X-rays, broken bones and other calamaties.

We've had a lot of life happen in the years since we've been homeschooling.  There have been multiple broken bones, including my son's ankle for which he had to have surgery and be non-weight-bearing for 14 weeks.  (That's 3 1/2 months!!!)  We've also home schooled through the flu, strep throat, multiple unnamed viruses, my surgery, my son's hospitalization when he passed out that time and also my Dad's illness and subsequent death.  (Most of this was in 2010, which was NOT my best year!)  We've made it.  We've had to make decisions at times on whether to take a break and have a shorter summer and whether or not to postpone things they are all working on together when one child is sick, or just to excuse that child and make the others continue.   I do not give the kids very many excused days that they don't have to make up, maybe 1 or 2 per year.  When I am sick, sometimes Dad takes over and sometimes the kids just do what they can on their own.  As they've gotten older, the amount of things that they can do on their own has come to mean almost everything.  They are very much self-directed learners now.  I give them a list and they do it.  I could probably be replaced with one of those medication reminder clocks that my mom has, just set it to say "Do your schoolwork!" about every 2 hours!