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Homeschooling On The Down Days {Homeschooling} {Epilepsy Awareness}

April 19, 2017 by Dana

5 Days of Homeschooling With Epilepsy and Other Issues:
Homeschooling On The Down Days

Some days we wake up and lead a normal life. We do normal things like eat breakfast together, read books, watch a movie. We feel like a normal family.

Some days we wake up and our life is far from normal. We are accosted by migraines. Children don’t feel like eating breakfast. We need a little more sleep before we get out of bed. Cuddles are a must. We are far from normal.

These are the down days. The days when it feels like life is barely holding it together. The days when the Seizure Monsters strikes before we’re even functioning good. The days when snuggles are a must and extra sleep is needed to fight a monster we cannot see. The down days happen more often than any of us like.

On these days, homeschooling is hard. There’s no time to think through what’s on a schedule. There’s no plan because you simply cannot plan on the days when life is in full chaos.

Over time, we’ve developed our own way of life and doing things, since Epilepsy and Involuntary Breath Holding Spells, ADHD and Sensory Issues leave us incapacitated and unable to complete even the simplest tasks. Still learning must happen and life much continue as needed.

Every day when I awake, I check on each of my children. I evaluate who needs what done. Does my daughter with Epilepsy need just a bit more sleep? Does my oldest need to take his allergy med or need a few minutes to figure out his plan for the day? Does my older daughter need a few minutes to wake up before she dives into her daily schedule? Does the baby need a little cuddle time before he has breakfast? The list goes on and is different for each child.

Sometimes cuddling tops the list of things to do. Sometimes a seizure happens and I must rush to the ER and leave the bigger kids to care for the littlest one. Sometimes there’s just a seizure lurking which can be fought by resting and cuddling and napping with one another.

After we get through our first hour after waking, I usually know how my day will go. If it’s a down day, we will relax, watch educational movies, read quiet books, draw, color and do minimal activity. And this is okay because what’s important is getting better and getting back to what’s normal.

Some down days allow for a little more activity. We can play, do small activities, and learn but still be ready if we just need a break. It’s a lot of watching and having patience for all of us.

Some of our favorite activities when we are down are:
Movies, Reading, Math games, Playing, playdoh, baking together, listening to audio stories, chalk drawing, and just being together relaxing.

All of these allow us to learn while not overdoing it and we can break as we need to.

Each day I go through the same evaluations and make decisions based on what our morning holds. This is how we’ve been able to homeschool from the beginning with multiple special needs children. This is why we homeschool year round, so we can have more days to fit learning in even when we are down.

Homeschooling when you have down days is feasible if you make it work for you. Having a relaxed homeschooling day or sometimes even week is never a bad thing. Learning is inevitable if you provide the materials for your child to do so and can happen even on the worst day. It’s also okay to just stop and take the day off from learning all together. You must do what’s best for you and your family.

God bless,
Dana Lambert-Hodge

This post is part of the 5 Days Of Homeschooling… Blog Hop from
the Homeschool Review Crew!

5 Days of Homeschool Annual Blog Hop - 2017

To Read more…

To Blog Or Not To Blog… {Thoughts From Me}

October 22, 2016 by Dana

This year blogging has taken a backseat to life for us. It wasn’t my intention to just let the blog go but rather an inability to keep up with writing here. As it often does, life gets in the way and there’s just no time to devote to our online presence.

A year ago, our life hit rock bottom and it’s taken a year to get back some normalcy after all we went through in our time living in Georgetown. There have been a great many changes, struggles and a constant rebuilding of our life since leaving there. The lowest point of our life has transformed into better by the day and for that I’m truly thankful.

There are many more changes to come.

When you’re living in an abusive environment, you don’t always see just how bad things are. You make excuses for the abuse. You overlook truth so that you can just make it to the next day. You think if you can just hold on, things will get better. Maybe that’s true for some but for me and my children, it definitely wasn’t.

I see such a difference in my children in this past year. I see their eyes shine with laughter. I see happiness and an unbreakable bond. Sure they argue like most siblings but there is an irreplaceable love between them that simply amazes me. I’m thankful they’ve come through life with this bond and strength to get them through.

Life is not easy for any of us. God didn’t promise it would be easy. He promises us that in the end all of the struggle, trails, tribulations we go through will be worth it. Heaven is the prize, the end goal, in this. Heaven is the reward we all reach for.

So as we continue through the daily struggle, rebuilding our life together, I look forward to rebuilding our blog as well. I miss writing. I miss sharing our life with others. I miss the outlet that this little online space provides me with. I look forward to beginning here again and sharing our future with you as we continue letting go of the past.

Busy Again These Days {Thoughts From Me}

November 21, 2013 by Dana

I have taken a few days away from writing blog posts, except for reviews, and I’ve been concentrating on my photography for the past week. I’ve also been working on our family’s tree and doing some much needed housework. The mix of everything has definitely been keeping me busy.

The photos are coming out great and I have several shoots lined up in the next few weeks which will be keeping me very busy now the Crew year has ended. It’s been great learning new things, editing and seeing images “pop” in ways I never expected. I’m finding that I am enjoying taking pictures again.

The family tree has also been fun. I’ve learned so much about our ancestors that I never expected. It’s been interesting to learn where we came from and telling the kids stories I’ve come across about our various ancestors. They’ve enjoyed the history and the family relations as much as I have.

I am excited for all the new ventures in our lives and the Holidays that are coming up as well. It’s a busy but fun life. It’s fulfilling and I find that I’m once again Luv’N Lambert Life.

Five Minute Friday Part 1 {5 Minute Fridays} {Epilepsy Awareness}

August 2, 2013 by Dana

So I was reading about 5 Minute Fridays on another blog and thought, what a cool thing to do! And here I am. Today’s subject: Story. Starting my 5 minute alarm now. Here goes:

You can find our story all through this blog. Our life with Epilepsy. Our years homeschooling. Our family and our love for each other.

All of these things add up to tell our personal story. It’s been a long journey since I began blogging. It’s been a tiresome year this year for us. Adding to the story more and more every day. This thing called Epilepsy, it doesn’t hide and it doesn’t seem willing to give us a break anytime soon.

Story: the kids favorite things are books. They enjoy reading and I’m thankful. It shows me this homeschooling thing has paid off for us. So many doubted my choices in the beginning. They did not understand why I chose to be different. They questioned my beliefs. But I feel we have proven others wrong. Homeschooling is like everything else. It’s not perfect but it does work.

It shows every time my children pick something up and read it. My son struggles with his reading abilities but he is coming to learn that he can read more than even he realizes. And my Emma, well she is great at reading. She’s avid and loves to read things that truly teach her, like science stories.

Laycie is quickly following in her footsteps. Every day she has a new series of books that she wants someone to read to her. It’s amazing to see just how many words she’s come to recognize.

This year she begins truly homeschooling, but even that won’t be rushed. I will allow her to grow and learn in her schooling. I will allow her to take the time she needs to learn what is most important to her.

— So the bell has rung and my time is up. Not too bad for my first Five Minute Friday!

Writing and more

April 3, 2011 by Dana

I think I may be getting the writing bug again thanks to a new group I have joined on Facebook. It’s a small group of like-minded women who enjoy writing about many things and enjoy discussing those writings and sharing in the triumphs and disappointments of each one. It’s spurred my thinking again and is providing me with just the intellect I need in my life.

I love to write. I love making words touch others, making them flow into thoughts, paragraphs, short stories and I love seeing the results of my writing in final form. I think I am good at writing, though at this point I feel I am very out of practice. And there are days when the words just won’t come because there is so much busy-ness in the way of them. Writer’s block is an atrocious thing!

There are many things I love doing but never seem to have time for. Writing, painting, cake baking, simple home cooking, photography, drawing, reading, watching movies, and even blogging. I would love to find time to do each one of these things but often Life calls instead. (Speaking of Life – new header above ^^^)

My quest for the things I should be doing, for the changes in me, has turned into a quest to organize my life and my time so that I can do the things I enjoy. Organization is yet another thing that has always eluded me. My cluttered mind only echoes that of my cluttered life, completing the Chaos of my world. Add children on top of that and it’s a downward spiral all the way!

Speaking of children, the kids and I have been busy buying seeds to plant for the garden and can hardly wait to get them started this week. We will be constructing a bigger light box than we originally expected and planting many different things: squash, watermelon, lima and green beans, bell peppers, tomatoes, and much more. We also have a few flowers to plant, including four o’clocks to toss down our ditchbank to grow on the side. I can’t wait for those to grow so the kids can time them to open and close each day just like I used to as a small child!

We will be reading more about plants this week, in Botany and as I said completing our light box. We will hopefully be taking a field trip to look at the plants tomorrow, now that it’s dried out a bit, before the rains come again on Tuesday.
We will also read more of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which the kids are extremely excited to do. When we finish I will order the movie for them to watch from Netflix, so that we can compare the book to the movie like we do with all of our Literature.
We will be playing catch up in History this week as we missed a couple of days of lessons last week when we were involved in Life Lessons. We are currently covering Prehistoric History and will be beginning timelines soon. I’m looking for Historic People to use on our timelines but haven’t had success with it yet.
And of course we have all our other studies of math, reading, writing and Bible. Our weeks never fail to be busy and full of Life for us.

Hopefully somewhere in there, I can schedule some time for me to write but for now I guess I’ll just continue to enjoy Luv’N Lambert Life!