This year, our family decided to try a new homeschool curriculum, and we’ve been very satisfied with the results. So satisfied, in fact, that we want to recommend it to all our homeschooling friends.

Well, “decided to try” may not be the most precise wording. It might be more accurate to say this curriculum was thrust upon us, ready or not. In fact, it arrived on August 20, 2007. No, not by delivery van or in the mailbox. This curriculum arrived by stork. A beautiful, bouncing third baby boy to add to our family of two boys!

After spending several weeks planning our fall schedule and organizing our school materials and waiting and waiting for our little bundle to arrive (a week past his due date, in the hottest days of summer, of course) I was blissfully unaware of what folly I had committed! I laugh now, when I look at the weekly schedule I had prepared, broken down in 15 minute increments from 6:00 AM until 8:30 PM. Math? Check. Language Arts? Check. Art, music, geography, history, science, extracurricular activities? All accounted for. Yes, there was a timeslot for everything. Except the baby! Oops.

But how exactly does one schedule diaper changes and baths because of diaper blowouts and feedings every hour, that last nearly an hour? How was I going to get my older two sons educated with all of the baby’s needs? Panic began to set in.

Well, an amazing thing happened. We survived those early weeks of school with many, many interruptions. We experimented with school happening at different times and different locations, and my older boys still learned and the baby grew and thrived. The older boys learned flexibility, compassion, tenderness, self-sacrifice, and how to work the washing machine! They learned about early childhood development, time-management skills, and where babies come from (sort of). And, as a bonus, they continued to learn reading, writing and arithmetic.

I recommend this curriculum to every homeschooling family! It isn’t easy, cheap, or available in stores, but the lifelong lessons of love it teaches are worth every penny and inconvenience. You might want to get started now so yours arrives in time for the next school year!