Everything's A Homeschool Lesson

If you've ever been a homeschool mom, or if you've ever talked to one, you might have realized that anything and everything can be turned into a lesson. A burnt out light bulb takes on whole new meaning as the homeschooled kids need to use their deductive reasoning skills to determine where an extra lightbulb might be stored in the house. This exercise would be followed by a trip to the library in order to research the history of the lightbulb, followed by a brief stop at Walmart where you pick up lightbulbs and some craft items in order to do a science project/display using the facts the kids gleaned at the library. A short math lesson as you make change at the register, and then you're done for the day.

That would be some homeschool moms. I don't usually fall into that category. Although I try to find the lessons in life to share with my children, for the most part I stick with the curriculum. However, recently the boys got an unexpected biology lesson from life.

Our kittens, Drizzle and Dex, have turned six months old. It was time to get them spayed and neutered, respectively, and I had Joel and Paul go with me to help take them to the vet. The vet assistant was giving the cats an initial exam, and she decided to start with taking their temperature. In went the thermometer, Drizzle's eyes bulged, and she nearly took a dive off the examining table. I grabbed her and held her down, but apparently just a near proximity to the invasion of privacy made Dex nervous. His eyes bulged too, and he also tried to dive off the table.

"Hold her, Joel," I ordered. When he didn't move, I glanced over and saw him staring in horror at the thermometer sticking out of Drizzle.

"Paul, can you get Dex?" But when I turned to him, his eyes were also bulging at the sight before him.

I think it took the boys longer to recuperate than it did the cats. It didn't help when I informed them later that doctors used to take babies' temperatures the same way. Once again their eyes bulged and they stared at me in horror. "Mom, you didn't ever--"

I assured them that rectal temperatures were old school. Doctors now take temperatures with a scan across the forehead or in the ear.

"In my ear?" I could read Joel's expression. He was envisioning sticking a regular thermometer all the way into the ear. So then I went into an explanation of the thermometer used to take temperatures through the ear. Hey, look at me! I'm a homeschool mom! Whaddya know.

I found it a little harder to explain why Drizzle's surgery required staples and Dex's didn't. Back to the curriculum, I guess.