Deschooling Week Five: Pandemic Edition

I feel the itch to write an update since it’s mid-week, and that’s when I usually post these. But wow. So many things are surreal right now: everything is closed and canceled. In some ways, our life is just like we set it up to be before all this began. I work from home; we play, cook dinner, watch movies, and garden. In others, it’s so stinking weird.

It’s fascinating to be in the deschooling part of our journey because I’m not panicking when many seem to be. It feels like the biggest blessing. As I mentioned, the workload for my job has exploded in the last two weeks. Our homeschool portfolio hasn’t had as many entries, but it’s okay. We aren’t falling behind; guess what: he’s still learning. Do you know what he does when I’m super busy? He teaches himself new skills in Minecraft. He understands how to cook meals for us. He watches YouTube videos about animals and awesome science experiments. We still have crazy discussions about how much a car weighs, Elon Musk, and robots. He still learns.

I want to encourage all the moms who are worried because they can’t do it all while their kids are distance learning. It’s okay if they don’t finish every worksheet. I know you’re worried they will not learn one thing for the rest of the year, and I want to tell you that (sorry!) you’re wrong. You literally can’t stop them from learning and growing and exploring. All you need to do is be open. Answer questions. Follow rabbit trails. Play Battleship. Please do your best to listen to their teachers, but have grace for them, your kids, and yourself. Everything is weird, but it’ll be fine.