Should you do this? I don’t know. Are there any real rules to homeschooling? I guess that depends on what you mean by rules, but Friday I did something that felt radical at the time. Now looking back I’m not sure if it was really all that radical, but maybe it wasn’t all that smart either.

Friday the kids and I were all somewhat under the weather. Such is November… am I right? Well, we don’t have the flu or even a horrible cold. More like a sniffle, some mild congestion, and the occasional sore throat. Probably nothing serious, but just enough to find an excuse not to do school. The bad part is I’m actually the fool who suggested it.

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Well, actually it wasn’t even a suggestion. I had just found these giant rolls of dust emerging from every solid surface in my living room, this just moments after tripping over a pile of laundry in the downstairs bathroom, which happened only moments prior to hunting for a clean bowl for my Cheerios. My house was a disaster area. It then hit me that I was tired.

Oh, and my son’s nose was red reminding me that we’d been less than well. So, I called everyone together and made the official announcement.

“Here’s the deal guys, if you’ll sit and watch this show about orangutan’s on Animal Planet and let me read a couple books to you later, we’ll call that school.”… yikes… did I really just hear myself say that? Yes, it was true and once it was out there wasn’t any turning back.

My kids were happy to sit and watch the show and did learn all about deforestation, what it meant to be endangered, and some interesting facts on orangutans. During commercial breaks I turned on the vacuum and sucked up all the dust bunnies from atop the mantel and the television armour.

By the time the show was over, I’d dusted the house, begun to find my bathroom floor again and had the dishwasher humming away. I then accomplished the tasks of cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen, gave the kids a bath and had the house and kids looked pretty good by the time my husband came home. Not picture perfect, but not bad either.

Why does it have to be like that though? Why does the house have to fall apart when you’re right where you should be with home schooling? I totally get that school can’t take a backseat to keeping house, but I tell you what… I felt nuts that day. The dust, the laundry, the dishes… how can you sit still when you’re sitting in the middle of a mess?

I don’t normally do this and all I can figure out is that I must have been moving slower during the week. I wasn’t all that sick, but wasn’t all that well either.

Now we’re day behind in our lessons. I’d already planned out the next week, so when I open up our calendar tomorrow morning I’ll be on Friday rather than on Monday. Guess it’s a good thing I write everything down in pencil!

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