Thrive! – Homeschooling the Second Trimester
This is part two of a 3-part series on Pregnancy and Home Education. Click here for part one and part three.
I waited eagerly for the yellow daffodils to bloom in our local roundabout. I knew that that would signal the end of my morning sickness. How pertinent that the end of the first trimester and the beginning of the blissful second trimester was also the end of the gloomy winter season and the start of our glorious British spring. Life started to improve, slightly at first – I was able to eat a proper meal and then I was able to start cooking for the family again! Move over hot dogs, chicken nuggets and frozen supermarket pizzas! Even the kids were glad to be eating normal home-cooked food again. My husband who had so wonderfully taken care of us these past couple of months was glad (and relieved) to hand over the baton back to me in the cooking, cleaning and laundry department.
I also slowly got the courage to start homeschooling again. The kids had been having a steady diet of TV the past couple of months, so I dipped my feet into homeschooling ever so gently. I did not want to overwhelm myself or them. First, I sat down and noted the number of hours they were watching TV daily. This was the first problem I needed to tackle urgently. Then I planned to reduce this time bit by bit every day over the next two weeks. Next, I used a similar phase-wise approach with the homeschool. I started with the simplest work: handwriting.
They welcomed the work much to my surprise probably because they were also quite desperate for a change of routine! Eventually, over the next couple of days and weeks, I added more and then by God’s grace, got back into a nice routine with them. I noticed that the time they lost had not affected them too much. Yes, I had to review and revise a bit more as I re-started but overall, this was not too much of a burden for either of us. I took the time to customise the curriculum to suit our family’s current situation though. I did not want the curriculum to be my master, I wanted to make it work for us, in this particular season of life which was bound to get demanding and tiring as the pregnancy progressed.
I mentioned in my previous post how I found it hard to focus on the Lord and pray in the first trimester. The Second Trimester, however, was a blessed time. I was keen to get back into the Word and resume my daily Bible reading. At the start of the year, I usually do one of the “Bible-in-a-year reading plans” that are available online. However, I had missed a couple of months being ill, so I had to find another plan. I found a wonderful resource on the internet called a “Bible Reading Plan Generator” which creates a customised plan based on criteria that you select.
You can play around with criteria such as:
- The time frame: when do you want to start your reading plan and how many days of reading do you want to do?
- Format: how do you want the results to be displayed. I found this option quite handy. You can play around with the options available and see what suits you best. It allows you to download the plan based on the format you select into an excel file which is easy to print.
- Bible books: You can even choose the specific books from the Old Testament and New Testament that you want included in your plan.
- Days of the Week: You can select which days you want to read, maybe you prefer only the weekdays.
- Options: There are some other nifty options available such as including a checkbox and adding a daily psalm among others.
I love it! I encourage you to check it out.
I decided to do the New Testament, 5 days a week over the next 9 months.
It was such a blessing to get back into the Word of God again.
