Home School Bus Fail

Homeschooling has always been something I have thought about, but never wanted to do completely. I have already done early intervention for my son, with therapists in out, five days a week. It was draining…But taught me so much. I have a basic communication board in place, with a schedule and chores to be done. My home is set up for in home learning but I always had help. With two kids in school and two too young for school, I was able to keep things afloat.

Covid-19 and the whole world being on a stay at home mandate, forced me to just dive right in as a full time homeschool mom. And I have never appreciated teachers and therapists more than I do now. The amount of patience it takes to deal with multiple children, learning at a different pace, with different personalities, just wow! It takes an amazing person to do that. This is exhausting!!!! And they are my kids. No one knows them better than I do. No one loves them more than I do. But man are they annoying.

When we were first told homeschooling was going to take affect, I initially thought about how I can arrange my home to accommodate the situation. So I cleared off all the boards and rearranged some furniture and created a little classroom in my dining room. I gathered up my arts and craft bins. This was going to be great. I can do this. And then day one came…..

My oldest daughter is a natural she is great at following direction and has natural motivation. She loves being a good student. She adapted nicely, still wakes up on time and completes her work. She enjoys reading and will spend all day doing so. The other three are determined to make me completely grey. And at a time when going to the hairdresser is impossible. They have no respect for the schedule I set in place. They make their own rules. By 4pm my husband and I were done. Neither one of us were mentally or physically prepared for this. They are monsters.

So the next week I decided to take a different approach. We split the kids up. I took control of my sons schooling. With the help of his therapists and amazing teachers I dismissed the schedule and came up with ways to teach him using what I have in my home. My oldest needs no real assistance from us, her teachers hold a class meet everyday and go over questions the kids and parents have. Smooth sailing with her. The two younger ones are being watched by my husband and it’s safe to say he has no lesson plans.

Trying to teach my son is different. He’s not a talker. But he shows his emotions very well. Every morning he puts his clothes on and brings me his shoes to put on. He normally leaves the house by 7:30am so when 8 o’clock comes and there’s no bus… he gets upset. It’s hard to explain to him that schools are closed and home has to be school now too. I sit him next to me and show him all the cute videos his teachers leave for him. Saying good morning, singing songs he would sing in school, it’s fantastic. He loves it. He’s so excited to see them and it makes me so happy to know that he is treated well. Because he loves them and it shows.

I’m a planner, I need things to go perfect, I need everyone to listen to direction and do what needs to be done. This does not work for teachers. My oldest very politely explained to me that I wasn’t the greatest teacher and that I am more of a principal. She is so Right!!!! The key to all this is to be creative and stop worrying about everything going perfectly. For me this is hard. How do I let go of my need for things to be done a certain way???

That is something I will need to work on. But for my current sanity and compromise to this homeschooling situation is a Project!!!!!! Taking on a project for me is like your favorite bottle of wine. I can clear my mind and give my little ones a hands on lesson. I needed something we could all do and somehow incorporate a lesson into it. Just like most people I have been ordering things online to avoid people. Doing my part in social distancing, as I explain my online purchases to my husband. So I have boxes, a pretty good amount of them. And one part of my sons routine is riding the school bus. I feel like it’s a great transition from home to school for him. It’s his indication of when school starts and finishes. So let’s make a school bus!

We Gathered up the boxes and used black duct tape to put it all together in the shape of a bus. Great start. Then we cut out windows on the side and in the front.

We had to wait a few days for the weather to cooperate with us and finally it was sunny enough for us to paint. I put a tarp down, gave each kid a paint brush and I let them have some fun. It was soooo cute but what I didn’t realize was that mosquitoes are actually attracted to the color yellow. I always spray the kids before letting them out to play because we have a stream that runs behind our property and the mosquitoes are impossible to get rid of. But I had no idea they would flock to the freshly painted bus and get stuck. It was a disaster. An impressive mosquito killer but not good.

I told the kids that we were going to let it dry over night before bringing it in. Hoping to somehow wipe the dead mosquitoes off. And Maybe apply a second coat quickly on my own.

The next morning I went out to check on our bus and it was leaning up against the fence. Apparently it was really windy over night and the bus and tarp had been tossed around a bit. Our bus looked like it was hit by a bus. I brought it in the house after doing my best to clean it off. I did my best to restore the structure but it was hopeless. So I went to the garage and took out some pvc pipes and tried to use them to at least keep the ceiling from caving in. That worked but it still looked like a junk yard bus.

I tried adding the cool steering wheel I got and it stayed on, yay. But the exterior of the bus was not even worth me drawing on the lines of the bus or attaching the pop up stop sign. I was so disappointed. And was about to begin ripping the thing apart, when I realized my three year old was pretending to drive, while singing “The Wheels on the Bus”. My youngest was singing along, sticking her head out the window. And I realized they didn’t care what it looked like. They were having fun in this eye soar sitting in my living room. I was the only one thinking ewww.

My son waited for the other two to walk away before he went in and started steering the bus. His smile was priceless. My oldest even got in to play along with the younger ones. I will admit she only did it to please her sister but thats enough for me.

So this ugly thing has been in my house and I have not yet ripped it apart. The kids play in and around it every day. So until they get sick of it, it will sit there as ugly as can be. It was a great lesson for me I guess. Not everything will go as planned, you just have to make the most out of every situation. Wish me luck, looks like we are all going to be home for a while.

If you decide to take on this project, I would suggest getting yellow wrapping paper instead of yellow paint. That is if you want it to look pretty, or maybe don’t leave it out to dry on a windy night. Although for me this was a failed project and wasn’t exactly what I wanted. It was something we could all make together and it was something that put a smile on the kids faces.

Subscribe Below to see how I used a similar approach to make a Mosque/Fort for Ramadan. Don’t worry it worked!!!!