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HOMESCHOOLING DURING A MOVE

A month ago, I pictured myself happily packing boxes while my three big kids sat nearby working on their math lessons while the baby ate snacks and watched Baby Einstein–the most laid back of moves, because God knows we’ve been waiting for the end of limbo for long enough to plan this stuff.  You and I both know my days are looking nothing like this.  The reality of this situation is the kids are taking full advantage of my busyness, quietly skirting away before I tell them to go get their journals while I cuss out the so-called professional grade tape dispenser.  The house is a disaster, save for the living room, which is impeccably clean and freshly rearranged, because obviously it had to be done and because obviously I have deeply rooted issues.  When I’m not packing boxes with one hand on my sore back, you can find me at my computer, escaping reality, shopping for the perfect winter shoes and sweaters for my kids who are about to be shocked back into Midwest winters.  I will scribble down Order Sophia winter clogs from Hannah Andersson and promptly cross it off because I feel better about things when the list is getting crossed off.  Pack school room will get crossed out soon, swear.  But math? Now that’s another story.  This post could also be called: Renaming Things as “Educational” to Make Yourself Feel Better About Not Doing School For a Month.  Yes, let’s go with that one instead.

Homeschooling During a Move

Nothing is normal.  Your house is half-packed and half not.  Where are the flashlights?!  No one knows.  Throw in a husband across the country and a time change and a baby that can scale anything solid and you’ve got yourself a recipe for Merlot daily at 3pm.  #kidding #sorta 

I really knew it would come to this.  Moving is always insane.  We crafted an Asheville Bucket List of things we wanted to revisit before we moved.  We’ve been filling our days with those things and packing.  On the days we don’t have a field trip planned, I have my kids do a super scaled down day of school:

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  •  a math lesson because they can mostly do them on their own with just a little instruction from me
  • a journal entry (or their language arts as they think they are doing)
  • a whole lotta Magic School Bus and Wild Krats on Netflix

This is all.  We’re chalking up our day at the Biltmore Estate yesterday as a learning field trip and reading the packing list as phonics and writing the contents on boxes as spelling.  So when you put it that way, we’re still doing a full day of school, right? Don’t answer that.

Moral of the story is this: there are crazy seasons.  I’m not going to beat myself up about getting behind in our math books or my history syllabus.  When we’re soon settled again, we’ll get back in the swing.  The pendulum will swing back and all will be the normal dose of crazy-hectic, not the super sonic dose that we’re currently drinking.

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If you’re homeschooling during a move…I salute you.  Carry on, brave ones.

4 Comments

  1. Merlot at 3!! Dying!! Because it's so true- we are moving and my plans have all fizzled. Surviving is my mantra right now. Thanks for the affirmation that sometimes life gets crazy, and homeschool is nothing if not flexible! I wish you luck!

  2. yes!!!
    so far, i've homeschooled during a move, during my mom's illness/death, during a *terrible* over-the-road semi job that hubby had for six months, during a babysitting gig…
    and i'm sure there's more.
    homeschooling looks different for us every year, yea, every season.
    you're doing a great job, momma!

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