Homeschooling Scoliosis

We are homeschoolers.  Or, we have had at least one of our children homeschooling for the past 7 years.  Right now we have two at home and one in school.

Dancer Girl is at home, but she is not homeschooling because of her scoliosis. Homeschooling came well ahead of the back problems. Scoliosis impacts our homeschooling world, our daily routine, and my expectations for her accomplishments.

Even before the diagnosis of scoliosis it was clear that Dancer Girl had back pain.  We tried ice packs, heating pads, exercises.  All of this would interrupt our schedule, and on particularly bad days could derail us for a short while.  But the beauty of homeschooling is the flexibility. So, we would derail for the moment and then work to get back on track once the pain was under control.

Now she has a brace for her scoliosis.  She doesn't have to go to school every day and face worrying about what kids might say, or figure out the logistics of taking it off for gym class, but she does participate in homeschool classes during the week, as well as church, youth group and other activities, so she is not completely free of wearing it amongst her peers.

We still need to find her clothes to wear over it that conceal it (see our other posts on clothing for scoliosis: Scoliosis Clothing: Part 1, Scoliosis Clothing: Part 2, Scoliosis Clothing: Part 3) for when we go out to co-ops, classes, lessons, church, shopping, special events, etc.

We need to deal with the fact that sleeping in it is hard.  It is not going well.  It makes her tired if she gets through the night in the brace, or if she doesn't make it through the night. Either way she is having restless, broken sleep right now.  That means she can't concentrate as well or stay focussed on her work for long periods of time. I need to remember that and not diminish the impact it will have on her learning. I can reconstruct our day, making it in shorter blocks or incorporating more breaks. Or, if she needs it, I can put it all off until "later" and just pause.

But sometimes I forget and get impatient and wish she would just try harder.  I need to realize that every moment she wears the brace she IS trying harder.  The brace makes her body sit up straight when she would rather lean over a bit or curl up on the couch.  She gets tired just wearing it even if she's had a decent night's sleep. Going to the bathroom takes more time because she needs to remove the brace. Certain things take more effort with the brace on - like picking up the pencil she dropped on the floor or reaching for the book on the shelf - and over the course of the day, this effort can get tiring.
I am grateful that we are homeschooling in the midst of this - it eases some of the stress for her by having much of her brace time at home. I just need to remember to use the flexibility we have to adjust my plan and my expectations.

School will happen, even if it's not the way I originally planned. Sometimes I just need to let her be, let her deal with the pain or discomfort first, let her figure out when she is able to handle a difficult new math concept, or if it would be best to try something else for a while.

I need to trust her to learn.