For many homeschoolers, August represents a return to school after a summer break. In our homeschooling years, we had activities to make the first day of school special. Those things we did to make it special also made it less likely to be a successful real day of academic school. Not meeting our academic goals for the day made a very exciting day turn into a disappointing day. So we learned to do our special school-beginning kick off a day before we began our usual bookwork school.
I think I loved our memory-making school starting activities as much or more than the children did—celebration breakfasts, school supply surprises, photos, instructional meetings, and setting up notebooks were the mainstays of that day—no real schoolwork!
What about you? What do you do to make the first day of school special whether you are homeschooling or your children go away to school?
Trusting in Jesus,
Teri
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15
I am a teacher at a Public school. I work hard to make great relationships with my students on the first day. I take each of my own children on a special fun day out of their choice before school starts.
Even without “real” schoolwork, kids can still learn a lot on the first day of school. They learn how to get their notebooks and supplies organized. They get a sneak peek at the books and materials they will be using, which will hopefully whet their appetite for learning. I expect most kids will come to appreciate the “memory making” activities as they grow older and look back on those early years.
We do back to school pictures, a special breakfast, and of course new school supplies are great. When the kids get home, I go through syllabi to make sure there is nothing I need to sign, send, or username/passwords I need to get.
What a neat idea!
I am quite curious about the school supplies surprises… could you post some more pictures?
Many blessings 🙂
We always tried to make the first day special too. We took fun pictures with their books and weighed and measured everyone. They loved seeing who grew the most in the last year.
Awww what cute pictures! We do a pre-day, which each of us do about a 15 minute meeting with Mom talking about how much time is needed in each subject, getting all pencils, erasers ect prepared in our pencil boxes, have a special breakfast, taking pictures, and anything else that is needed to be discussed about the new school year.
Blessings 🙂
Emily C.
Yes! This was one of the very first “Teri” ideas I incorporated into our life. Day one: special breakfast, pictures (bonus points if I remember to do the girls’ hair) and a math lesson. Second breakfast. Grammar. Cookies. We build up to all the subjects we want to cover and really get going the following week, but taking all the “should and musts” out of that first day is a lifesaver!