​Back to School!

I don’t know about your home, but in my house, there is only one person who complains more about going back to school than my children do…me! When I’m out and about, I hear parents excited about the day their little ones go back to school. Not so in the homeschooling world! Here, back to school takes on a completely different meaning. It means that, somehow, we’re going from the busy, packed days of summer, to still getting all those activities done while also teaching a full day of school.
 
Phew! Maybe you’re more on top of things than I am, but I can tell you, in my 14 years of homeschooling, I’ve never greeted the realization that school starting is just around the corner with anything less than dread. Ok, so, maybe I’m a little excited about having a more definite schedule, about my kids not being “bored,” about learning new things together, about crisp new curriculum books with unbent covers, about sharp pencils and new notebooks…it’s just the getting there that’s hard!
 
I know that many of you are just starting out in your homeschooling journey and might be even more intimidated than I am, so I wanted to share with you some (hopefully!) helpful hints to get you facing the coming year with more excitement and less “I feel like a circus juggler with 20 plates in the air and now someone is throwing another 10 at my head.”
 
1. Take a deep breath! It’s going to work out!  - If you’ve already got one or more years of homeschooling under your belt, you know, deep down, that it will all work out. You don’t have to have the perfect plan and the perfect curriculum, you just have to start! Let’s face it, if you did have the perfect plan, it would be in tattered shreds by the end of day one, so embracing flexibility is a must! If this is your first year homeschooling - welcome! You’re going to do great! You’ve got this. No one in the world loves your kid, knows your kid, or cares about your kid’s education more than you do.
 
2. Now that we’ve relaxed a bit and gotten some encouragement, let’s talk about curriculum. I like to start with the core subjects. Math, Language Arts, History, and Science. I currently have 5 kids I am schooling, so open-and-go/self-directed learning curriculum is critical! I need to be able to set up one kid with a subject, and leave them on their own for a bit while I help someone else. One reason I love LLATL is that I can pretty much set each kid up on Monday for the entire week and not check in on them again until Friday. I try to choose curriculum that either the next kid in line can use next year, or even 2 grades can use together. This year, my 7th grader and my 5th grader will be using CSP Science together. It’s very hands on, you build “lap books,” and they’ll be able to help each other.
 
3. After picking the core curriculum, I think about the “extras.” I like having my kids take a typing program each year. I tell them that they can stop when they hit 60wpm. Typingclub.com is a free resource with games and activities to help get those words per minute higher. This year I thought adding a computer coding class would be fun, and one kid also wants to learn “computer hacking.” (Maybe we’ve been watching too many spy movies.) In addition to the more traditional types of curriculum, I also like to think about life basics, such as, having a kid take over making dinner once a week etc. Don’t forget that grocery planning, house chores, cooking, yard work, and more are all “home ec” and vitally important life skills! I have 2 in college who tell me horror stories about students who don’t know how to do their own laundry! Yikes!
 
4. Now you wait for your books to arrive! While waiting, I try to box up all the previous years books, figure out which teacher keys I need to keep out, and create my “portfolio” to save for 2 years to meet Florida homeschooling laws. My portfolio consists of taking every single consumable book they’ve used for the year and putting them in a box with the date on top. Then I throw that box away after 2 years.
 
5. Planning - I like to get one teacher planner book per 2 kids. I only plan one week in advance. I find if I try to plan further out that life will make changes necessary and I’ll be erasing and moving things around. I also plan in pencil. I’ll write out which pages  and assignments they need to do each day so that I can check them off and make  sure things are getting done. It’s a little redundant, since each curriculum often has it’s own teacher’s guide with it, but I like to have it all in one place.
 
6. Start! - Word to the wise: You’re never going to feel ready. You just have to start. Some years we do more of a soft start than others, but we eventually hit our stride and things go smoother. This year we’ve got a 100th birthday party, a family reunion, and college orientation all happening during the first two weeks I’d planned to start school. I almost pushed off starting, but then realized, even if we only get 5 days of school done during those 2 weeks, that’s 5 days more than we would have done starting 2 weeks later.
 
So, if you’re dreading school starting, if you’re really excited about it, if this is your first year, if this is your 20th year, just know that we’re all in this together! No one is doing it perfectly. There is no one way to home school. We’re all different, our kids are different, and our ways of schooling are going to be different too. You need to find what works for you and for your kids and go with it!
 
Good luck to you all! And I’d love to hear your tips and tricks for starting school!