Not Back To School: How To Kick Off The New School Year

I'm linking up with the rest of the moms of the Canadian Homeschool Blogging Team and Lisa Marie at The Canadian Homeschooler , to celebrate Not Back To School!

Well...I had to think long and hard about this one. This will be my 13th year homeschooling, and I really don't think we have any major traditions when it comes to celebrating. I actually asked my crew about this one and they looked at me as if I had horns growing out of my head. "Mom...we just ease into the homeschooling thing". Yes...yes we do.

I believe our "highlight" is going "not back to school" shopping after everyone goes back to school here in our area. I take two separate days; a girls day and a boys day and spend some quality time with them. We hit the mall, shop for a few items they've outgrown, haircuts or trims are usually in order, and with the girls I take them for a pedicure ( that parts more for me). We discuss goals and things they wish and I wish to accomplish during the year. It's a good time for us to touch base and see if we are relatively on the same page.

Some years we've also skipped the back to school shopping until much later and just have been on lake time. ( taking holidays while everyone is preparing to head back to school).  While everyone else is planning in August, I'm a little more anal and like to have my ducks all in a row by June. I have most of my curriculum picked if not bought by the end of the school year, so I don't have to panic in August. Don't get me wrong, I do come back and tweak everything and do some planning in August. Mostly my planning consists of getting back on the wagon with meal planning, and buying last minute books that I've heard are good reads, over the summer. I let things happen, and if by Christmas, curriculum isn't working, I re-jig everything in January with the help of some even more well-seasoned homeschooling friends who've seen it all and been through it all.

So what can you the reader get out of this quick blog? HAVE FUN! Don't let yourself get bogged down with all the nitty gritty details of "school". Take time to just enjoy your children. If something doesn't  seem right with curriculum it's OK to change, but don't panic. They will learn the three R's. Most likely they won't remember the workbooks you bought them or the math curriculum they did, what they will remember is spending time with the best teacher they can possibly have: YOU!