Who is ready for school to start? Once upon a time, we never thought about school beginning until the end of August. Now schools start earlier than ever! Some still wait until after Labor Day to begin, but others will open within a week or two. What about you? When will you be starting your home school? School is starting soon. Are you ready? Here are some ideas to consider as you get ready to start school.
Do you have all your plans and ideas organized?
You have been adding school ideas to your Pinterest boards all summer, right? Or, maybe you come up with brilliant ideas in the middle of the night and scribble them down on a scrap of paper beside the bed. So, which of those ideas do you plan to use? Will any of them work for you? Just because something is a great idea does not mean it will be great for you this year. Remember, the idea is to make your home school plan fit your family, your family’s schedule, your kids’ personalities, your budget, and so on. Make it work for your life now, not for life in your dream world.
Where do you “do school?”
Where does school happen in your home? And again, this question does not require a right or wrong answer, just what works for you. In our home school, we have done school at the kitchen table, used individual desks in our family room, sat on the couch or the floor, even occasionally worked outside. One of the best parts of homeschooling is its flexibility – if something isn’t working, you can easily adapt, adjust, modify, and change to something that works better. If having school at the kitchen table is too much of a hassle, move to another room. And remember, not everything needs to happen at a desk or a table. Listening to a read-aloud can happen on the floor, or outside under a tree. I think one or two of my boys learned to read sitting next to me on the couch. And sometimes they were upside down half the time! But it’s always a good idea to have a general location specified for schooling.
Have you ordered all your curriculum?
That sounds scary – big words – curriculum! Just another way of saying all the textbooks or workbooks you need for the teaching you intend to accomplish. Your curriculum requirements can vary a lot, depending on the age of your children, the approach you are using for schooling, what you have available from previous years, and so on. Some people choose to use a publisher’s complete set of materials for each grade. Others take more of a hybrid approach – science from this publisher, math from a different company, history from other sources. Again, you get to choose what works best for you! Whichever approach you decide on, it is always a good plan to collect your material before you start the school year.
Need some help finding the curriculum to use? Check out our Resources page. Also, see if our curriculum consultation service would help you out.
What school supplies do you need?
I am always amused walking through the stores in August, watching tired parents shopping from lists for each child’s school supplies. And I am always glad I don’t have to deal with that! What supplies do you need for your homeschool? Your choices in how you do school will help determine what supplies you need. Most likely you will need pencils, maybe pens, notebooks, folders, crayons, colored pencils. But if you have any of those left from last school year you don’t have to purchase all new ones unless you want to, of course. Getting new school supplies is always exciting for kids – a brand new box of crayons, new folders with cool graphics, etc. And August is the best time to purchase any of these items because stores have their best school supply sales then. So think ahead for anything you might need and stock up when the prices are lower.
Get your school year off to a great start!
So you have gotten your ideas organized, your location picked out, the school books selected and ordered, new supplies purchased. What’s next? How about some great ideas to start the new school year? Something to make the day memorable for your kids. A way for them to feel the importance of a new school year. Here are some ideas for you to consider.
- First day of school photos
- Picnic lunch in the park
- Scavenger hunt to find their new school supplies or books
- Decoration day to put their individual touch on their new notebooks and folders
- Breakfast party
- Puzzle day – related to something they will study this fall
- Educational game day
- Start a new read-aloud book
- Nature hike and picnic (or even just snacks)
Whatever you choose to do, make plans to start your school year with a memorable or fun experience. What ideas have you used? Please share them with us in the comments! We’d love to learn about your creative ideas.
So are you all ready to get your new school year off to a great start?
Keep checking back for more ideas and suggestions for your home school. Check out our Facebook page (Rhine Home School Services), sign up for our newsletters, and stay in touch!
