How to Stay Sane While Homeschooling and Expecting a Newborn

Are you expecting a newborn and homeschooling as well? Are you worried you won’t be able to keep up with school and baby? No worries, plan ahead and take some time off to enjoy the baby. Pregnancy brings a lot of joy and morning sickness as well, you will need to plan ahead a prepare for your little bundle of joy. Decide how much time you would like to take off once the baby arrives. How will you make up for that time off? You can start the year earlier, if you take summers off, start the new year a few weeks ahead of the time you would normally start. Extend the school year into the summer to make up for the time off. If you school year round, you won’t feel as much pressure trying to fit everything in for the school year. If you are feeling tired in your last trimester, try to get the basics done – reading, writing and math. Do the same after the baby is born to ease back into your normal schedule so that you are not overwhelmed with school and the baby. You could also work on parent intensive subjects before the baby arrives and assign independent work once the baby is born. Tips for homeschooling with a newborn on the way:

• Use educational online games
• watch educational movies or documentaries
• Do your read alouds while nursing or cuddling baby
• Prepare frozen meals ahead of time to heat up the first week after baby is born
• Ask for help from family members and friend

It is actually easier to homeschool with a newborn than it is with a toddler. They sleep a lot and are not mobile at this stage. It’s okay if your house doesn’t look perfect, enlist the older children to help out more while you are on the mend. When I had a newborn during the school year in our homeschool, she was born around Christmas time. We schooled up until the week before Christmas and we started are regular homeschool schedule a month later. I started with the basics and added in the extra subjects as I could handle it and if I couldn’t manage it, I threw on a science documentary. It was too much work for me to gather up supplies for our science curriculum. I would suggest doing this ahead of time if you want to continue with subjects that take a lot of prep time on your part. It can be done, but don’t push yourself to go beyond your limits. See the other posts in my Ultimate List of Homeschooling Questions series.