Starting A New School Year

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My son and I were talking the other day about when we’d start his new year.  He’s still working on finishing off grade nine due to some poor decision making, so he’s pushing hard to get things done.  But this is what we do, we talk together about how we’ll start off the new school year.  Every year is different, but every year we have the same conversation.  I suppose it’s one of our traditions, this starting a new school year talk. 

What have we done?  We’ve gone camping, organized materials, set up schedules, and attended not going back to school picnics.  What kind of things do you do when your school year starts?

Camping

Last year my fellows (Dad and son) were talking about how to start the new school year and they decided that camping would be just the ticket.   They headed up and three days later I joined them.   They had time away, I had time to plan things out a bit, totally a win-win. 

NGBTS

NGBTS picnics… we did about three of these.  The Not Going Back to School picnics were hosted in nearby London and drew in homeschoolers from all over the place.  We’d always have a good crowd with a variety of activities to engage the youth.  Scavenger hunts, soccer games, chasing geese and looking for water critters.  Laughter and conversation filled the afternoon, people staying for just as long as they wanted to.  Free books and curriculum were often at hand…the lad and I got SO many books to read, and then in turn passed them along.  It was great!

Organized Schoolwork

My son recently spent a week cleaning his room and making way for organizing his school work for next year.  I’m “NOT ALLOWED” to take pics and show you the results of his hard work. 

Suffice it to say… he has a spot for everything and even more besides. I still have my stash of materials that I really have to go through yet… hopefully, this coming week.  He doesn’t want books in his room that he isn’t immediately using so I need to make sure they are all easily accessible for when he needs them.   Grade 10 will be a busy year for him. 

Set Up Schedules

Even though I have this section entitled Set up Schedules, I’ve learned over the years that schedules don’t tend to work well for us.  Setting up routines work much better for us.   We’ve tried making summer schedules, some of which worked and didn’t.  But mostly we’ve learned follow a routine and simply do the next thing… it’s what works best in our household. 

This coming week we’ll be working together to make a routine that will help him get his school work done in good time this year…no more working all summer to catch up!  🙂   Since we don’t know exactly what the school year will look like we’ll have to work with generalities. 

Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses shares Homeschool Traditions.

Yvie @ Homeschool on the Range shares 20 Best Educational Subscription Boxes (we let the kids choose a new one at the beginning of each school year)

Dawn @ Schoolin’ Swag shares Back to School Traditions. 

Vickie B @ Tumbleweed News shares Homeschool Traditions {NOT Back-to-School Blog Hop}

Adrienne B @ Practicalmindedness shares on Traditions that seal the heart.

Teresa B @ Teresa Brouillette shaes Homeschool Traditions.

Annette V @ A Net in Time shares Starting a New School Year.

Kristen @ A Mom’s Quest to Teach shares Homeschooling Taditions for the New Year.

I hope you’ll stick around and follow along with the 2020 blog hop.   Visit others in the blog hop won’t you?  See how others are starting a new school year.