected to what we were already studying (usually in science, history, or social studies, but sometimes in literature). I do find it is helpful to stay engaged enough to answer questions or address worldview issues that arise, but I can do that in my big rocking chair with a blanket and a box of tissues...

2. Educational Shows or movies. Depending on the ages of your kids, there's many shows (other than documentaries) that are helpful. Young kids can enjoy things like Puffin Rock, Octonauts, and Wild Kratts; slightly older kids might enjoy The Magic School Bus, Wishbone, or Schoolhouse Rock. We also enjoy some movies about historical figures or historical mythology that can open the door to more learning, such as Disney's 1955 Davy Crockett, or 1973 Robin Hood, or classics like The Sound of Music or Chariots of Fire.

3. Books, books, books. When my mom had migraines, she would have an ongoing list of history or literature books we could choose from and we'd basically spend a whole day reading, while she was out of commission. (We also had to do reviews, abstracts, reports, or outlines of what we read, but then, my mom was a journalist...) There is ALWAYS a good book to supplement a topic; and taking a day off normal studies to dig in deeper is part of the joy of school at home! Even if your kids can't read yet, find a nice, photo-heavy nature book or something, have them pick ONE critter they like out of it, and have them draw the critter, copy out the name of the critter, find the place where the critter lives on a map...etc. We've also traced out countries and written down facts about it and illustrated animals that live there, cultural icons, etc. This can be an interactive treasure-hunt of information, with very little effort on sick mama's part! 

4. Puzzles and Games. There are a variety of games and puzzles to enhance various topics or improve skill sets! For a massive list of tips and tricks, check out My Little Poppies Gameschool blog, but for a short list of my favorites: Scrabble, Uno, War (with a regular deck of cards), Dominoes, Stratego, Clue, Monopoly, Memory, Battleship, and Apples to Apples. Some special games we've LOVED for specific studies include MMRY (for learning planets and moons),  The World Game (for geography and social studies), Pass the Pigs (for quick addition math skills practice).

5. Writing. Whether it's just learning to trace letters or answering a question, writing skills can be fairly hand's off for mom (until grading time). Giving an open-ended question with a required minimum answer can really expand their creative writing (for a list of writing prompts, click here).

6. Nature Study. I know I come back to this a lot, but seriously, when I'm sick, sometimes I really enjoy sitting out on the back porch and being in the sunshine...and the kids can run around finding bugs and lizards and plants and we can work on identifying and classifying them, drawing them, or just noticing things about them by asking questions; habitat, seasonal prominence, predators, prey, etc. Sometimes we bring out magnifying glasses or binoculars to look at things differently. When you're sick is a good time for them to be free to follow their interests a little!

7. Workbooks. We don't use a lot of workbooks because I find them incredibly boring, personally. Therefore, my kids find them absolutely fascinating because they're so rare. So I do have a stash of workbooks for when we're on the road or when I don't feel good that I can pull out and they basically review or practice various skills in math, grammar, and reading comprehension. These can be found at dollar stores, or grocery stores and they're just handy to keep on hand. 

8. Play Doh. Depending on what we're studying, there is no end to the uses of play doh--it can be art, it can be math, it can be characters from a story, it can be a map of a historical event...but more importantly, it can keep them thinking and busy while sick mama rests! I like to use play doh to see how much they retained from a story or history lesson. I have them use the play doh to tell me back the story (or tell a sibling) and I can tell if they got the salient points or totally missed it. 

9. Legos and building. Some families are Lego families and some are not. We are not. BUT, we do have a few sets that I pull out for STEM every so often, and it's a great skill set for the kids to expand and learn. An auntie gave us a robot-lego to build and we've slowly been working on it for a few weeks--I love seeing the expanded ability of my kids to sort and carefully organize all the little parts; to follow directions carefully; to recognize patterns and anticipate problems, and so much more. Normal blocks can work too--just lay some ground rules or plans and let them go crazy!

10. Art. From crayons to colored pencils to watercolors to collages...the possibilities are endless. We've done super-simple artist studies where we watched a Baby Einstein about Monet (for my littlest), then looked at some samples of his work (for my older two), then I gave them some watercolors and paper and they went to work to create their own impressionist paintings. Everybody could do this at their own level, and all I had to do was put out a disposable plastic tablecloth to make cleanup easy for myself. 

So those are my top ten ideas for slower/sick days for home school! Any of you mamas out there have other tips for salvaging school when the teacher isn't at her best?

The original version of this article appeared on the Homeschool Corner of cbcwm.blogspot.com.