Back to Homeschool 2020

We had our first day of school about two weeks ago and I thought I would share how we are easing into the new year! As I write this it is 92 degrees and sunny and humid outside; we are still in the throes of Wisconsin’s late-summer and it doesn’t exactly feel like fall, or “back to school” – but we were ready for structure and routine again, so in we jumped …

With Thankfulness. I have never ever been more grateful for the freedom to educate my children this way. Thank you, global pandemic, for putting this in perspective! I have a renewed appreciation for many things, including the safety and security that we find in our home routine and the ability to be in-person, together, without masks on! The other two options for Wisconsin children this fall are Online/Virtual learning and In-Person Learning with Masks On (or some combo of the two), both of which I believe are far from ideal, especially for the youngest learners, but I will save that soapbox for another day.

young boy holding back to homeschool sign and laughing

With Grace. I’ve learned through the past few years that no matter how planned and prepared I am ahead of time, I just won’t know exactly what will work and how the day will go until we get messy and try it. So, I make a plan, and then we try it, and then adjust. And then adjust some more, and some more. And then after we’ve got a good groove going, the baby drops her morning nap and we have to adjust again. Ha! You get the picture. It’s a process, and we don’t expect it to be perfect now – or anytime, for that matter – but it will slowly improve.

With Space. These first few weeks are definitely an adjustment period, but easing in slowly helps. By “slowly,” I mean that we don’t do every single subject on my list the very first day – not even the very first week. Our first week, we completed about half of the subjects on my schedule, and we only did a tiny bit of each one. Lots of breathing room and play time left over! The second week, we tried every subject, but still not as long of a lesson as I hope to eventually work up to. Next week, I plan to extend each lesson just a little longer. Not only is this period an adjustment for me, as I work to find a schedule that works for the 5 of us, but it is also an adjustment for the children. I still feel, with their young ages, that I want school to be exciting and joyful and interesting and curiosity-sparking. I don’t expect rainbows and unicorns for every minute of every day, but I hope for the overall atmosphere of our learning time to be joyful. Maybe this will change when they are older, and we suddenly switch to Rigorous and Dull lessons? Or maybe not, and we’ll continue searching for joyful learning to the very end of their high school careers. Who knows! But short and simple lessons help us to ease into the school routine without being overwhelmed.

young boy in tank top holding back to school sign

With Celebration. It’s not every day we get to start a new school year! Kids loooove celebrations of any kind, and I love encouraging their excitement and enthusiasm! I gave them a heads up about a week beforehand that we would be starting school on ___ day, and then the night before our first day I wrote a little message and decorated our dining room mirror for them to see the next day. I also pulled out their backpacks (which they obviously don’t use for actual school) and filled them with some (inexpensive) treats and new school supplies. They were very excited that first morning to open their backpacks and also to explore their new school books and materials for the year. We ended our second full week with a little outing to the coffee shop for treats. Cheers!

young boy holding back to homeschool sign

I like starting our year “early” because it gives me more wiggle room throughout the year. I don’t want to cram every day full of work, or feel like TODAY IS A SCHOOL DAY THEREFORE WE MUST DO ALL THE THINGS. I know when the cooler weather hits and the fall colors explode around us we will be heading for the woods as often as we can, and I won’t feel guilty about it if I know we’ve already found our rhythm and done some solid work in the preceding weeks. So here we are, back in our books and routines and pencil-strewn floors and marker-smudged faces and it feels so so good.