Life Skills 101

Poor Josh is feeling pretty miserable today. He has the flu now too. I had to drag the kids to Fred Meyer for some groceries, supplies, and medicine. It really wiped out Josh and you could see him go downhill quick from sitting in the cart. Of course, when we got home, I had to put everything away and get the older kids something to eat.

Being the wonderful big sister that she is, Mika stepped right in and held Josh while I was busy in the kitchen. She did such a good job that Josh fell asleep. She hated having to pass him over to me, knowing that the extra sleep would do him good.

I couldn't pass up posting about this on my homeschool blog (vs. on my mommy blog) for two reasons; one is just that it such a good photo of such a sweet act and two is that without homeschooling my daughter wouldn't have this kind of exposure to real life skills.

By being home all day and getting dragged along to every conceivable errand there is, my kids get a real life course in life skills. We could even call it Life Skills 101. That course now includes a chapter called "How to Care for a Sick Infant."

No public or private school class can teach a life skills class as effectively as real life. If I had chosen to send my kids to public school, I'd probably schedule all of my errands during school hours because it happens to be easier to do that kind of stuff without three kids in tow. But they'd never get to see how to run a household, do transactions at the bank, compare prices and use coupons at the grocery store, and the many other things we just do every day. When I was a first time mom, I had no clue what I was doing and I had to learn the hard way. Fortunately, thanks to homeschooling, my kids will be able to start their adult lives with some experience under their belts.