Good Morning March
"How do you homeschool with an infant?"
Hi! For new subscribers, this is a substack primarily about homeschooling. We use of a mix of curriculum, Classical Conversations, and relaxation. Our family of seven lives in Vermont in the United States.
Hi everyone! Snow is heaped outside my window and the sun is sparkling across it, lighting up the room. I’ve been making a lot of this recipe of Julia’s that just takes opening a few cans and braising chicken (so good, so easy). We been cutting pomegranates into halves for the kids to meticulously mine for tiny garnets as their afternoon snack. Chocolate sounds delicious and a few more movie nights have snuck into the weekly schedule. It must be the end of February!
So we welcomed home our fifth child at the end of September. It feels almost exactly like all the other times I’ve had a baby, in the sense that I can’t predict much about my day and I often don’t have my hands free when it seems I really need them. But it also feels very special and sacred in a way that I wasn’t always able to dwell on with each of the earlier babies (especially if a toddler was on the scene as well). Joe and I sometimes joke that we feel like grandparents, gently indulgent of the wiles of infancy, shrugging “it will pass” as each supposed “regression/stage/thing” comes by. Longer strands of patience embellish our necks, bracelets of curiosity clink on our arms.
Into the narrow field of doable-at-this-stage for me, life becomes education. You know what? YOLO. You only get a baby for a year. You only get a newborn for a couple of months. Then it’s done. As a nearly 40yr old, let me tell you, when the babies grow up: it’s done! Over. So while I cannot keep up with the daily schedule we did prior to the baby coming, respectfully, who cares? I can lean on a foundation of a couple sturdy strong ideas that we all understand; and let those goals carry us through each day.
This foundation is composed of three simple but robust concepts:
+ Read aloud together about an hour a day. Vocabulary, story arc, processing, imagination…Critics agree, minute for minute read aloud time is super powered with learning.
+ Go for a walk outside together, which also ends up taking about an hour. Sunlight, sleep cycles, fresh air, movement, sensory development, physical therapy, it’s a layer cake of great things out there in 60 simple minutes.
+ Sit down to dinner together. Sitting down to dinner means I have a dinner food plan and we set the table beforehand, often before 4pm, because that seems to set the mood and encourages me. Candles, low lights and a glass of wine emanate promise. Like so many things in life, it’s just more fun when you get ready in advance. Our time at the table is peppered with complaints, insults, and apologies, just like every day life. But it also usually unearths a new story Joe or I have never told before from our childhoods, laughter, taking turns, practicing courtesy, and creating food lore within our family as I learn their favorites and share mine.
(Writing this reminds me of Jenny’s lovely Dinner is My Love Language journal, $29)
Self-led learning: Lists! The kids like to make lists for themselves. Christmas lists, vacation packing lists, ideas for birthday parties. All of these lists involve handwriting and spelling practice and are self-motivated. Lovely.
Two of them are on a serious penpal bender, writing multiple missives each week. Only the saints know what is in the these letters. I found one, a week or two after the baby was born, that began with: “Not much has been happening at my house.”
It’s important to mention: here’s the way the 9yr old and 11yr old write their letters: they dictate them to their ipads, correct them until they are perfect, and then write them out in sparkly markers. I don’t think they would write letters if they had to ask me for the correct spelling of everything they wanted to say.
Soo…in the past I have recommended the checklist as a great way to let kids know your expectations for the day—chores, homework, practice, etc. Specifically in this post I wrote it all out:
Their Brilliant Idea
The single most formative move for our school year this year has been the spiral-bound notebook. Here’s the idea: give each child a spiral-bound notebook and each day write all the of assignments for their day in it. That’s it! The most formative change we’ve made this year, right there.
But for now, I needed a solution that didn’t require me to write out a new list every morning. So, taking a note from the checklists of Carol Hudson (see visual below), I’ve put together lists of things they can do almost entirely without me, like typing practice (more on that program below), piano practice, and preparing a class presentations for the week.
I do think the daily checklist works best for our family and look forward to getting back to them.
Class presentations: We’ve continued to make it to our weekly Classical Conversations co-op in some haggard form or another. So on Mondays the 11yr old, 9yr old and 5yr old decide want to present on to their class that week and do whatever research is needed to accompany what is typically a three minute presentation (“all about raccoons,” “Our Christmas traditions” and “Quartz: a mineral” were recent topics), make an outline for their presentation (either drawings or notes), and find any accompanying visuals.
Yes, Another Typing Program, I think this is the one!I’m very happy with our current typing program. Typesy. Subscription-based (meaning no ads), lots of games to try in addition to the learning program, good verbal accompaniment, and not stressful! I can’t tell you how many programs I’ve seen that actually seemed designed to stress the student out as they learn. Awful.
You can set up an account for each student within the homeschool family account. $67 for five years access. I would suggest ages 7 and up, as the 5yr old tried it, quickly excelled to too-high a level for her comprehension and grew frustrated.
A Great Podcast: Not Young. Better.I’ve been enjoying the interviews on Not Young. Better. She’s gathered quite the list of wholesome influencers, some of my favorites. I particularly enjoyed the interview with Jodi Mockabee as she reflects on how things have changed in her family dynamic now that they have a few teenagers in the house…but I would recommend all of these casual, chatty interviews with seasoned & salty mothers to you:
Googled latelyI saw this eclectic category on xtines newsletter and loved the idea..sort of a mood board in word format?
Here are some my recent searches…
Palmer Luckey, military interview (Palmer was homeschooled)
Anne Carson on Parkinson’s (beautiful)
Banshee, definition (huh, who knew?)
Maybe Baby’s Favorite Things 2024
And a quote for you I will always sing the praises of a kitchen window that looks out to the back garden, and a washing line that you can get to without going down stairs. These are the things parents really need in their life, in my opinion. I was seven years into motherhood before I relished in these simple but altogether life-changing house features. They really did make a difference to my days.
My third baby was born in early September! Long time Erstwhile Dear reader, now Substack reader. I almost emailed you to ask if you would write about, how does one fill up the cup of the older kiddos when you have so little in your own cup during the baby days in a larger family? This essay touches on that lightly and I so appreciate the wisdom of a fifth time Mama. Thank you!
''Not much has been happening at my house" Ha!
I am planning to transfer my home ed bits & pieces to Substack. I was only able to move a couple of posts from Wordpress without any trouble, unfortunately.
I had a blank template that I was happy to email to people who asked but I'd have to search for it. I'll let you know when I find it if that would be helpful to you.