{"id":39928,"date":"2015-07-29T06:30:18","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T10:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simplehomeschl.wpengine.com\/?p=39928"},"modified":"2026-02-18T10:30:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T15:30:42","slug":"hardest-part-sarah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/hardest-part-sarah\/","title":{"rendered":"Being outnumbered by babies and toddlers: The hardest part of Sarah’s homeschool year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hardest\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Written by Sarah Mackenzie of Amongst Lovely Things<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

N<\/span>o one likes to be outnumbered. If you\u2019re in a soccer match and the other team has more players on the field than you, it feels like defeat before you begin.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t just have more children than I do hands- I have more children than I do appendages<\/em>. Juggling three kids under three while trying to teach my older three (13, 11, 9) was my biggest struggle last year, and it was a doozy, if I do say so myself.<\/p>\n

And I do.<\/p>\n

Being outnumbered is daunting enough. But to have three toddlers? All at once? That\u2019s a madhouse even if you aren\u2019t trying to teach the oldest pre-algebra and cover the details and implications of The Louisiana Purchase at the same time.<\/p>\n

My friend Trina recently said<\/a> that the difference between surviving and thriving is the simple act of savoring\u2026 there is always something sweet worth leaning into<\/strong>. And I think she\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

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\"IMG_0116\"<\/a> \"IMG_9788\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The temptation I faced all year long was to default to survival mode. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard,<\/em>\u201d I would tell myself, \u201cbut it\u2019s only for a season. Soon it will be over, and we\u2019ll have calmer days. We\u2019ll be able to get to that history project or read that book together or do more than merely hang on for the ride each day.”<\/em><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no savoring in a statement like that.<\/strong> And anyway, I don\u2019t have any grace for tomorrow- for that \u201csomeday\u201d when I don\u2019t have toddlers underfoot anymore.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have grace for it because it\u2019s not my reality.<\/p>\n

This. Now.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1395\"<\/a><\/p>\n

These toddlers, emptying the kitchen cupboards onto the floor, again. Pulling books off shelves with wild abandon. Filling their diggers with scoopfuls of dirt in the backyard and unloading them into little piles on my kitchen table. Again.<\/p>\n

And lest you think my toddlers are the only hard ones, my school-age children picture-perfect, let me disabuse you from that way of thinking. She\u2019s crying over her math lesson. He\u2019s not even trying to name those notes correctly in his piano book. There\u2019s complaining. Bickering. Eye rolling.<\/p>\n

Here. Now.<\/p>\n

This is what I have grace for. This moment, where I am pulled in too many different directions and I\u2019m unsure of how to proceed, this is what I can turn into a thriving moment by simply learning to savor it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0238\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This past school year, I\u2019ve simplified to such bare bones that on numerous occasions, I\u2019ve had to stop and really consider if home was still the best place for my kids to learn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a lot of doubt. A lot of overwhelm. I cried. It was all probably exacerbated because I\u2019d just written a whole book on teaching from rest and unshakable peace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I got to live that book<\/a> in a refining-fire kind of way, and it was hard.<\/p>\n

My homeschool does not look like yours.<\/strong> It is quite\u00a0likely far less impressive than your own. Last year, we didn\u2019t do any riveting hands-on projects or super exciting trips. We read aloud together, but not nearly as much as I would have liked. We made some progress in math, though not nearly as much as I hoped.<\/p>\n

Frankly, there is nothing out of the ordinary or wildly impressive about doing the daily things. Math problems, listening to the history audio book, capitalizing proper nouns, hashing out a spelling list.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2067\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m finding that the hardest part of homeschooling with toddlers and babies underfoot is that the vision that lived in my head since I first dreamed up this crazy idea to homeschool looks nothing like my reality.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t really that many field trips. I don\u2019t feel like my kids have hours upon hours to pursue their passions. Much of our day is doing the next math problem, writing the next spelling word, putting away the laundry, sweeping the entryway floor.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s daily and ordinary and not the spectacular, passionate kind of lifestyle that I once dreamed it to be.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But I\u2019m okay with that. Finally. Maybe?<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9801\"<\/a> \"IMG_9924\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m still working on being okay with that.<\/p>\n

Because I have grace for this life, this reality, not the one I fancy. The savoring happens in the now.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What has helped me to savor, amidst the daily chaos:<\/h4>\n