I just received an email from a mom who took my class, had a coaching call and is getting started. Right after she decided to get her Spark Station in order and have a structured family learning time everyone came down with colds. So it was shelved for a week hoping all would soon be well and they could start again.
Now I have raised seven children and I know how it can be when everyone is feeling poorly. However, I want to remind you that the top keys in creating a truly magical and amazing family culture of learning is structured time and consistency. That is rule number one in the Five Rules of Engagement. So how can we keep to that structure when things aren’t going well, as in the case of a family with a cold?
My suggestion is to hold true to the time. If you have structured family learning time at 9:00 am do it, but modify it. Gather your children around you, have a little devotional or beginning like you do any other time. Read for a few minutes and then give everyone a nice glass of juice or hot chocolate. Then call it good. The point is to be consistent, to honor the time. It allows your children to depend on it, to understand that learning is not only fun but important.
Illness isn’t the only thing that will challenge you as you work to honor your family learning time. There will be days when you have made more commitments than you can manage. We all do it occasionally. When that happens gather your children together, begin as you always do, read and then call it good. The kids won’t like ending early, I can tell you that. They come to love this family time and learning together. But something is better than nothing and they know it.
If you have set aside five days a week for family learning time or just one day, whatever it is, honor it. Consider it sacred time with your children to model what you want them to know, that education is fun and important, that you value the time with them most, that you can be counted on to follow through.
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