If you are a homeschooler and you are anything like me, you mentally and physically prepare yourselves for, and count down to, those wonderful back to school sales. Why do we do this? I can only speak for myself, but knowing that I’m going to get a year’s worth of glue, glue sticks, notebooks, pencils, markers, crayons, etc., for a mere fraction of what it would cost me any other time of year simply makes me giddy.
Over the years I have had public school friends scoff at me when I talk about getting ready for the new school year. They think I have it easy because I don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money on backpacks, lunch boxes, clothes, etc. While this is true to some extent, our back to school preparation consists of far more than just buying what we need and being done. We have curriculum planning and scheduling that needs to be taken care. Most of us have paperwork and forms that we need to take care of with our local school board. It can be a process that takes some families a couple of months.
Once you have prepared yourself for the new school year, what do you for your homeschooled kids? Do you concern yourself with refreshing any material from last year, just to make sure they didn’t forget anything on their summer break? We like to play educational games online before we get ready to go back to school. Games are an easy way to reinforce a concept or subject matter, without making the boys feel like they are “doing school.”
What about getting your kids pumped up for the new school year? I know mine used to get a little upset that kids that went to school were getting all excited about getting their school supply lists and returning to the classroom. A couple of years ago, we started having a NOT Back To School celebration with our homeschooling group. Besides making it a nice picnic lunch, all the kids brought a supply of some sort that they were going to pass out (something cheap like pencils, erasers, etc.) and share with their friends. Parents also brought materials that they were no longer going to be using. Reading books, workbooks, teaching manuals and manipulatives, even some toys; just whatever we had around the house. Then we would have a big swap meet.
As far as school supply lists, and getting them excited about that kind of stuff, try letting your children come up with their own supply list. Tell them to sit down and write down what they think they will need for their upcoming school year. Take a look at it and see if what they think they need is reasonable. Make any changes if you absolutely have to, then let them take their lists and do a little back to school shopping for themselves.