Homeschooling is an adventure; a plates-spinning-in-midair juggling act if you will. Add a new baby to the mix and well, you just might find yourself hiding in the crib with the new one. But, after all the dust – err, diapers and dirty laundry – settles and the family adjusts, school will find its new rhythm too.
My school year began one month early because I knew our baby would arrive early December. I had planned to begin 4 weeks early, then give ourselves a full maternity leave over the Christmas holiday. My goal was to be back in action, full-steam ahead when the new year arrived. I stashed away some great readers, found a few cool workbooks to have on hand and prepped the family as best I could in between bouts of pregnancy-induced narcolepsy.
Most of my plans went out the window the night I went into labor 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Imagine the great movie moments when mom wakes up at 1 am to her water breaking, shaking dad to let him know what’s happening, him not believing it and turning over to go back to sleep, re-awaking dad to help him understand the reality of the situation, then the adrenaline rush/forced calm breathing ensues. Our bags weren’t packed, the emergency sitters were on vacation (we are three weeks early, so nobody was on high alert yet) and I had never actually gone into labor on my own for the previous births. To make the 36 hour long story a bit shorter, I ended up having an emergency C-section mid-way through the next day. Nothing was going according to my plan.
At the moment my little bundle of joy decided to begin his entrance into the world, I should have known my plans and schedules should have been tossed out of the window on the way to the hospital. He had a mind and plan all his own. Healing and adjusting to this baby took us all much longer than I planned and I worried about the older ones.
I called veteran homeschoolers to ask how they managed to juggle huge family shifts (jobs, new baby, adoptions, moves, etc.) and continue educating the others at the same time. These great ladies calmed my fears and told me to take a huge, deep breath. My maternity leave over Christmas lasted a few weeks longer than I planned and our restart back to school looked a lot different than I expected.
This boy was a screamer, had a deep need to be held a great majority of the day and night, and my task-oriented self was crying out to check something off a list! Our school routine changed. I put us on a “must do” priority list and only added the extras as we found time in between crying and diaper changes.
The greatest advice my veteran friends shared with me was a list of skills my older kids were gaining that is impossible to learn in most academic settings. They learned what it meant to put others first, to adjust their own wishes and wants in accordance to what was going on around them, to work and play a little more independently, to hold and care for a newborn, to see mom feed/wash/swaddle/buckle/rock/dance with/wear the baby, to see mom and dad work as a team to see the dream come true, to grab diapers and wipes and help with blowouts, to introduce their new baby to their friends and family that came to visit, to decorate the Christmas tree, wrap gifts and help more with holiday activities, and on and on.
Eventually, we did get into a new routine. Some days, math had to get squished in during a quick baby nap. Other days we whispered our history lesson because the littlest learner nodded off in my arms. Certain areas took a back seat for a few months and we made them up the following semester.
7 Tips for Homeschooling with a New Baby on Board
If you’re adding a new addition to your schoolhouse soon –
- Accept the changes with very wide arms.
- Look to others who have “been there/done that”
- Focus on helping the family learn the new rhythms.
- Make the newness the point of learning.
- Find joy in the changes and give everyone (including yourself!) time and space to settle into their new places.
- Take advantage of extra library story-times, educational documentaries, baby-friendly museums and field trips, and any playdate invitations you are offered.
- Remember that one of the most beautiful parts of homeschooling is the flexibility.
You can do it, Momma!
Lindsay Banton is a caffeinated mother to three great kids. She never expected to homeschool, but has found that it is a wonderful addition to their lifestyle and wouldn’t change it for the world. In addition to homeschooling, Lindsay works alongside her husband in campus ministry at a large university in Connecticut. She grew up in Virginia but has settled into life in New England, learning to love the long winters, cool springs, green summers and gorgeous autumns- and has built a boot collection to meet all the demands. She is currently blogging at www.oaksreplanted.blogspot.com