Sick Days

Last week we had a great week of school. We got a lot accomplished in the sense that I could really see areas where Gracie is growing and improving. We had uninterrupted time (which is rare) and she spent a lot of time practicing piano.

Then the kids got sick with hand, foot and mouth. It started with Luke and went down the line with Gracie getting it last. Caleb and Luke also developed ear infections with it. Luke was the worst as he couldn't sleep and for three nights we had a fussy, fevered, sweaty baby in bed keeping us up all night. We were all tired and at the doctor's office every other day with a different kid. Monday morning I told Gracie we weren't having any school.

It made me think back to last year when Gracie was in kindergarten. My kids are usually really healthy, but it seemed as soon as she started school, so did the sickness. We had a horrible winter. Gracie and Caleb both developed a hacking cough and were later diagnosed with RSV. They both had to use inhalers and I had to make phone calls to get the insurance company to cover a chamber to use with it. Caleb had non-stop ear infections and had to visit the ENT specialist to see if he needed tubes put in. I was still pregnant with Luke, and I started with the never-ending cough too. The grand finale came in March when everyone in the family came down with the stomach flu, with Gracie and me ending up in the ER overnight.

But you know what was the worst part of all the illness? School. If Gracie was sick, I had to set the alarm just to wake up to call the school. When I was a kid you just didn't show up, but now you have to call and let them know your kid will be out-as if that changes anything the teacher was planning to do! So after a sleepless night with ear aches and throw ups and changing sheets on the top bunk at 2 am, I had to get out of bed just to make a phone call. Then in the afternoon I had to drive to school, which meant waking a two year old up from his nap and dragging a sick kid out of the house, to pick up her make-up work. It irked me that a KINDERGARTEN student who was sick had make-up work. It was dumb stuff too, cutting and pasting and mindless coloring pages. And it wasn't one or two sheets, it was usually about eight. It was all the day's seat work plus that night's homework.

But since parents are stupid, it wasn't enough for me to decide my kid was sick and write a note to excuse her absence. In order for it to be excused, there had to be a doctor's note for every day she was home. If she was sick Monday, saw the doctor, but still had a fever Tuesday and Wednesday, only Monday was excused. I wasn't smart enough to take her temperature. I'm very much a libertarian and I resented not being able to decide if and when my kid should be home.

Then there were the days Caleb was sick. Gracie still had school, and I had to drag a sick two year old out to drop her off, since there was no bus (not that I would have wanted her on it anyway).
At the end of the year, despite me dutifully calling the school and writing notes, she had something like 12 "unexcused" absences.

So I have to say that sick days are one of my favorite things about homeschooling. If someone's sick, they get to stay home and rest. No phone calls begging permission. No explanatory notes. No scheduling doctor's appointments around school hours. And no work to make-up. We'll just pick up where we left off.

On the flip side, homeschooling works out great when your kid has symptoms that would keep them out of school, but they're still up and running around. You get to play it by ear. If Gracie is sick enough to want to lay down, I let her have off from school work. But if she just has a bad cold but is otherwise pretty happy,  we can go on with school work as planned.

Somehow though, no matter where your kid goes to school, mom never gets a sick day...