Let’s face it, home schooling, school at home, virtual schooling, all schooling is different right now. Just because we already home schooled, doesn’t mean that our life hasn’t been just as affected as those in the public schools. My girls are resilient (most kids are more resilient than we often give them credit for), but they notice the different and are just as out of sorts with this all as everyone is.

I would like to take a moment, now to compare what is typical for us for home schooling versus what it is like home schooling during Covid-19.

For the most part our day to day school life is the same. School has always been a constant in our life. It is what has defined our day most days. Often, we must get school things done before we can do other things. Other times we incorporate school into whatever activity we are doing.

CHURCH

Church is still happening thanks to the blessing of technology. Both churches we love (Red Cedar and Elevation) have provided us not only with a service for adults, but resources and services for the girls during this time. What we are missing from church is the social interaction. Our girls have been able to build some unique friendships in our travels and participating in church wherever we go has been one of those outlets for them.

FIELD TRIPS

We are lucky to travel along with my husband for his work. This has given us a lot of opportunities to see many things. This year was supposed to be filled with field trips for us. We have been about forty-five minutes to an hour from Washington D.C. since January. We thankfully got in a few trips before things were shut down, but not all that we had planned. We had planned on many more museums and walking among the monuments. I had also planned to take the girls to see Washington’s Mt. Vernon when the weather had warmed up. That’s not happening now and may not get to. Instead every day is the same. The girls look forward to Saturday, because it’s our Supplemental Saturday. But there is no change or variety to it.

PARK DAYS

When we stay places that don’t have a park on site, my girls have looked forward to spending an afternoon (or two or three) a week at local parks. We have often taken our lunches and a good book and spent several hours there, playing, walking riding bikes and relaxing. We are lucky right now that the place we are staying with our camper has a big open space for the girls to run and ride bikes, however socially it is still very isolating. They are used to park days also having a variety of kids to play with and equipment to climb and explore.

ERRANDS

My girls are used to doing just about everything with me. Now they can’t or we have to alter it a lot for it to happen. Right now, the girls cannot go into a laundry mat with me or go to the store with me. When I go to do laundry they sit in the truck and I have to come in an out while we wait for the loads to finish, and then they have to wait around the camper while I have to fold everything at home (cause you can’t fold your laundry at the laundry mats anymore either). Laundry day also meant Chik-fil-a and play. Let’s face it drive through just isn’t the same. As for going to the grocery I must wait for my Hubby. Either for me to go or for him to go on his way home from work. Let’s face it by the end of the day the store is sometimes just picked over and not much is left.

EXPERIMENTS AND EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

I try to supplement and add in a few things to enhance our learning weekly. We like to cook meals related to our Read Aloud, we like to do different science experiments etc. Because resources at the store are lacking, we haven’t been able to do this very well. We won’t be able to make bread next week for science (no yeast or flour to be found) among other things that I just can’t find. Things like these are just things you cannot prepare for ahead of time.

SPORTS AND CLASSES

We have been trying to get our girls involved in a sport or a class of some sort every place we go. Last year it was swimming lessons and the year before it was soccer. We have also done various library activities in our travels. The girls (showing their resilience) have been playing softball with each other in the field across from our camper, but it is just not the same.

These are just some of the ways the Covid-19 has affected us with homeschooling. There are others, but I think most of the others overlap with everyone right now and don’t just affect us in relation to homeschool. Luckily, we have a literature rich curriculum and all of us have kindle so there is no shortage of reading material with libraries closed. We pray for sunshine and beautiful weather that allows us to get outside most days.