CRISIS! immobile mama!

[Lisa Lubner]

i am off my ankle for the next three months. i am currently on crutches and when i get off them i will be in a walking plastic boot-thing for a while. i can't carry my littlest one anywhere and i can't imagine that i will be able to take the kids out the the park alone any time soon. i feel so bad, i'm stuck on the couch and the kids are stuck at home with me.

what do i do?? i need ideas!!!

[AngelBee]

Oh Lisa.....I am sorry. I will try to brainstorm ideas for you.

[**guest**]

omg, how awful. what happened? are you getting any help?

i will try to think of something too. how old are your kids?

i was in a non weight bearing cast for 10 weeks (they also said 12 weeks, so it might be a bit shorter for you too), and then with a walker / cain for several months. i was pretty immobile for the first 10 weeks, as i had a problem with my knee too. my dd was 2.5 at the time of the accident, and the baby was born 2 weeks after. i had personal support workers 12 hours a day, and it was hell, even with the help, but i could not have done it without the help.

biggest hugs to you. i hope time goes quickly for you.

try to remember that they give the worst case scenario in terms of recovery, and it might be shorter.

pm me if you feel like talking about it.

[Lisa Lubner]

i took the kids hiking, had to go down a set of stairs to the start of a trail, stepped off the bottom stair onto uneven (and rocky) ground and *POP*... sprained my ankle so bad the ligament tore, taking a bit of the bone with it. my father has a history of bad ankles (50+ sprains and two surgeries), and i have my own history (something like 10 sprains on my right ankle, and now this one on my left)... this is my first BIG sprain since having kids.

my kids are 5, 3, and 15 months. we've been watching a lot of cartoons. thank goodness for flexible homeschooling though. we've been taking things VERY easily ever since the beginning, and i don't feel rushed in the least. even with the relaxed pace, adam has been thriving... so i'm not too worried that we will fall behind or anything. but i feel bad that i can't even take the kids outside at the moment. (busy parking lot, can't chase after the kids if need be etc...)

my husband is doing his best, but he works full time. adam has been an ANGEL and so helpful. but beyond that, i'm on my own. i don't know too many people, and my mother is single handedly keeping the family buisness afloat during the holiday season. we're managing though... my biggest concern is how the kids are going to deal with being cooped up. i don't want to resign them to the tv for the next few months, you know?

thanks for the hugs.

[reeseccup]

hope time flies by and you're mobile again before you know it.

Going under the assumption that you read a lot to your children ...

I'd say, get board/card/domino/dice games to play and learn. There are TONS of games out there that teach and are a lot of fun.

One of my fave. music/video learning sites is http://www.erckids.com/default.asp great videos are the leapfrog videos...we have all 5 and love them all. We also have sing-a-longs so can read and sing...also on some of them we can change the lang. so we can sing in spanish or french.

another option would be to use computer cdroms to help with learning. We love the jumpstarts/reader rabbits/putt putt/pajama sam, but there are tons out there that are fun to use and help with learning.

if you can manage moving about the house, you can do basic science/math projects with odds and ends you have around the house. Teach the kids how to measure while cooking, have them play with a measuring tape...measure the things in the house :LOL ds likes to measure my boos and then mylegs...funny how they both are "25" :LOL but he's only 3 so i'm not going to push it too much. IN the mean time dd (7) was measuring the door, table, pencil, tv, her brother :LOL and using all the ways of writing inch. I have a kitchen scale that they get to weigh whatever up to 10 pounds, so it's great fun to weigh the apple they'll be eating or whatever.

The joy of home educating, IS the flexibility!!! have fun and feel better.