Involuntary Homeschooling

Welp, the Inklings & Yarns Learning Workshop has been officially open for business for…five days. Has it really only been five days?

Guys, this is hard. I’m not going to pretend this isn’t hard. I give SO much credit working parents, single parents, and parents who work in the health industry or other essential services. We don’t have any of those extra challenges and it’s barely been a week, and I am STRUGGLING.

Allie’s (8, second grade) school has set up home-learning, which right now looks like it will involve 1-2 hours of work a day. She is independent and creative, so although she misses her friends and doesn’t understand why she can’t watch YouTube all day, I can at least count on her to be self-sufficient for large portions of the day.

Theo (5, pre-K) is…a different story. Like many 5-year-olds, he is SO energetic and SO social and SO curious and SO stubborn. Being his mom takes a lot of patience on a good day. A week into social isolation and he is losing his poor little mind.

But we’re making lemonade. (And I’m pouring vodka into mine.) As a crafter, my homeschooling curriculum is heavily weighted toward the arts. I’m trying to focus on the opportunities of this unique situation, and one of them is more time to let my kids explore creativity (and make messes).

We’ve done a lot of St. Patrick’s Day themed activities this week, including decorating our windows, and setting a leprechaun trap. We also did some pour-painting (look for an upcoming YouTube tutorial), and have been exploring all kinds of unique learning resources, both online and “analog.” Watch this space for our projects, and our stories–and my venting.