For no particular reason, home schooling didn’t happen yesterday. We tried, but if it wasn’t this is was that. My son couldn’t find a suitable pencil, my daughter got interrupted a billion and one times by her little sisters. We all have them, those days when for whatever reason things just aren’t happening. There are no brilliant ‘a ha’ moments, no expressions of excitement at learning something new. . .there’s just nothing.
When I first “officially” started home schooling, when my daughter was six, and days like this were a dime a dozen. The twins were newborns and everyone else thought I was crazy for even attempting to home school my oldest daughter with a set of newborn twins underfoot (not to mention the middle two year old and four year old). I was told she’d be behind in reading. . .and math because that was simply too much for one mom to handle. I won’t lie–it was a very difficult year. Yet, my daughter blossomed and we all got the benefit of bonding together at home. But there were lots and lots of days where home schooling just didn’t happen.
So what do you do when you have a bad day? Since it was apparent to me that home schooling was a lost cause yesterday, we put the books away and cleaned the house. The kids got extra play time and we just enjoyed being together. I know lots of homeschoolers who panic at a bad day. After all, if one day was that bad–what if the next day is that bad too? Many new home schooling moms see themselves stuck in a perpetual nightmare of bad days where nothing gets done.
Bad days happen. It doesn’t mean that your home schooling efforts are in vain. It doesn’t mean that you’ve bombed in home schooling and back to public school the kids must go. Rather, you can look at it as an opportunity to improve.
Don’t get caught in the mindset that every day has to be filled with educational wonderment or you’ve failed. It’s simply not true. There will be bad days, okay days and then there are those phenomenal days. I have found that the longer I home school, I have more great days than not. You just have to keep on keeping on despite a bad day.