Homeschooling during Hurricane Season

We are alive and in a better position than many.  I haven’t blogged in a while because things have been very busy in the Fox Den.

Last month we took a vacation to Tennessee, we took a lot of field trips, got to watch the Solar Eclipse and more. There was a lot to tell but I never got a chance to blog about it, those of you that follow on Instagram and Facebook got to see a couple of updates.

Earlier this month life was disrupted by Hurricane Irma threatening to come over and destroy our area.  After a stressful week of preparation and evacuation, we dodged a bullet as the storm shifted and we avoided catastrophic damage.  We are blessed that our home only suffered a broken fence and lots of fallen limbs, other people in our area weren’t so lucky.

It took some time to clean up and get back to normal from that only to have my world shaken again by Hurricane Maria’s destruction in the Caribbean.  Its direct hit on the island of Puerto Rico destroyed the infrastructure and 7 days later its population are still in desperate need of help.  That is where I was born and raised so the past week has been very stressful for me as communications are still affected in many areas and I have a long list of people that I know that have not been accounted for (22 as of this writing).

So I have spent this week helping in any way that I can, I am unable to donate lots of money or supplies so I have found creative ways to contribute.  I have been spreading awareness, telling others how they can help, putting pressure on the government to send aid.   I have spent countless hours glued to Zello, an app that I downloaded for Hurricane Irma that I didn’t use then, listening to Puertorricans that don’t have enough of a signal to make a phone call seek help and provide updates on the situation.  I have been using the information that I hear to help update a registry on the status of people on the island and update it to a database so that their friends and relatives in the mainland can know that they are safe while they wait for phones and internet to work again.  I have also been able to use my specialized skills to help mothers in Puerto Rico be able to breastfeed their infants during this emergency since they don’t have current access to formula or clean water to prepare it.

It has been stressful, I have cried a lot, I don’t remember the last time that I had a good night’s sleep but at least I feel like I am doing SOMETHING to help.

During all of this, I have somehow managed to keep homeschooling.  We did take a few days off “formal” schooling during Hurricane Irma but learning never stopped.  My firstborn will now rather watch the Weather Channel than cartoons and he can give you a detailed lecture on how hurricanes are formed and what environmental variables determine their strength and trajectory.

We may not be covering all subjects every day but we are not falling behind on our books.  We are still using our products from the Critical Thinking Company but we have added some new players to the equation and are trying some new things.  I will go into more detail about that in the very next post, don’t worry, you won’t have to wait as long to find out!