At some point, it will happen. You will get sick. It happens to all of us. When it happens we not only feel terrible due to the flu bug but because of the stress of managing school while we are sick. Homeschool moms have a hard time turning off the homeschool even during sick days. First of all, let’s just clear something up. You are allowed to have a sick day. Your kids need you healthy and ready for unpredictable days of math and field trips. It is ok and best to take the time to recover properly.
How Do I Prepare for a Sick Day?
To help you feel better about taking the time to feel better, you need to plan ahead. First, remind yourself that it will not ruin the school year if you go off the curriculum for a few days Secondly, before sickness strikes, create a list of activities your children will enjoy independently. For older children, you can create a list which includes acceptable activities and some chores to do while you are sick. For younger children, you may want to create a pictorial list or put items in a tote that are non-messy to keep them busy.
Activities to Keep Kids Busy During Mom Sick Days
Board Games: Provide your children some educational board games and card games to keep them busy and productive. Chose some solo player games to encourage entertaining and quiet times.
Video Games and Apps: Yes, you can allow a few hours of Minecraft or an educational app during your sick day.
Audio Books: For younger children, audio books are a wonderful way to keep them engaged. You may want to choose audio books that correlate with what your children are currently studying.
Building Blocks/LEGOS: Allow the kids to get out a big box of their favorite building blocks and use their imagination.
Arts & Crafts: Create a tote of mess free art and crafts for your children. You can fill the tote with crayons, colored pencils, copy paper, coloring books, play dough, coloring books, beads and string, etc. Of course, you need to keep your children’s ages in mind.
Puzzles: A great way to keep kids busy and productive.
Story Writing: Kids are natural born storytellers. Let them shine by giving them supplies to write their own stories.
Mad Libs: Allow for giggles and language skills works by providing some books of Mad Libs.
Tip: Consider your children’s ages when providing anything with lots of pieces of that require a lot of clean up.
With a little planning and grace for yourself, a sick day doesn’t have to be stressful. Download the activity cards to aid you in this preparation. Just cut out the cards and let the kids pick to see which activity they get to do!
Also published on Medium.
This reminds me of that one commercial where the mom comes into the kid’s room and is like “I need the day off” – cute commercial. Good tips.
These are good tips. I’ve been sick all week so I know the feeling.
Being sick is the worst. I run an in-home licensed daycare so I know when you get sick it’s very hard to function. I hope you get better soon.