How long after new baby

[arliemaria]

...before you were back into a regular school schedule.

 

My baby is two weeks and a day old.  Honestly, our K year has been scattered although I feel like it has been successful because I feel K is mostly made up anyways.  My mother-in-law did not even have kindergarten when she was a child and was successful in her education/career without it.  She spent her days playing until she was old enough for first grade.  When I was a Ker we only had school every other day.  We do a lot of read alouds, time outside, science projects, etc.  I just wonder how long will it take to be on "schedule" again.  I thought I'd be able to jump back into stuff on Monday and wrote out some stuff to read aloud, etc for the week, but today has been a bust.  Yesterday he did listen to the entire Mouse and the Motorcycle on audiobook.  We just haven't gotten to things that I feel like we should be doing.

[Maplecat]

I've taken three weeks off for my last two pregnancies. For my family, doing lessons makes the day more predictable and things run more smoothly. If it is more stressful for you to do lessons, don't! A couple of weeks makes no difference either way for your kindergartener, but it makes a huge difference in your recovery. I felt a lot better at five weeks than two weeks postpartum. It gets easier each week.

[maize]

Mine is 3 months old, we have good days and bad days and we just keep trying.

 

With a k'er, I wouldn't worry--have stuff ready to go if it's a good day, and don't sweat if it isn't. I have older kids so we've pushed hard to keep up with school, but I don't stress over not getting everything done every day. Or anything done on some days! We school year round so we have some flexibility built in.

[maize]

Oh, and congratulations!

[OneStepAtATime]

Goodness, take it easy, enjoy your baby, and don't fret.  You all have years and years and years ahead of you for more formal academics.  Life life.  Love life.  Enjoy your family.

 

And congratulations!!!

[SnMomof7]

Congrats! K only takes us 30 minutes daily plus read alouds - I try not to worry about school for

6 weeks after a new baby arrives :).

[happypamama]

I allow myself six weeks but don't always take them.

 

With my third, we were in a very relaxed school schedule anyway, oldest being six, so we didn't have a real back to school thing; we just kind of kept chilling out, reading, etc., just like before the baby. (No portfolios at that age in my state -- this makes a big difference! No pressure!)

 

With my fourth and fifth, we were back to school at a week or so. I had easy deliveries and babies who slept in a wrap nicely. It was hot with both of them, so time outside was limited, and the kids got bored. So we did some work, and I napped when I felt like napping. With the fourth baby, it was right at the beginning of the school year anyway, so I'd planned to ramp up gently, so we stuck with that plan and added more subjects after another week or so. I repeat: very easy deliveries and easy babies! This matters a TON! (We took more time off later as the babies got older, and slept less and generally caused more interruptions.)

[HS Mom in NC]

We adopted youngest from S. Korea.  She was traumatized for quite a while.  She arrived in Feb. at 7 months old.  We took a couple of months off and finished up with essentials then took the rest of the summer off. The older two were 7 and 9.

 

We don't do kindergarten or preschool.  When my children are able to do formal academics (phonics, handwriting and simple math) we do that.  Oldest learned to read fluently ( I mean like an adult) between ages 4 and 5 (not normal) because she begged me daily from the time she was 3 until she turned 4. Middle was ready to start learning to read at almost 8. She started college at 15.  We started daily read alouds when they were about 3 or 4. Math we start around 6. Youngest was ready to learn to read around 6.

[Mrs. A]

Congratulations!

 

 

I always  give myself  a couple months before I expect us to be back into any kind of school routine. I haven't always needed th  entire  time, but I like to be mentally prepared for a longer transition and recovery time so that I'm not stressed if we're not back into the swing of things sooner. I found with #4 that it was  actually much easier to get our rhythm back while she was  still newborn because she slept in a wrap all the time. Things got more difficult when she got older and was awake more. I'm wondering if it will probably be similar this time, but I'm not counting on it, just in case. 

 

I really like to think of the entire first year after a new baby as a "survival mode" period. There are so many changes that happen for a baby in that first year, and things don't really settle into anything very predictable until after that. So, with baby #5 coming in June, I'm planning to take most of the summer off from school and try to start back again in the fall, but I'm not expecting our routine to be  as predictable as it is right now. I expect to have to be able to be flexible and relaxed about how we accomplish what we need to and I expect to have to let some things go.

 

 

ETA: and I also wouldn't worry much at all about K. I have a 5 year old right now, but I'm not planning to do anything at all with her unless she feels like it just for fun. In our state the legal age to start is 6, so I won't even be registering her until next fall and will not require anything formal from her until that time. I've found that K is really pretty unnecessary, and it seems that you've come to that conclusion as well, so give yourself grace and try not to stress if this year isn't quite what you'd envisioned before the baby's arrival. 

[CadenceSophia]

It was about two months before I felt ok about school again and 4-5 before I felt really good about our schedule. That is with a first grader, pre-k, toddler and the new baby in the house.

[....]

Honestly, it's May.  I would put all the school stuff away (if you want) and call it a year. 

 

Mine is 6 weeks old.  We didn't take much of a break.  I think we took a week or two off - and that's including the time I was in the hospital.  What was I thinking??   :sad:  It's hard to concentrate during the day when you're waking up every 2 hours in the middle of the night to feed a baby.  I should've just taken the first couple of months off.  

 

We haven't taken a summer off in 7 years of homeschooling and I'm even thinking about taking this summer off.    

[purpleowl]

I think it depends on the kind of baby you have. :)  And on the rest of the family dynamics, too - what works in one house may not work in another.  For us, by the time DS was about 3 weeks old, I was ITCHING to get back to a routine with the bigger kids.  I have babies who are on the easy side as newborns, and the kids and I all do better with a bit of structure to our days.  So we went ahead and started back.  But that's us, and it may not be you.

 

On the other hand, if you look at my records for DD#1 for the school year, you can pretty easily figure out when DS started crawling, because that's when I scaled some things back. ;)

 

By the way, I love the name Vivian!  Congrats on your new addition! :)