I’m not going to lie, this home based education thing is not always easy. I love being home, and I love being home with Sky and figuring out how to make this all work, but wow is it hard some days.

Sky and I worked together on a schedule, and I have been focused on mixing in fun learning opportunities along with the school based work packets, and taking advantage of some of the cool/fun on-line options that have opened up. I kinda thought we were doing pretty great.

However, I noticed things were getting rough with attitude and rudeness. Time out’s increased, visits to the principle (daddy) increased, reflection forms increased and I was at a loss. Things were spiraling and I was exhausted.

Finally I asked her what the heck is going on. Why are you angry? Why are you upset? This behavior is not like you. Bottom line…she feels stuck. She has been stuck at home for much longer than Mark I have been, and when there is a need for one of us to leave the house for supplies, it’s only one of us….we want to keep Sky safe at home. Since she has been really chill about the whole situation and has kept saying she’s fine with everything, and understands what is going on, I didn’t stop to think that it has to be impacting her on some level. And, sure enough she’s frustrated with her inability to leave the house and she sees the neighbor girls that she plays with outside playing and says “it sucks to be the only kid at home”.

I thought we were doing a good job of playing with her and getting her outside to play soccer, ride bikes etc, but she is totally stuck with two grown up’s 24/7 for weeks on end, and it’s getting old. Add on top of that that one of those parents is all of a sudden her teacher now to, and it was a path for a blow up!

Enter in a new addition to our schedule, every Wednesday is now a Mental Health Day. Thank you Daddy/Principle…this was totally Mark’s idea! We can get through two days pretty great, but mid-week we are both kinda over it, so we take the day to read books for fun. Play, do arts and craft for fun, spend time in the kitchen. Whatever we can do to have fun and not do school work. Then we finish the week strong. We are still getting through the weekly work packet just fine, and she’s able to focus a lot better knowing she get that mid-week break.

This whole situation calls for a lot more grace, a lot more wine, and more mental health time/days!

How are you coping?

P.S. We have some house projects that are seasonal and can only happen right now, so Mark grabbed plants for me on one of his trips to the hardware store. Was it an essential need, no, but I don’t really care to hear any comments either. I feel like it is essential for my mental health since it 500% increases my enjoyment of my home and I am spending a ton of time at home.