We’ve been homeschooling since our oldest was in kindergarten, which makes this our 6th year of homeschooling. During those 6 years, we have welcomed 4 new babies into our family. And with those babies came a lot of change.
Along the way, I’ve learned that if you are going to be a homeschooler and continue to grow your class size, then you need to be prepared and you need to be flexible. With each baby, it’s gotten easier to welcome a new “classmate” during the year because we have learned what works for us and what doesn’t.
One of the benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it provides. Adding a new family member during the school year can be a smooth transition. Here are some ideas and tips to help you get through this short season:
1. Don’t school.
Plain and simple, don’t do it. Plan ahead and save most of your break time for after the baby is born. Take this time to rest, recover, adjust, and to enjoy your new family member. Besides, your children will be learning real-life skills as you bring this new baby home and go about caring for this little one; they are learning to be self-sufficient and about caring for others.
2. School year round.
One of the big changes we have recently made in our homeschooling is that we have started to school year round. This allows for even more flexibility with our breaks. So, when baby comes, you can easily take a few weeks off (or more) and not have the added stress of feeling like you need to get back to schooling quickly.
3. Read – A LOT.
Use this time to snuggle up on the couch with your kids. You can still get a lot of school done by just reading books and having your kids narrate back to you. And the beauty is, this works for most subjects, not just reading and literature. And mom, if you are too tired to read, have an older sibling read to the little ones or break out some audiobooks.
4. Stick to the basics.
Don’t worry about following your usual schedule or routine. Weed out all the extras and just focus on the basics, such as Bible, math, and reading. Subjects such as science, history, art, and music can wait until life normalizes a bit.
5. Plan and prep in advance.
If you have older children that can work independently, plan and prepare a few weeks of work that they can do on their own while you recover. If you have some older and younger children, plan some stuff for the older kids to do with the little ones.
6. Let Dad teach.
If Dad is on board with this, have him do the teaching. Since most dads work outside the home and usually work during the day, you will probably have to switch things up a bit and do the schooling in the evening (and/or on the weekends) when Dad is home. Or have Dad tend to the baby (and any other little ones) while you get some schooling done with the older children.
7. Ease back into school.
Whether you have taken a break or are just doing the basics, when you are ready to get back to your usual school routine, do it slowly. Add in another subject every couple days, or allow yourself a couple days to complete an assignment that would normally take you one day. Take it easy and go slow.
8. Lower your expectations.
Know your limits and be realistic about what you can accomplish in a day. You have a newborn now that requires a lot of attention, so you probably won’t be able to get done everything that you used to be able to do in a day; at least in the beginning. This will help lessen your feelings of frustration when you can’t check everything off your to-do list each day.
9. Hire help.
If it’s in the budget, hire someone to come in and clean, or to watch the little ones while you school the older ones, or to do the actually schooling while you rest and take care of the baby. I know this isn’t practical for everyone, so instead, look into getting volunteers from your church or a mom’s group that you might be part of to help with cleaning and meals, or help with the kids and schooling. Maybe you know an older homeschooled student that would volunteer to come over and help with the little ones or with the schooling for a couple hours a day.
10. Use the electronics.
Yes, I just said that (or rather typed it). It’s just for a short time; let the kids watch educational videos or dvds, play apps on the ipad, or play games on the computer. Using these forms of technology for schooling will be a welcomed break and change for everyone.
If your children miss anything, they will catch up. Children learn all the time and in many different ways. During this time they will be learning life skills that are just as important as the lessons they learn during school. Every situation provides a learning opportunity, and the post partum period is no exception. This is such a short season and your life will be back to “normal” before you know it.
This is a nice post. 🙂 I just went through this for the first time this year. My 2 older boys are close in age so I never homeschooled when either was a baby. I brought home our 3rd baby in August and had to readjust to schooling. Now he likes to sit at the table with us, but at first, it was tricky.
Glad to hear that your first time going through this went smoothly!
Thanks for stopping by!! 🙂
Thank you for this! I am expecting kiddo number 4 very soon but have never really homeschooled while bringing home a new little one. We just started our new school year since I decided to go ahead and do year round schooling and we’ll be using many of your other tips as well, like sticking to basics!
Thanks for stopping by! I’m glad this post was helpful to you!
When we decided to school year round, I felt like a huge weight was lifted! It definitely took a lot of stress off me.
Congrats on baby #4! When are you due?
I am due very soon, so this is a timely post for me! I have already started “planning” some of these things in my head. Since I’m also on the Crew, we will have to focus on Crew items (and I’ve been very selective with those) but other than that, it will be very light, mostly with a few favorite online supplements. I’ve also tweaked the rules to some educational board games for my 6 year old, to teach him how to play independently, so he can get some reading and math skills in on his own.
I’ve had to be selective with Crew items too, but it has been sooooo hard! Everything looks so good!
Sounds like you have a good plan in place and some good ideas to try!
Thanks for stopping by!
This is an amazing post with wonderful tips! Well said!
Thanks Ashley!
I am keeping this in mind for the day my oldest gets old enough to homeschool and we have other little ones around… thanx for your wisdom.
Your welcome! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a sweet comment!
haha I love the idea of “growing your class size.” 😉 All good stuff here!
We’ve been homeschooling (officially) for about the same length of time you have, and #4 is due in a couple of months, so I appreciate the refresher. 🙂 When it comes to “planning ahead,” I’ve found tailoring topics to be useful. We use unit studies, and when the last baby was due, I arranged the schedule so that we were studying family history right after she arrived. It’s a topic where hubby and I were already familiar, so we wouldn’t be doing a lot of library-type research – more like just discussions with the kids of what we already know. (It also gave them a chance to “do school” by talking with their grandparents, making use of another resource!)
Rachel, I love the idea of family history during this time! Thanks for sharing this idea!
Congrats on baby #4! If you are interested, I host a pregnancy link up on my blogs every Sunday. I’d love for you to join in!
http://myjoy-filledlife.blogspot.com/search/label/My%20Pregnancy%20Journal%20Link-Up
Blessings!
We were kind of on the same wavelength, weren’t we? 🙂 I am definitely bookmarking this to remember for the addition of our upcoming little one.
Shay – I loved all your ideas for dealing with homeschooling and morning sickness! Where were you about 9 months ago?
Thanks for this article, Sarah! I am 3 weeks postpartum with baby number 9 and, while I know I’ve done this a million times, it’s nice to hear someone else say I can take a break! Ha! 🙂
Blessings,
Mrs. Sarah Coller
Sarah – Thank you so much for stopping by! Congratulations on your 9th blessing – amazing!!
I am 10 weeks postpartum with my 5th, and we’re doing all these things you’ve mentioned. I had a head-start on the learning curve by being the oldest of 7, all homeschooled. 🙂 During the last few weeks of pregnancy and the first six weeks postpartum, I assigned my 9yo & 7yo one math facts drill page, piano practice, and read 2 picture books to the 2yo & 4yo. I didn’t have to assign reading because they are voracious readers. Now we’re getting back into a school routine. Schooling with a newborn is easier than schooling with an infant who moves. 🙂
Congratulations on baby #5. The last few weeks of pregnancy were hard as well; I was going to mention in the post that these ideas are good for the end of pregnancy too, but completely forgot! We have just started getting back into our routine as well and it has been going pretty well with a baby in tow.
Thanks for stopping by!
Great post! We have a 1.5m old and did many of these things – especially easing back into it and lowering expectations. 🙂
Thanks so much stopping by and commenting!
Over our homeschool years we added 5 babies. We found these tips to work for us too. Thanks for linking up over at WholeHearted Home this week. This post is a blessing and chock full of excellent ideas!!
Thanks Judith! I always enjoy your link up!
Great post! I hadn’t even thought of this kind of thing before, but these are great tips. Thanks for sharing!
I would love it if you would share this (and anything else you have been working on) at my linky party! http://domesticrandomness.blogspot.com/2013/01/friday-fascinations-8-everything-linky.html
Hi Sara, thanks for stopping by my blog and letting me know about this post. It was very helpful. I will definitely be applying many of your suggestions at some point during the post partum period. Congratulations on your new baby!!!
Take care,
Stacie
Thanks Stacie! Congrats to you too! I’m so glad the post was helpful to you. And so glad you linked up!
Great tips. My friend is expecting her fourth soon — so I’ll be sharing this with her!!
Lindsey @ GrowingKidsMinistry.com
Thanks for stopping by Lindsey! I appreciate you sharing this with your friend!
Blessings!
Thank you for writing this. We just started homeschooling this year (kindergarten and preschool). School was going well… and then my computer crash with all our school stuff on it and the baby came 5 weeks early. I wasn’t quite ready and have felt guilty since. I feel like we are behind. I am still trying and reading this post changes the way I see homeschooling (in a good way). Thanks again! 🙂
I’m due with Baby #6, and I need to review this post in preparation for the next few months. My last daughter was born right at the beginning of summer, so we had a natural break. This homeschool year has been a huge challenge for me, so this post is very helpful.
Thanks, Sarah!