Jump to content

Menu

Schooling with a newborn


Recommended Posts

I just found out that I am expecting in October, and now I'm wondering how school is going to work next year! This is my first year homeschooling, so I have never homeschooled with a newborn before. How much time do you normally take off of school? We are starting in July with our new year, so we can take some time off, but I'm also hoping we will be able to continue with some things. Here is what I have scheduled for next year.

 

DS6 (1st grade)

FLL 1

WWE 1

Singapore Math 2A/2B

Rod & Staff Spelling 2

Reading - Funnix 2 and assigned literature

 

DS8 (3rd Grade)

MCT Island

IEW across the curriculum

Singapore Math 3A/3B M-Thurs., Beast Academy Friday

Rod & Staff Spelling

Prima Latina

Assigned literature

Cursive copywork

 

 

Both:

Bible time to start the day

BFSU

Story of the World 2

Getting Started with Spanish

 

Fridays will be Bible and math only.

 

Does this look ok? Dh will be around for a couple of hours in the mornings, so he will be able to help some. I am working on getting the boys to be able to do independent work off of a checklist. I know a lot of this is teacher-intensive, and will probably need to be put off until we have a schedule set up with nap times we can use.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I usually take about 3 weeks off. I know others take a lot longer than me :) My one piece of advice is to get a baby wrap, I have a Moby wrap and it has been great. You can keep both your hands free and it has kept them less fusy so I can get more work done :) You might want to start back lighter with just maybe LA and Math and whatever else you feel you need to be doing and then add in when you can figure out what schedule works best for you. And congratulations :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks! We used a sling with ds2 and it was a lifesaver (he wouldn't sleep unless he was being held), so I was looking at a Moby wrap for this one. I just hope I can learn how to use it! I was thinking of stocking up on books just before baby comes so the boys have a lot to read. I figured it would be a good time for ducumentaries (they are loving Drive-Thru History on Netflix) as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's easier to do lessons with an infant than a toddler! Babies sleep a lot and be thankful for that.

 

I found having a glider in the school room was great. I could comfortably nurse and direct lessons at the same time.

 

Bill Nye is great for science. Check your library for the dvds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DS3 is a little over 3 weeks and we started back last week, very slowly. Starting with math and language arts, though we aren't even getting all of those done each day quite yet (we've all been sick). We school year round and I'm definitely glad of that this year, we'll need the extra time. I have a Moby wrap, I just need to get the hang of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A wrap is definitely a big help. When DD3 was born this past fall I planned to ease back into our routine very slowly. The only things I made an effort to do each day were language arts and math. So far things have gone more smoothly than I expected, but we still had plenty if days where I had to be realistic and acknowledge that it wasn't wise to do anything else except make sure everyone was fed and reasonably clean. I've also discovered that audio books make great babysitters! :leaving:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm due in July, which is mid-year for us (we school on a calendar year). I'm planning to take 3-4 weeks off school. I second the sling idea, and have a bouncy seat near the school table so you can put baby down sometimes. Beyond that, make sure you have a comfy chair to sit in while you do any table work since you may be holding a baby much of the time. Make sure you have clipboards, lap desks, school supplies in a container so that it is all portable and you can school from the couch or even the bed if need be. ;)

 

I'd recommend the Magic School Bus dvds too, for those times you need them to be doing something while you are dealing with baby.

 

I'm trying to cram as much as I can into this first half of the year! Don't feel guilty if your schooling is lighter for awhile after baby, and be sure to take a nice long Christmas break. :) You'll find your groove once baby is a few months old and nicely established in your household. At least, that's what I'm telling myself!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been thinking about this too -- I'm not pregnant now, but would be open to it sometime in the next year. My kids will be in 4th, 2nd, and preschool next year.

 

Best I can figure, it will be important not to need to do lots of planning and adjusting during the pregnancy/postpartum time. Right now I come up with my own copywork for my middle son and I did come up with poetry until my older son started FLL recently. I think having open and go stuff, or at least having a solid plan beforehand that doesn't require my staying up until 3am on Sunday nights to finish weekly planning would make a big difference. As for stopping school for the birth, maybe starting school 2 weeks early and expecting to finish 2 weeks late would be reasonable leeway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Baby-wearing and open-and-go curriculum were important here. I wanted to toss out for future readers -- this doesn't seem to apply to the OP -- that some children require a pretty full schedule of formal work for their mental health. Button is like that. I don't think I took a full week "off" after the baby; the results were more wearying than schooling, and worse for Button's well-being and character. So if one has an intense, order-requiring child, that will be a whole different strategy.

 

Congratulations, OP!

 

also -- maybe this was mentioned above; I suggest that you have the SOTW2 audiobooks on hand, if possible. Makes SOTW very very easy.

 

And the SWI-A materials for IEW, to make it more open-and-go.

 

And I think that MCT Island is great to teach with a newborn -- it has a very cuddle-on-the-couch-and-read-feel for much of the program -- but I am finding it quite hard to teach with a toddler, because my focused time is more limited. If you want to use it with the second child (thinking VERY far ahead here!) you might try to precess it to his second grade or hold it until 4th if teaching it with a 2yo, on top of everything else, is too much. -- just my thoughts. Button and BotBot are both unusually intense and demanding, though, so perhaps it won't be an issue for you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations!

I had a baby in November, and we took a full month off. That was more to me being tired and recovering than the demands of the baby, honestly. During that time, we made sure we had plenty of library books and educational things to watch. DD would still read to me, like when I was nursing the baby.

After a month, we started back with the basics of math, phonics (reading) and writing. We would do art projects for fun, which was mostly me just getting out supplies and letting the kids have at it.

The Christmas break came when the baby was 6 weeks old, so we took that off. Once January got here, and my son was 8 weeks old, we started back our pretty normal homeschool days. With younger grades, it didn't seem a big deal to take extended time off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Baby-wearing and open-and-go curriculum were important here. I wanted to toss out for future readers -- this doesn't seem to apply to the OP -- that some children require a pretty full schedule of formal work for their mental health. Button is like that. I don't think I took a full week "off" after the baby; the results were more wearying than schooling, and worse for Button's well-being and character. So if one has an intense, order-requiring child, that will be a whole different strategy.

 

Thank you for this Serendipitous! I am expecting in April and I am begining to see that taking off more than a week or two would be more work than schooling as I have intense, order-requiring child.

 

Good luck OP you have gotten some great advice!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dd is 2 1/2 months old, so we're right in the middle of this! We took off about 6 weeeks, but that was more because I didn't see any point in trying to ramp up school work again only to stop for Christmas.

 

I definitely second (or third, fourth, whatever!) using a wrap--my Moby has been a lifesaver. And you might want to look into other options for when baby is bigger (dd is already almost 15 lbs). I tried on a woven wrap this weekend, thinking it wouldn't be much different from the Moby--boy, was I wrong. The Moby is still pretty comfortable, but in the woven wrap, I could hardly tell she was there, weight-wise.

 

Open & go curriculum definitely. I'm still struggling to get things like lit/assigned reading and science done because I don't already have a plan in place and I'm not having the time to wing it. My project for the week is to try to nail down some of that.

 

What worked for us too was to start back gradually. We started with just math, grammar, reading/phonics, and writing the first week. The next week we added Bible and history/science, and read-alouds. It has taken us a couple of weeks to really work those in, and I'm just about ready to try to work in some of our other extras (extra memory work, Latin, art/music).

 

I've also had to just accept that there are days here and there where school doesn't get done, or where all we get done is math. Honestly, our biggest issue is that my boys are so in love with their sister that I have a hard time getting them to focus when she's awake! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...