A brand new school year. My oldest, Jeremy, was excited about being a first-grader. I wanted everything to be perfect. But I knew with a newborn and a 3-year-old, our homeschooling year might be challenging. Working around Jeb Daniel’s nursing schedule, I prepared lessons for the first week of school.
Jeremy’s latest interest was all-things insect. He was totally fascinated by them, which thrilled his daddy, a medical entomologist for the United States Navy.
I’d gathered insect books from the library, collected plastic insect toys from the dollar store to use for math, bought those cute but not very tasty butterfly-shaped crackers for snack time and located my ink pad to make fingerprints on construction paper that would creatively become bugs when six legs were added.
We snapped pictures at breakfast and celebrated the “first day of school.” And that was the only part of the day that went as planned.
Jenifer spilled milk on her clothes and had to be changed. Jeb Daniel wouldn’t settle down after nursing. My mom called from Georgia with news about a sick aunt. I forgot to take the meat out the night before so I had nothing lined up for lunchtime.
More than two hours later than I’d planned to start, I called Jeremy to the kitchen to begin our day.
“Please, Mommy, can I go to the carport first and check on my lizard? Daddy said we’re letting it go today.” His biologist-dad had caught an anole, a small lizard that can change its skin color, for him to study.
“M-O-M-M-Y! Come quick—a thousand ants are attacking my lizard!” Jeremy yelled from the carport.
Without thinking, I replied, “Not now, Jeremy; it’s time for school.”
Lessons on insects? Ants on a lizard? I realized I’d just missed the proverbial forest for the trees and dashed outside.
Fortunately, Jeremy had exaggerated. He caught the anole; I turned the cage over and dumped the ten or so ants into the grass, and we put his friend back in the cage and on a shelf away from danger.
Then we went inside and drew and labeled the three body parts of a carpenter ant.
Thankfully, I learned early in our homeschooling career that many—or perhaps most—days had interruptions. Finding a way to work around the interruption or, better yet, incorporate the interruption into my lesson plan became a challenge that I readily accepted and welcomed.
Biblical Interruptions
Jesus experienced interruptions frequently, or at least, interruptions from our human point of view. And something miraculous almost always happened because of the interruption.
In Mark 5:21-42, a synagogue leader named Jairus approached Jesus while he was by the lake. “My daughter is dying,” pleads Jairus and Jesus agreed to go to Jairus’ home. But before he traveled very far, Jesus was interrupted by the touch of a woman who had bled for twelve years.
Briefly detained from his current mission, Jesus turned and said, “Who touched my clothes?”
The woman was healed immediately upon touching Jesus’ cloak.
In another passage from the New Testament, Luke 5:17-20, Jesus’ teaching was interrupted when a paralytic’s friends lowered his mat through a hole in the ceiling. Jesus healed the crippled man and forgave his sins.
Other divine healings and appointments resulted from interruptions throughout the Old and New Testaments.
Minimizing Interruptions
Though most likely not miraculous by biblical proportions, interruptions in a homeschooling day can, at their best, lead to educational moments and spiritual growth. But at their worst, they can lead to frustration and stress.
Take steps daily to minimize interruptions. First and foremost, be as prepared as possible for each day. Written lesson plans are critical for a successful day. Our lessons work best when I stay at least a week ahead with my written plans, and each child gets his or her own lesson chart for the day.
Prior to a school day, when my husband is available to help with the kids or after the children are in bed, I glance over the schedule for the next day and pull out needed materials, like craft supplies or recipes or math manipulatives.
I follow the same procedure as above for mealtimes, planning recipes and menus at least one week in advance and gathering the needed ingredients the night before. Most mornings, I carry out the bulk of my meal preparations first thing in the morning, before any children awaken, but I leave age-appropriate tasks for the children to help me with in the kitchen later.
Family members and friends respect our homeschooling day and rarely call unless it is important. That way, I avoid phone call interruptions and listen to messages later in the day.
When Interruptions Happen
When taking a phone call is a must, I give instructions for the kids to complete a certain independent task on their lesson plan sheet or give them silent reading time. Several of my children are voracious readers and they love being “assigned” silent reading time.
Interruptions like a sick family member or neighbor in need create opportunities for prayer and teach us to be the hands and feet of Jesus. On several occasions, the kids and I have postponed schoolwork to gather in the kitchen and prepare a fresh pot of soup to deliver to an infirmed friend, and I made sure to incorporate whatever math skill we were studying while cooking.
My younger children’s needs constituted the bulk of our early school-day interruptions. Teach your student to be patient and understanding of those needs and let him or her help by retrieving a needed diaper or reading to the toddler while you nurse the baby.
Some days, if the baby was particularly fussy, I postponed schoolwork until the evening, when my husband could help with the baby and I could devote undivided attention to the student.
As the kids got older, occasionally interruptions came in the form of a newfound interest or a thought generated from a lesson. I never minded stopping the lesson to research the topic either online or in some of our resource books. And if we didn’t find what we needed, we made plans to search out the topic on our next trip to the library.
Most importantly, be flexible. Understand that interruptions will occur in a homeschooling day, just like they did for Jesus and similar to life’s interruptions in general. Take a deep breath, say a quick prayer and tackle the interlude with confidence.
Steps to minimize interruptions before they happen and strategies to capitalize on them when they occur, paired with prayers and patience, help our homeschooling days run smoother and keep us learning as we go.
