Homeschooling During Transition

This is an animal airplane that the children made. 

If you open it up, you will find it full of animals.  

This has been a year of transitions. Over a year ago we left our house on the east coast to spend some time on the west coast with our church here and supporters. We came thinking that we would be here for four months but those four months stretched into 13 months. In some ways we are settled but in many ways this is a time of transition.

Some of the things that I have learned during this time.

Keep going - Given the amount of time we had to keep doing school. School gave my children a routine that they were used to and kept at least that part of their life normal.

Make adjustments to curriculum - I couldn't have everything that we use and enjoy with us so you might have to make some adjustments to curriculum. When we came in February, I brought what we needed for the spring thinking that we would be settled for the fall. That didn't happen and so I had to make some adjustments. A time of transition might be a good time to do a unit study or some other learning activity. We are getting ready to do a unit study on Ancient Greece and Greek Myths.

Make adjustments to the schedule - The joy of homeschooling is the flexibility to the schedule. There were days that I put the books aside to meet emotional needs. A few days we need to just talk about we were feeling, what we missed, or what we looked forward to.

Look for new things to do - For us we have been here for longer than we planned but we have been able to do some things like swim team, co-op. We have done a few field trips maybe not as many as we could have but we did have fun.

Give grace - there were days that we need to give each other grace. There are times that we needed just a bit more patience with one another.

Guard your attitude - I know that my attitude sets the tone for our learning. I have to guard my heart. If I am complaining about the things we don't have, the children will pick up on that and add more comments.

At times living in transition has been difficult but homeschooling during the transition has helped us. We do have things that we are looking forward to unpacking and using. I trust that this has been a good family time for us and that we will look back with lots of memories.

Other posts about transition include:
Kids in Transition
Holidays while in Transition
T is for Transition


Beth