31 Days {Day 12}: Go Along For the Ride

I recently talked with a friend who was preparing to begin her homeschool year with a 6-year-old, 3-year-old, not-quite 2-year-old and a 2-week-old!   She  asked me  how I occupied little ones who seemed to cause endless chaos during the school hours. 

I thought and thought about my answer for her, but I couldn't think of anything to say because I don't have a magic answer.  (If you've discovered the secret, let me know.)  I told her the same thing I am going to tell you:  go along for the ride.  I don't mean that I let my pre-schoolers have the run of the house, but I've had to recognize that no amount of entertaining and pacifying will do the trick all of the time.  Sometimes it is simply not as pleasant and quiet as I'd like it to be. 

 This is the third time I have homeschooled with a 1-year-old in mix.  I've noticed that regardless of personality, when we begin school they display their dislike by crying...a lot.  I've had a needy child, a laid-back easy-going kid, and one that fell in-between, but it was the same each time. And though it grates on my nerves, I work with it and talk through it and slowly, slowly it gets better.

I think that it probably the most appropriate thing to leave with you.  It gets better.  Really.  This is a season that will pass.  We will all find ourselves on the other side of it and we will sigh with relief and we'll also realize that we've learned lessons that homeschooling alone could not teach us.