Curious Husband asked on the last post: <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been thinking about doing this with my wife, but I have always thought about how to handle the baby during \u201cschool.\u201d How do you do it? <\/span>
Also, does school happen 5 days a week or can that be flexible as well? My wife just started working as a nurse 3 days a week. <\/span>
Do you have a special room or area set up for \u201cschool\u201d? <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nDear C.H.,
I\u2019m so glad you asked.\u00a0 Sometimes these things can be hard to fathom until and unless you see them in person.<\/p>\nIt depends what age baby we\u2019re talking about here.\u00a0 When I have an infant, she is wherever she needs to be. Sometimes that is in bed asleep, nursing, sitting in my lap, being jiggled on my hip, crawling on the floor, or playing in the playpen.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never had a difficulty folding new babies into the routine of school, and my older children see babies as a part of life and will usually continue working if I have to leave the room for a diaper change or to put the baby down for a nap.<\/p>\n
Older babies can be a bit more work because they like to be the center of attention and frequently (read ALL THE TIME) get into things and places they shouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019m a big fan (huge!) of play-yards and safety gates.\u00a0 You will save yourself and your wife a lot of time if the littlest one is in a confined area which has been baby-proofed and is well equipped with non-electronic toys.\u00a0 (This is really so important as the tinny sounds of electronic noise will distract even the most dedicated student, so forget an 8 year old boy being able to work with a lot of racket.)<\/p>\n
I also make sure to schedule anything which is hands-on, messy, or requires all my attention for times when the baby is sleeping.\u00a0 Of course, this means that you have to be flexible about what time these projects will actually occur.\u00a0 The day you plan on the little one sleeping from 1-3 is the day he will opt for a morning nap.\u00a0 Do the project then!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Key to homeschooling with a small child in the house is to find a place within yourself of calm-like zen.\u00a0 Your day will never go as you planned it.\u00a0 That\u2019s important so I\u2019m going to repeat it.\u00a0 Your day will never<\/i> go as you planned it. Sometimes in good ways, like when the 7 year old suddenly \u201cclicks\u201d on a math concept and does a week\u2019s worth of work in one hour, or in bad ways such as the day the 2 year old threw up on the school books.\u00a0 (It\u2019s its own kind of science experiment to figure out how to get puke out of textbooks.)<\/p>\n
Bottom line?\u00a0 Homeschooling with a baby requires adaptability and a sense of humor, but your children will learn great things from it.\u00a0 For instance, my eldest two can study almost anywhere in any kind of chaos.\u00a0 They\u2019ve learned how to tune out distractions.\u00a0 (That should be a huge help in college.) My #3 has learned he can\u2019t tune out anything and that he has to be responsible enough to know when he\u2019s overwhelmed with outside commotion and remove himself to his room until the chaos calms down.\u00a0 And me?\u00a0 I had to learn that I\u2019m not perfect, I\u2019m totally fallible, I can laugh in the midst of it all, and that occasional chaos doesn\u2019t make me a failure.\u00a0 This is a marathon not a sprint.\u00a0 The results are measured at the end of it all.<\/p>\n
The elementary school kids do schoolwork 4 days a week.\u00a0 I use Fridays for field trips, playdates, doctor appointments, errands, and to catch up on anything we fell behind on for the week.\u00a0 You do not have to do school 5 days a week, and it doesn\u2019t all have to be your wife doing it.\u00a0 You could read then their history text at bed time on the days when your wife is working.\u00a0 (Story of the World is written like a delightful story book.\u00a0 It\u2019s my favorite elementary age history program.\u00a0 I have issues with their handling of the Reformation, but the rest of it is superb.)\u00a0 You just have to think out of the box to make it work.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never seen the place which mandated that all schoolwork had to be completed consecutively or that it had to be done during certain hours.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen many working parents successfully homeschool.\u00a0 They simply have to throw out the traditional school template and figure out what works for their family.<\/p>\n
(As an aside\u2026.we have been known to take the day off and declare it a national \u201cWe\u2019re not doing school today or one of you might die\u201d holiday.\u00a0 They\u2019re also known affectionately as Mental Health Days.\u00a0 You have to build the extra into your calendar the way the public schools build in snow days.\u00a0 Know when you\u2019ve reached your limit and take the day off.)<\/p>\n
We do not have a school room although I do have a designated school shelf for books and supplies.\u00a0 We do most of our work at the kitchen table or around the coffee table in the living room.\u00a0 We have had a school room in the past, but we ended up not using it or liking it.\u00a0 The kids want to be wherever I am, so they tend to follow me as I move around the house.\u00a0\u00a0 I can not<\/i> sit still for hours on end.\u00a0 It\u2019s the ADD I\u2019m sure.\u00a0 I get restless and bored and then a little cranky.\u00a0 We\u2019re all happier if they can come into the living room and sit on the couch or on the floor and work at the coffee table as I fold clothes, and then move back to the kitchen while I make lunch and wash the dishes.<\/p>\n
I do know families with school rooms and they prefer them.\u00a0 It works for their families, and I\u2019m always a little envious of their designated space and that they get to leave the model of the City of Troy out until they finish building it.\u00a0\u00a0 I just remember how trapped I felt to be in the back room all day and prefer to move around a bit more.<\/p>\n
C.H. I hope that answers your questions.\u00a0 Please ask me any more you may have.\u00a0 That goes for the rest of you, too.\u00a0 I don\u2019t pretend to know everything or even the beginnings of everything, but I\u2019ll share with you the things I have learned and which work for us.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Curious Husband asked on the last post: I\u2019ve been thinking about doing this with my wife, but I have always thought about how to handle the baby during \u201cschool.\u201d How do you do it? Also, does school happen 5 days a week or can that be flexible as well? My wife just started working as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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