Homeschool Sick Days

My Schnickelfritz is not feeling well.  I'm still trying to determine if this is a cold or the start of spring allergies or the fact that the temperature has be swinging back and forth between balmy and freezing the last couple of daze.  Anyway, it's brought me to another reason why I love homeschooling--no sick days.  I don't mean that we keep our normal schedule on a day when the student (or teacher for that matter) is feeling under the weather.  I am pointing out that it is possible to log some hours despite feeling puny.  This is important as we need to log 1000 hours to meet Missouri law.

BOOKS

When Fritz doesn't feel well the first things he wants to drop our his least favorite subjects--writing and reading.  Okay, I can live with that.  That doesn't mean I can't read to him.  We usually have a read aloud book going and on sick days I just don't stop at the end of the chapter.  We'll read as long as he wants.  Currently we are reading The Wheel on the School,  a charming story about a group of Dutch children trying to bring a pair of nesting storks back to their village.   (The bird theme ties into our Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day curriculum).  I will also indulge his love of Hank the Cowdog although I confess I can't make up character voices the way the author  John Erickson does.  There are so many possibilities for books  and I can't begin to know your kids interests that I won't list any here.

MOVIES

 A second option (and this one may apply more when the teacher is under the weather) is to watch videos.  I've been purposefully collecting dvds that fall into the edutainment category.  Here are just a few:

HISTORY 

A More Perfect Union --  a dramatization of the Constitutional Convention.  Bonus features include a lesson plan when we get more serious about American History.  I bought this from my local Tea Party for $7.

Johnny Tremain --  This is a movie version of two Wonderful World of Disney episodes.  It's not a replacement for reading the book, but it does a nice job.

Apollo 13--  Our dvd set comes with an Omnimax release that is shorter than the original.  Most of what what cut out is before the mission including the one astronaut's promiscuous lifestyle.  The special features includes a documentary on the real mission or you can listen to the commentary track by Jim Lovell to learn what artistic licenses the filmmakers took.

Benedict Arnold -- a made for TV movie about the events that led up to his treason. 

The Crossing -- another made for TV movie about Washington's crossing the Delaware.

 Sergent York -- There aren't as many films about World War I.  This is my favorites.  The backwoodsman discovers God's love and struggles with whether or not a Christian should kill. 

 Midway --This film uses real aerial footage from the war in the Pacific.  It avoids a lot of the gore and bloodshed found in modern war pictures.

Science

 

Walt Disney's Legacy Collection --  There are four volumes that cover all of the Nature films released by the company.  Some won the Oscar for best short feature or best documentary.  Titles include Seal Island, Jungle Cat,  White Wilderness, The Living Desert.  Even the bonus features are great--showing how they captured video of ants in Nature's Half Acre for example.  There's actually very little mentioned about evolution.

Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution--Three volumes that alternate between footage of the animals and Dr. Jobe Martin's commentary on the remarkable features God gave them.  Have you every thought about how large the heart of a giraffe must be to pump blood up that long neck.  And why doesn't that same blood pressure explode  its head when it bends over to get a drink.   This isn't something that could have evolved over long periods of time because it would have killed the poor animal the first time and dead things don't evolve.

Answers in Genesis dvds--there are so many here.  Any done by Buddy Davis are geared towards kids.  The Riddle of the Dinosaurs with Mike Riddle is one of Fritz's favorites.

GAMES

Depending on the sick person's level of energy and ability to concentrate (hard to do if your symptoms include a headache), you may want to play some quiet board games.  Fritz enjoys several logic based games like Mastermind, Guess Who and Secret Square.  We also have Old Fashioned Product's math based games--Jelly Beans, Knockout, Muggins and Opps (these are pricey but a great investment).  There are other games like Made for Trade and The Scrambled States of America that I can log as history and geography time.