Ahh, the smell of pencils, new books, new crayons. It’s time for school to start! Our family will start school on Monday. I can’t wait. The kids are even excited. The other day Kade came into our bedroom at 6 am to ask if it was time for school. One of the wonderful things about homeschool is being able to start whenever you want. Here in Boise, August is normally extremely hot and the air quality is terrible. Since the kids have to be inside anyway, I figure we might as well be learning. That also gives me the opportunity to take more of December off.
The annual rush for school supplies has begun. I am amazed at parents grabbing everything and kids begging for more. I just stand at the end of the aisle and watch. Don’t get me wrong, I love it too. I buy new crayons every year whether we need them or not, but I still have glue and pencils etc. leftover from last year. In fact, I don’t think I’ll ever need to buy pencils again. Everyone seems to be handing out pencils this year. I have pencils that fight breast cancer, pencils from the National Guard, and solar pencils that are heat sensitive. I couldn’t even buy those!
I am also amazed when I watch parents buying new school clothes. I am so thankful we can do school in torn jeans – wait those are back in style. Well, I am glad I don’t have to pay for torn jeans. I got to figuring it up and I think we probably pay in curriculum the same that other parents spend on new clothes. What a luxury to spread the cost of clothes out over the year.
In Germany, on their first day of school children are given “schultute” to help ease the first day jitters. “Schultute” are large paper cones filled with candy, chocolates, and toys (see above picture). I loved this idea and now I try to surprise the kids with some sort of gift on the first day.
Another of my traditions is making the first two weeks of school sacred. This means we don’t plan anything and we avoid anything that is not part of school. This helps us establish our routines without distractions.
Do you have any traditions or advice for the start of school? I’d love to hear your ideas.
Growing up, we had no special traditions. We were non-traditionalists.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a start date yet. I'm still trying to finish up kindergarten. I only started in January and we only have a few lessons left. I really haven't been that consistent. I do like the gift idea for the first day of school, though. I have to make 1st grade a big deal, since Kindergarten has been pretty much hit and miss, not very formal.
ReplyDeleteI'd really like to make school a special time.
BTW I found a science curriculum. Do you know anything about God's Design for Science? It's by Answers in Genesis. It has the classical approach as far as subjects go. I can't wait to get it.
Michelle, I haven't heard of that one. I'll check it out. Science is always a hard subject to find curriculum for. Either they require us to do too much, or I have to do all the research and set up.
ReplyDeleteThis year we are using "Christian Kids explore Biology." We'll have to compare notes on the two.
We have kind of planned each year to do something special right before the new year starts. I am kind of a year round schooler, but like to have a fun time to kick off the new year. This year we went camping up in the mountains and had a ton of fun!
ReplyDeleteI loved getting new school supplies each year, and I am afraid that the kids have followed in that path.LOL We got new school supplies and new lunch boxes to take with us on our field trips and park days. The kids are loving this.
LeAnna, I love the idea of using lunchboxes on field trips. Kade has been begging for a lunch box - and now I can justify it!
ReplyDeleteWould you believe, I forgot to give the kids their "gifts?" I just now realized it. I guess they'll have to be prizes for something else. That first week was crazy, but so fun.
Tonya, I am glad that your first week went well! What did you get to give your kids as "gifts"?
ReplyDeleteIt was just some stickers and some fancy pencils - pink and fluffy for Kade and soccer pencils for Jost.
ReplyDeleteLove the lunchbox idea. We are always taking trips to Yellowstone. They can pack their own lunch. That's great!
ReplyDeleteI'll be getting the science stuff here in the next couple weeks. I will definitely keep you informed on the curriculum. Science is not a subject I know - I'm like duffus level. I know what a mammal is, but I couldn't tell you what a marsupial is. So if I can teach it, anyone can teach it.
One more thing, kind of off the subject. As more of an incentive for Josie on the things she struggles with, I have a poster board chart and graphed all the subjects. She gets a sticker on the space when she gets it right. When she gets a set number of stickers in an area, she gets to stay up late and watch a "scary" movie, like Spiderman or Chronicles of Narnia (of course with mommy to ff the real scary parts). She is so excited.
Michelle, I can just picture Josie's delight. Oooh , scary movies. We have handled those scary movies by saying they have to read the book first. As a result Jost is begging to read Band of Brothers. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteWe have lately discovered that Kade is much more easily terrified. We thought Planet Earth sounded beautiful. But the scene of a wolf chasing a baby reindeer literally sent her into hysterics. Oops. Live and learn.
Hmmm...I can't think of any actual school starting traditions that we have developed. Last year, with first grade, was the first year that we did formal, sit down every day and do school kind of school. Philip has been so excited about it both years now that it's been easy to start. We just started week 7 of second grade already. Philip has so much energy that he does have a hard time sitting and getting his work done. So, we have established a reward system for Philip. It would take too long to go into it here. It was interesting reading about some of your reward systems, and it really is true how different each child is. I about homeschooling that the education experience can be tailored to both student and teacher. It's amazing how we can all have our vastly different school experiences with our kids, but when it's all said and done, our kids will be well educated, well adjusted adults(Lord willing!)and won't really matter in what way school was done. That's comforting to me, because all of us seem to conduct school in a completely different way and using all different curriculums. I am so glad that I don't have to be like you, and you don't have to be like me!
ReplyDeleteoops, I meant to say, "I love about homeschooling.." Not, "I about homsechooling..." I can tell I am tired today. My post was abnormally lacking in grammatical skills. (Not to say that my writing is typically grammatically perfect by any means!) :-)
ReplyDeleteI think that's what we are celebrating here... that we are all doing school differntly. There is no perfect way to do it.
ReplyDelete