Should Have Known

I should have known better than to end a post saying I will “continue this tomorrow.” It is a sure indicator that life will have different ideas and I will not, in fact, continue this tomorrow.

Turns out that this past week wound up being more hectic than I could have know. Started out with the VaHomeschoolers hotline getting more calls in two days than we usually get in a week. Board members take turns manning the hotline and fielding questions and queries as they come in. This week was my week and it was all I could do to stay on top of it. Many were from parents looking for information about pulling their kids out of school. When we get calls at this time of year, it is mostly because things have not been going well in school for the child and the parent has finally gotten frustrated enough to start looking into homeschooling. I typically enjoy these types of calls as it is wonderful to be able to give them information and reassure them that they are not crazy for considering homeschooling and that yes, they can do this. But they do take time and some follow up, sending emails with links and mailing out information.

We also sometimes get parents wanting to know where they can find the “homeschool teacher” or where can they can pick up the books they need to homeschool (one infamous caller even wanted to know where they could find the “homeschool bus” for their child.) These calls tend to take a bit more time fleshing out what exactly they are looking for…do they really want to homeschool, are they confusing homeschooling with homebound instruction (which is handled through the public schools) or, more recently, are they talking about the virtual school programs implemented in a few Virginia school divisions? Once we get that squared away, I can point them in the right direction. I think that I scared one woman I talked to this week when I explained to her the difference between homeschooling and virtual schools through the public school system. She wanted nothing to do with teaching her child herself, did not want to spend any money on any kind of program, and was horrified at the idea that her child would not be able to get a state issued diploma in the end. She was very grateful to me for explaining the differences and pointing her in the right direction for finding more information about the public school’s virtual schools.

Then, to keep life exciting, Kyle had an asthma attack on Tuesday (actually 2am Wednesday morning). He is fine, but it was a bit scary at the time and is the closest I have come to calling 911. Back around Christmas he had a mild asthma attack that I chalked up to being a bit of a fluke since he had never had this type of problem before. Obviously not. Our doctor thinks that it is related to a cold he was coming down with. We now have an inhaler for him and we are working with our doctor on natural ways to boost his immune system and strengthen his respiratory system to avoid them in the future. He is pretty much back to normal, but still has a bit of a cough. I am still trying to figure out what this all means and how much to worry.

And then (yes, there is more) I had to decide whether to risk driving down to Blacksburg (4 hours away) on Friday when there was a large snowstorm potentially on its way. Virginia Tech offers this wonderful free program called Kid’s Tech University for kids 9-12 years old. The program is meant to introduce kids to the university learning experience (though not the living and drinking experience!) as well as get them excited about science, technology, engineering and math. Jason was signed up and Kyle was supposed to stay up here with Jeff (we are thinking about having Kyle do it next year, but this year I thought that it might be a bit much for him - 450 kids in a lecture hall, lunch in the dining hall and then hands on activities in the afternoon).

It was interesting to watch my reactions as I went back and forth over this decision, especially in light of Kyle’s asthma attack (worried about leaving him). I wound up deciding not to go, which turned out to be the right decision as they canceled the program this morning. While I handled this decision better than I usually do in these situations (I usually completely agonize over it, paralyzed with the idea of making the “wrong” decision), I am going to have to really explore some more into why it was still harder than it should have been for me. This was not life or death. Jason was fine either way (there are still 3 more programs in the series). But I still found myself a bit more wrapped up and spinning about it then I really needed to be.

So that was my week and why I was not able to post earlier. Now the snow is coming down and I am going to focus on decompressing a bit this weekend. While I do feel good overall about how I handled all this, I do still feel a bit emotionally wiped and rather than try to push through it, I am going to acknowledge it and maybe even take a nap.

So no more promising when I will write more. I will just expect to get to it when I get to it. And here is hoping for a bit calmer week next week.