Homeschooling a Child with Chronic Illness - Intro

I have been thinking about what I want to put out on this blog.  I've been barely maintaining it lately with weekly (or not-so-weekly) updates.  We are in the process of an international adoption and that along with schooling Amber has consumed my life.  What I really want is for this space is to be helpful to others, even if it is just encouragement in the form of "see, there are others like you and we are thriving".  But at times, it seems like we really aren't thriving here.

I decided that writing on our school stumbles of late, and our hopeful solution might be of benefit to others.  You see, even though we do our utmost to help Amber with her food problems, we really were not acknowledging or accommodating all the side effects this has on her life.  I know it might have sounded like we have been dealing well with her issues, but in all honestly things were a bit scattered in terms of school.  We barely limped to the end of the most recent school year.  Barely... as in I simply decided she was done.  Sixth grade was complete and we could take no more.  It even took me two weeks to review her last assignments and finalize her report card. I only did it then because I thought it might be needed for the adoption home study.

During those two weeks I worked on a plan for the new school year starting in August.  Something will have to change or we will be just as big of a mess as we had been for the majority of sixth grade.
 
Don't worry this won't be ramblings on how I hope to help us.  We did implement some of these changes in a smaller way towards the end of the school year.  We've also been testing out other ideas during our summer studies.

In laying out my thoughts for this topic, I realized this works best as a small series of posts. In the next few days expect a three-part series on our Homeschool Adaptations for Chronic Illness.

• Part I: What a Chronic Illness Looks Like in Daily Life. Coming to terms with the situation, and the school results when we don't accommodate for illness.
• Part II: School Needs for Chronic Illness.  The broad flexibility and changes needed for a child with a chronic illness as well as our specific needs with an overall plan for change.
• Part III: Implementing Adaptations.  How we are going put our new plan into action using methods we know work.