Homeschooling the Teen Years - Don't Forget Their Shots!

As a homeschool mother, one of the things I've had the worst time remembering and keeping track of has been the recommended or required immunization schedule for school aged children.

Drawing by E (age 14)

We are not anti-vaxxers (and if you are, no offense or challenge is meant to you by this post), but something about the fact that we have six children, and are homeschooling, and maybe even the fact that I wear my hear in a bun (who knows really), seemed to cause our family doctor to think that we were, and so she never brought up shots unless I brought them up first.  That added to the fact that we weren't sick much as a family, and so didn't go to the doctor's office often, left us constantly scrambling to keep up with everyone's shots.  And, with no school officials to check in on us, I'm afraid we had a few gaps in our records.

That however ended when the first of our brood hit the university scene.  Colleges, just like elementary schools, require proof of immunizations (most often two doses of the MMR - mumps, measles, and rubella, and possibly a TB test, though they also highly recommend, and sometimes require a meningococcal immunization as well).

So...just so you don't find yourself scrambling at the last second (or leaving your teens accidentally unprotected) pull out your vaccination cards and make sure they are up to date.

Below is the immunization schedule currently recommended by the CDC, just for reference.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/child-adolescent.html

It's great to be a homeschooler.