We all have sick days. Right now I feel pretty terrible, but I don’t want that to stop us from getting some work done. Yesterday I could have really used the day off but I tried to make it a mellow day rather than calling the whole thing off. Here’s how I survived.

1. I focused on providing work that could be done (mostly) independently. He worked in his math book, filled out his reading comprehension worksheet about the reading from our 13 colonies book, and he finished making his flag for his colony. I also got a few fun workbooks from the dollar section at Target a while back, so he did some activities in his dinosaur workbook.

2. I had the kids participate in preparing their food. A friend came over last week with watermelon that she scooped with a melon-baller and the kids thought it was the coolest thing. So I bought one. It doesn’t work as great as hers did, but yesterday, I cut a mini watermelon in half and they each scooped out half. Then, they made their own pizzas. Lunch is served. Oh, and I made chili and cornbread for dinner. Super easy, can-do-it-with-my-eyes-closed kind of dinner that’s warm and comforting.

3. I turned on Netflix. We don’t actually have regular television, we only have Netflix so we get a lot of use out of it. But yesterday I was looking for something educational other than the normal cartoons they watch. Granted they mostly watch only educational cartoons anyway (Sid the Science Kid, Octonauts, Justin Time, Magic School Bus) but I wanted something they haven’t seen before. I found that they have Scholastic Storybook Treasures on Netflix.  There are five different collections, but we chose to watch some of the episodes from Amazing America. We watched the story about Johnny Appleseed and, since we are talking about Martin Luther King, Jr. this month, we watched Martin’s Big Words. Today we are going to watch So You Want To Be President? and The Scrambled States of America.

So there you have it. That’s how I made it through a homeschool day when I really just wanted to lie in bed. How do you manage homeschool days when you’re sick? Really, suggestions are welcomed!