Homeschooling and Illness

Ah, yes, winter time so often brings with it illness.

Me, I'm so far doing okay *knockonwood*, but I have some glands that are definitely swollen and painful and I've been needing more sleep than usual. And I've been really, really enjoying orange juice!

My 17-year old, on the other hand, is on day 5 of being feverish and just feeling crummy. She put on a movie, I sat on the sofa with her while I watched the movie and took care of some things on my laptop and she ended up laying down with her head on my lap. That was well over an hour ago. My son had done his guitar practice before lunch, I let him play on the computer a while, then the plan was to have him get off and then we would work on some other things together. But this child of mine--even though she's 17--is asleep on me. And I don't want to disturb her. So, while my son isn't sick, illness in the house is affecting both kids' school progress.

Has illness affected your homeschooling household so far this winter? And did you get the flu shot? Has it helped, did you get sick anyhow or have you been worse than usual?

Another Sick Day

Okay, instead of letting myself moan and groan about how we're not getting anything done, let me find some positives about having yet another sick day (both kids are feeling worse than yesterday! :( ).

• I can do more things that I want to do (like do blog posts, post in Yahoo Groups, surf the web, BBM chat, sit and do nothing, make banana bread...)
  
• they can just relax and hopefully get better quicker
  
• I'll be able to take a nap and not feel guilty about not being fully present to work with them/guide them
  
• I can get some things done around the house before the weekend: vacuum, laundry, other cleaning
  
• I might go do the groceries this afternoon rather than try to do it tomorrow when it'll be crazy
   
• things are very calm and quiet

Well, I suppose I should try to make something of the day. Almost 11 am here and if I want to get some more of the above done, I'll have to get myself moving!

You Know Your Child Is Sick When...

My 12yo son's usual morning routine is to get up, come downstairs (usually in pyjamas) with a comic book (lately the For Better or for Worse comics), get himself cereal or some other breakfast and sit at the kitchen table, eating while he reads. With Lent, he decided to give up comic books during the day (evening is okay), so he's been coming to the table with different science-related books, which has been lovely to see because it has led him to doing more of the kind of research he used to do on his own.

Today, that didn't happen.

I came downstairs and he was curled up in a blanket on the sofa. That sometimes happens when he's feeling tired and he'll curl up and read a book. There wasn't a book this time. Uh oh. Not a good sign.

Upon being asked how he was, he told me he wasn't feeling well and his head hurt. I noticed then that he'd taken the frozen magic bag out and had been using it on his head. Poor kid. My husband, who hadn't yet left for work, joked that he (12yo) should stay home from school today. No smile showed up on my son's face. Yikes. Another sure sign he's not feeling well.

Absolute clincher that he wasn't just exaggerating things was, after having watched some TeletoonRetro for a while, that he asked if he could watch some videos on the laptop. This is something he can do, and has done, for hours at a time. He set himself up in front of the TV, but it didn't last long. Within half an hour, he was back on the other chair, wrapped in a blanket, laying down watching the TV. He hasn't gone back to the laptop. Wow. He's also not hungry and not very thirsty. He was even told he could have a Gatorade to make sure he's getting some good fluids an electrolytes; he's barely touched it.

How do you know when your child is truly sick?

Our Tuesday... So Far

It's been an "interesting" day today. And it's only 12:04 pm as I start typing this.

First, I "slept in" until just after 5:30 am. I normally wake up sometime between 4 and 5, move down to the couch and try to fall back asleep. (My husband's alarm goes off at 6 am and I am often able to sleep past that--if I don't have the alarm waking me up.) But I finally got out of bed close to 6 and realized I probably wasn't going to go back to sleep. I did some things on the computer instead.

My son, who has been awake before 8 for days now, showed no signs of being alive until after 8:30. My daughter, who thought she had her alarm set for 8:15, but wasn't feeling great yesterday so I didn't wake her up when it turned out her alarm wasn't on, didn't get up until after 9, I think it was.

Before she was ready, my son and I tackled the first activity in the TOPS chemistry unit we are doing:

Our coffee filter wasn't quite the type of filter they had wanted us to use, apparently, because the jar on the right was supposed to have clear water, but it still did a decent job since you can tell the iodine made the other jar's solution a much deeper purple.

When my daughter was finally ready, she actually said she was feeling great. Finally had a decent night's sleep. That didn't last long. We didn't have what she wanted for breakfast but needed to go to the nearby Service Canada--in a mall where Safeway is--so she decided to wait on breakfast and we headed to Service Canada. 1.5-hour wait, we're told. Oh. It was already after 10 am at this point. We sat down and she started complaining about pressure behind her eyes. I thought it must be sinuses. I go buy her a bottle of water and a package of Pop Tarts. After a couple of minutes, she has a blind spot. Shoot. Sign of a migraine. She's had one before. A little later, pressure was gone from her eye and the blind spot was gone. But her forehead was hurting. By the time we actually got into see someone, she was really not feeling well. We skipped Safeway and went straight home, but she ended up vomiting in the van. Including on her black suede boots.

She's now resting on the sofa, perhaps even sleeping, with HGTV on in the background, a large bowl ready just in case and her cat keeping her company.

We were doing not too badly at trying to get her math course done before the end of January. I'm keeping my fingers crossed she'll still manage!