Andrew has been under the weather for the last few days. It is days like this when I start asking the parental guilt questions. Are we getting behind in school? How much have we really accomplished since Andrew’s skiing accident last February? Have we made up for the lost time? We missed a lot of school days due to his hospital stay, the long recovery period, and all the necessary appointments that followed in the wake. But did we really miss out on that much schooling or was it just refocused to learning beyond the classroom?
School can Happen Anywhere
While Andrew was in the hospital, we didn’t open any school books. Instead we were learning about various procedures that pertained to a broken femur, different types of anesthesia, and parts of the anatomy. The doctors and nurses were very good at explaining what they were doing, and how the screens monitored heart, blood pressure, and oxygen levels. The nurse allowed Andrew to take her blood pressure but refused to let him draw her blood. He was ready and willing but no victims could be found! These topics might have been mundane coming from a book but learning from real-life application allowed a more hands-on approach.
Suggestion: Don’t plan this class as part of your lesson plan;
(pun intended) it should be purely accidental.
New Fields of Study
Once Andrew realized that he could be an integral part of his healing process, he looked forward to asking questions and taking part in the process. Suddenly, the unfamiliarity of the hospital was not so scary. The attitudes of the nurses and doctors and their willingness to teach Andrew about their fields of study sent him on YouTube quests to gather more information. Watching Andrew’s interest in anatomy, physiology, and medicine grow made me look at this new situation as an adventure and not an inconvenience. These new experiences spawned an enthusiasm that I doubt I could have accomplished from a textbook.
Textbooks vs Learning Beyond the Classroom
Even though Andrew was gaining knowledge from real-life application, I still worried about making up the missed school work that we would have originally done. Then another homeschool mom, with all her wisdom, said, “If we had to assign a percentage to learning, how much would be book learning and how much would be based on experience?”
Andrew lost a lot of book time but gained knowledge beyond the classroom from an unplanned real-life adventure. It didn’t matter that we couldn’t stick to our original goals for the year. School was still in session it was just a matter of refocusing. Whether learning from books or experiences, school can occur anywhere – even in a hospital!
*Reminder* This is a safe site for children. If not tastefully stated, your comment will disappear in a “POOF”!
