The Things We Do for Our Kids

I had plans for this week. Writing. Editing. Marketing. All the normal things that are constantly fighting for space on my never-ending list.

Instead, I put pretty much all of it on hold and became a high school teacher.

Because apparently we’re homeschooling again.

This was definitely not the plan. My freshman started the school year at school, and that’s where I expected them to stay. I wasn’t secretly planning homeschool curriculum or looking for a reason to pull them out. I wanted school to work.

It didn’t.

I’m not going to get into all the details because my kids are getting older, and their stories aren’t automatically mine to tell just because I’m their mom. But I can talk about my side of it. I can talk about watching one of my kids struggle and realizing what school was doing to their mental health.

And that’s a hard line to find as a parent. We’re not supposed to make everything easy for our kids. Sometimes things are hard. Sometimes they’re uncomfortable. Sometimes they have to do things they don’t want to do because that’s part of life. But there’s a difference between something being difficult and something actively hurting your kid.

Eventually, I realized we’d crossed that line.

So… homeschool.

Again.

I’ve homeschooled before, but I’ve never homeschooled a high schooler. Suddenly we’re talking credits and transcripts and grades that actually matter. So I put Unraveled Prophecies aside, sat down at my computer, and started figuring out how the hell I was going to do this.

I created lesson plans for Algebra 1, English 9, Health, Biology, and World History. I organized an entire month of assignments so we aren’t waking up every morning wondering what we’re supposed to be doing. And because apparently I can’t do anything halfway, I created an entire spreadsheet gradebook to track assignments, points, quarter grades, semester grades, and final grades.

I may have gotten a little carried away.

But I have a damn nice gradebook now. 😂

And honestly, Algebra doesn’t scare me nearly as much as Biology.

I looked at some of that Biology material and thought, Oh, we’re BOTH going to school this year. Cool. 😂

Meanwhile, Unraveled Prophecies is basically sitting in the corner staring at me like, Excuse me? We were doing something here.

I know. We’ll get back to it.

Because the book will still be there. The chapters waiting to be edited aren’t going anywhere. There will always be another post to make, email to send, graphic to create, or item on my list that should have been finished yesterday.

My kid needed me now.

I have four kids, and if they’ve taught me anything, it’s that there is absolutely no single way to parent them. They’re four completely different people. What works for one might be completely wrong for another, and sometimes what worked for the same kid six months ago doesn’t work anymore.

It would be SO much easier if parenting came with rules.

Do A. Get B. Congratulations, you have successfully parented.

Instead, it’s mostly trying something, realizing it isn’t working, trying something else, Googling things at ridiculous hours, wondering whether you’re screwing everything up, and somehow getting up the next morning to do it all again. 😂

I don’t think changing the plan means the original plan failed, either. Sometimes circumstances change. Sometimes our kids change. Sometimes we learn things we didn’t know when we made the first decision. And sometimes you have to look at what’s happening right in front of you and admit, Okay. This isn’t working. What can we do instead?

So that’s what we’re doing.

I have no illusions that homeschooling is magically going to make everything perfect. There will be bad days. There will be assignments that don’t go according to plan. There will be days my kid doesn’t want to do school and days I probably won’t particularly want to teach it.

And apparently there will be Biology.

So much Biology. 😂

But we’ll figure it out.

That’s really what the things we do for our kids looks like sometimes. It’s not always something huge or dramatic. Sometimes it’s sitting down to work on your fantasy novel and ending up spending the day creating freshman lesson plans instead. It’s building spreadsheets. It’s rearranging schedules. It’s researching subjects you haven’t thought about in years. It’s looking at everything you planned to accomplish and realizing none of it is as important as the kid who needs you right now.

This week, my kid needed more.

So the writing stopped.

The lesson planning started.

And apparently Morgan Rylie Chaos Academy is now open for business. 😂

Wish us luck.

Especially with Biology.

I’m definitely going to need it.

🖤

#YouAreNotAlone