5 Practical Ways to Prepare for a New Homeschool Year
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Photo: Horia Varlan/Creative Commons
Whether you're a homeschooling family picking up where you left off last June or a working mom trying to get organized before the rush of fall sports and Back to School Night takes over, a little advance preparation can go a long way toward a happy and successful school year. Try these five tips for getting your home, your schedule, and yourself in order.
1. Pretend it’s Spring. Who says you need to wait for spring to do a little cleaning? Label three large boxes: Trash, Sell/Donate, and Memories. Have your kids sort though all their things (books, artwork, and toys included) and place them in the appropriate box. Then commit to trashing, selling, or donating the items in those boxes.
Ridding yourself of the old and unused stuff around your house will free up space for new learning toys, workbooks, art supplies, and projects, while allowing kids to keep some of their more sentimental things will serve as a reminder of how far you have already come (scrapbooks, collages, and memory boxes also make great art projects).
If you're already part of a homeschool group, get everyone together to trade items from your Sell/Donate boxes: This lets families with younger kids save money and resources by claiming the gently used items, and gives older kids the chance to keep new-to-them books, games, and puzzles.
2. Draw a Circle of Support. You don’t need to go it alone! We all need friends and family to make our homeschool successful. Ask Grandpa if he'll be on call to take Junior to the park while you work on a science project with the older kids. Cook a double batch of your famous chili and share with a friend, who will in turn give you a pan of her secret-recipe macaroni and cheese.
Identify those people now and talk through ways in which you can support each other throughout the year. Can a neighbor take the kids if you are sick, have a doctor’s appointment, need a mental health hour? It helps to know you have a plan in place for those (guaranteed-to-happen) days when you need a hand.
3. Keep Your Space Clean. You will want to enlist the troops for this one -- and by troops, we mean the kids. Teaching children to care for their home environment by keeping their rooms, play areas, and study spaces neat and organized is a valuable lesson, but is doesn’t have to be a boring one.
Make a list of tasks, hold a family meeting, and divvy up responsibilities. Even the youngest kids can run around with a duster or water the plants. Allow your children to choose some music, set a timer, and get moving (but remember: The end result doesn't have to be perfect). Knowing that the household chores are taken care of will not only lighten your load, it will allow you more time to be engaged in your kids' education.
4. Make Food your Friend. Making three meals a day -- plus snacks! -- can sometimes feel like a series of battles and a huge waste of time. What am I making? Oh, look at all those dishes! Is it time to eat again? Stop fighting with food and make it your friend, instead.
Get out some index cards and write down a different dish on the front of each card and the ingredients you will need on the back. At the beginning of each week choose -- or have your kids choose -- what meals you are going to make. Make it extra-educational by having your kids use the cards to generate a list of groceries you will need (how many apples, how many chicken breasts, how many boxes of cereal), and then allow them to help you shop, prep, and cook the meals.
5. Kill the Martyr in You. Homeschooling is an awesome opportunity to be with your kids and experience life together, but you are not just a parent: You are a person, so make room for yourself too. Choose something you love and schedule it in (right now!) for at least once a week.
Take a dance class, sign up for art lessons, join a running club, do whatever makes you feel reinvigorated and energized. (Grocery shopping doesn't count!) It is important for you to put it on the calendar and stick to it, because it will make you a happier parent -- and a better teacher.
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