While I was still pregnant with Theo, Dan and I decided that the 2016-17 school year was going to be our "Grace Year" at our little home-based classical academy. We relaxed the boys' schooling a bit more than normal, for the sake of our family's health and sanity. So how did it go?

Even though I had a couple years of homeschooling under my belt, I had never homeschooled with a newborn before. (A just-turned-one-year-old, yes, but not a newborn.) To say that I was nervous about it was a bit of an understatement. Thankfully, though, I have several ah-mazing homeschool mom friends who had homeschooled with a newborn. If they did it, so can I, I told myself. Much better than my own positive thinking, though, were their words of encouragement and advice. One of my friends told me something surprising. "It's not the baby who will be the biggest challenge," she said. "It's going to be your toddler."

She was right. Oh, my sweet Logan. Logan was 2.5 years old at the beginning of our school year and quite the handful. As many homeschooling moms advise, I tried to include him in our school day as much as possible. Although I did not require him to sit with us for Group Time, I did highly encourage it, sometimes, even with candy. (I'm not above bribery.) I'd guess Logan participated in a little less than half of our Group Times, and he did benefit from it. He can say the Lord's Prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, count up to 12 (he goes from 12 to 16, which is actually kind of adorable), name the days of the week, and say about half of the months in a year. He loves the CC "Timeline" song and requests it often in the car. His attention span did not last much longer than Group Time though, and that's when our school days became challenging.

{Ways I Tried to Occupy Logan, So I Could Do School With His Big Brothers}

{1} I included him in our school day. (See above.)

{2} I set up a little art table. I laid out a coloring book featuring his favorite characters and watercolor paints or big chunky crayons, perfect for his fine motor development.

What Logan did: He mixed all the paints until the water was a muddy brown (not painting in the book at all) and then proceeded to drink the water. He threw the crayons on the floor, pushed the table up against the fireplace, and stood on it, so he could dangle off the edge of the mantle by his fingertips.

{3} I made a "sensory bin." 

I filled a clear plastic tub with beans. I added some of his favorite Paw Patrol figures and fun utensils from the Dollar Store.

What Logan did: He played with the bin for no more than 2 minutes and then dumped the beans onto the floor.

{4} I set out Play-Doh with lots of different tools.

What Logan did: He played briefly with the Play-Doh and then declared, "This is boring!" It took me at least 15 minutes to clean up the mess he made in 2 minutes.

{5} I set out Kinetic Sand. I put it in a bin and told him very clearly and sternly that the sand MUST stay in the bin.

What Logan did: He shouted, "Snowball fight!" and flung clumps of Kinetic Sand at his brothers. The mess spanned several rooms.

{6} I told Logan he could play outside, but he MUST stay in the backyard where Mommy could see him at all times.

What Logan did: 30 seconds into his outside time, I could no longer see him.

{7} I rotated the boys' toys. Every Monday morning, I brought up a fresh bin that contained toys the boys hadn't seen for several weeks.

What Logan did: OK, this one actually helped. The morning a new bin was opened, I was pretty much guaranteed 45 minutes (or more!) of Logan playing in the living room by himself. As the week progressed, though, Logan became increasingly tired of the toys, and I had less and less time each morning.

{8} I "filled his tank."

After breakfast, I spent 15-20 minutes giving Logan individual time. I read to him, did a puzzle with him, and played Rescue Bots with him. (Playing Rescue Bots means that I hold a Rescue Bot toy and do exactly what he tells me to do with it. If I try to initiate any play, I'm doing it "wrong," OR I immediately get my head bitten off by a dinosaur. You can imagine how much fun this is for me.)

What Logan did: Logan loved the individual attention, and then he got upset when it was time for me to do school with the big boys or take care of Theo. It also seemed that the more one-on-one time he got, the more he wanted.

{9} I gave Logan a snack and put on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood in the living room.

What Logan did: He ate his snack and gave me 20 minutes of peace.

I relied on a combination of toy rotation, filling his tank, and PBS Kids to get us through the school year. Logan watched more television than I would have liked, but sometimes it's about survival. (Oh, the mom-guilt!) This tactic also posed an additional problem. The cartoons became a temptation for another child who was supposed to be working on his school work. He would wait for me to be distracted and then sneak off to watch television with Logan. Yes, keeping Logan happy, safe, and undestructive while trying to be productive was my biggest challenge of the 2016-17 school year.

We had other challenges, too, that made me very thankful we had given ourselves grace this school year. Theo's nursing schedule made for a choppy school day, and it took him several months to (a) nap for any decent length of time and (b) nap in his crib, so that was very disruptive too. I was not myself all school year. Although I slapped a smile on my face whenever I saw family or friends, one friend called me out as she was dropping off dinner at our house. (Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who provided meals for us this past year!) "Oh, Kristin, your eyes!" she said. "You look so tired!" I looked closely at my eyes in the mirror after she left, and she was right. The whites of my eyes had ZERO traces of white in them. They were decidedly pink and bloodshot to boot.

In spite of the challenges, though, I'm happy with what we accomplished this year. Shane was close to mastering his CC material. (I really didn't put much effort into the memory work this year, so that was huge!) He completed his Math, English Grammar, and Writing programs, learned how to type, continued studying Latin, and generally had a great third-grade year.

Conner did awesome too. He is still dependent on me for most of his work, so his schooling was a bit more difficult. (Just ask Ms. Erin, his piano teacher. There was more than one week in which Conner didn't practice at all. Oops!) He was exposed to the CC material, which is really just fine for him at the Kindergarten level, in my opinion. He made big strides in reading and writing and is on pace to finish his Math book over the summer.

Conner really matured this year, and I discovered that I could now read chapter books aloud to both Shane and Conner, which was huge. (Previously, I would spend 20 minutes reading picture books to Conner and another 20 minutes reading aloud to Shane from a chapter book.) Not only is the combined reading a more efficient use of my time, but both boys are exposed to a lot of great literature. We read Tuck Everlasting, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Pippi Longstocking, and Swiss Family Robinson, to name a few.

The boys also took a lot of great classes: swimming (before Theo was born), piano lessons, choir, tennis, and a science class at a local nature preserve.

But is it really about the checklist of which books we finished or how many classes the boys were enrolled in? NOPE. Wait--I don't think I emphasized that enough.

NOPE! NOT AT ALL! NOT ONE IOTA!

There, that's better. 🙂 No, what it is really about is training up our children with hearts for God and coming together as a family. This year was a bit of a rollercoaster ride, and the Lord was so very faithful to us in getting us through the thick of it. We were so very blessed by our family and friends who helped with childcare, carpooling, meals, and so much more. {My mom even brought the boys to CC for the first six weeks after Theo was born. That was a monumental help!} This past school year, our family was completed and we became closer than ever. These two things--the Lord's faithfulness and the solidifying of our family--are, to me, the two things that will define our year of grace.