After the family vacations, barbecues and fireworks have died down, it’s time to prepare for another year of homeschool. “Before everything else, getting ready is the secret to success,” according to sage-like advice from Henry Ford. This is especially true of homeschooling as we take full responsibility for our child’s education. Here is a checklist of activities to help you enter the new school year more prepared than ever.
• Read curriculum reviews at: homeschoolreviews.com, homeschool-curriculum.org, homeschooling.gomilpitas.com, cathyduffyreviews.com, and time4learning.com.
• Buy new curriculum on Amazon, Craigslist, Ebay, or your avenue of choice.
• Try the library for curriculum ideas with books like 52 Nature Adventures for City Kids and Playful Learning.
• Choose a few fall extracurricular activities. You may choose acting camp, nature camp, art camp, or look into your local history museum’s programming.
• Begin a list of field trips. You can attend concerts, plays, go to the local botanical gardens, visit a science center, visit a dairy farm, and plan a few seasonal / holiday outings.
• Look for flash cards, books, board games, and art supplies at garage sales.
• Read up on the art of homeschooling. Try: 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, Homeschooling for Dummies and The Homeschoolers Book of Lists.
• Revise the kids’ chore chart and your daily activities schedule.
• Ask your kids what they want to learn about or do this this year. It may be making music videos for YouTube and it could be Krav Maga. At any rate it will be an interesting and fun year.
• Add volunteer opportunities with a local charity to the year.
At the end of the day, your kids will be well-rounded if you can pack a lot of diversity into their days. You not only want them to have a strong educational foundation, but you also want to prepare them for real world tasks, introduce them to the arts, and instill a spirit of giving that will transform them into warm-hearted adults. With homeschool you really cater the education to the needs of the child… something you just can’t do with most public and private school options.
What exciting plans do you have for homeschool this year?
not homeschool, but small farm town school so almost the same :) great links, a few i would love to use for helping the kids learn at home as well. hope you have a wonderful school years!
We have a large selection of historic landmark markers
in our local area. The marker gives details about the historical significance
of the location. We’ll go for a “historic landmark hunt” with the
camera to record our findings. It’s a lot of fun and very educational.
Thank you for the ideas. I am so blessed to be married to a homeschooling mom. Year in and Year out I watch my wife faithfully doing each of the above. I pray for God to bless each and every parent who choose the greater path in education.:)
I have 2 teens and a 5 year old, so we have a busy activity schedule this year. My high school senior will be taking the ACT and SAT, applying to college, and I’ll be looking for scholarships and financial aid. Our 4-H club is planning field trips to a natural history museum and a native american festival (so far). We’re also working on community service projects for the year.
I highly recommend trying 4-H. If there’s no club in your area, you can start one. That’s what we did, with the help of our local 4-H representative.
My oldest daughters will also continue their guitar and piano lessons (for the 4th year). My little one has just started her first dance class. And they’re all excited that co-op starts in September. My summer break is over!
I have 2 teens and a 5 year old, so we have a busy activity schedule this year. My high school senior will be taking the ACT and SAT, applying to college, and I’ll be looking for scholarships and financial aid. Our 4-H club is planning field trips to a natural history museum and a native american festival (so far). We’re also working on community service projects for the year.
I highly recommend trying 4-H. If there’s no club in your area, you can start one. That’s what we did, with the help of our local 4-H representative.
My oldest daughters will also continue their guitar and piano lessons (for the 4th year). My little one has just started her first dance class. And they’re all excited that co-op starts in September. My summer break is over!
This year I was a good girl and started getting ready several weeks ago, but once we begin I find there are always items I forgot to get. So it takes a couple weeks to get totally settled in.
We start our school year after Labor Day. We have been using our curriculum, Time4Learning, for several years now so we are fortunate that we don’t have too much to do in the way of planning. At least curriculum planning, lol. It takes me a while to plan all of the projects, experiments, field trips, etc., that we want to do for the year. I love the “historical landmark hunt” that a previous poster spoke about. We do that too! :)
This year does bring about an exciting “first” for our homeschool though…both of my boys (ages 12 and 7) will start attending Master’s Academy, which is a fine arts program for homeschoolers. They will do Art, Arts History, Theater and Music! Very excited to see how that works out this year…
Hope everyone has a great year!
Katie
A computer junkie, workbook hating, TV watching, iGadget addicted, eclectic homeschooling, soccer mom of 2 boys
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Don’t forget to plan some back to homeschool traditions! My favorite part.
Well that and new school supplies and books.
Well that and teaching someone to read or do addition or a fraction or how to write a good paper.
Well that and getting to spend all day with them.
Guess I really love homeschooling. :)))
(Have some back to homeschool traditions on my blog if you need some.)