5 Ideas to Launch Your New Homeschool Year

Have you started your homeschool year already? By this time of August, a lot of folks are back to school, and most years we are up and running too. This year in my homeschool, we’ve decided to wait until September, which means we are in Final Countdown mode right now!

Whether you’ve just started or your first official day of school is coming up soon, here are a few things that I think are important to getting a successful homeschool year started. And just like those educational films we used to watch way back when I was in school, we’re going to count down to our feature presentation!

Decide what you want to accomplish in the year ahead – in broad terms. This is a vision for your homeschool, more than just which textbook you want to finish, but the character traits and the personal skills you want to develop.

Why are you homeschooling in the first place? Revisit that question regularly to help you get perspective and remember your purpose. For a number of years, it’s been my practice to choose a Scripture that will be the theme for our homeschool for the coming year – a mission statement, if you will.

By August, I am usually long finished with the majority of the lesson plans. I have the curriculum chosen, and have a pretty good idea of how many units in each subject we need to cover per week, and how many days a week we’ll work on each subject. But this is when I actually plug those assignments into the calendar and come up with more detailed plans for the first few weeks.

If you’ve had your lesson plans done well in advance, now is the time to put on the finishing touches and make final adjustments. Then be prepared to make a few more adjustments once you get started! If your style is more relaxed or you haven’t made a plan yet, try to at least sketch out a general routine for your first couple of weeks, so you and your kids have a guideline. And again, be prepared to adjust as needed.

I like to do one last clean-up of our desks and the shelves and crates where we keep schoolbooks and resources just before our official start date. Sort of a last checkpoint to make sure we do have everything we need and that the unnecessary stuff is out of the way. If I have any curriculum still hanging around that we’re finished with, I offer it to our homeschool group. Sometimes I’ve been able to really bless someone with a bargain (or even a gift) on curriculum for a hole they just realized they needed to fill. Anything we can’t get rid of (or don’t want to) but don’t need gets stored away, so we can at least start the year with neatly organized work areas.

Try to have enough paper, printer ink, art supplies, and the like to see you through your first few weeks without interruption. Especially printer ink. *ahem* Ask me how I know. {Read more about simplifying and organizing. You might also want to read about 7 essential supplies for your homeschool.}

No matter how many years we’ve been doing this, I still find it helpful to have a “back to school” meeting with the family and review the expectations:

Those are the kinds of questions to discuss before getting started. Get input from your students when appropriate about what their preferred routines would look like. I had one student that strongly preferred to work on math first thing in the morning and get it out of the way, so we did our best to accommodate that wish.

Then there’s your support system people – your spouse, your family members, your fellow homeschoolers. Know who’s got your back and encourage each other.

Whether it’s a glittering red carpet event, or a limited release in certain markets before the general release, make your first day (or week) of school special somehow. If you’re ready to get started on the school year with a big bang, that’s a red carpet event. Your first day of school might be a big field trip or a big family cookout with a bunch of homeschool friends.

If you prefer to ease into your school year, with just a couple subjects the first week and adding a bit at a time until you’re into a full schedule, that’s a targeted market release. Maybe you’ll want to have special breakfasts during the first week, or a couple of themed days, but keep it more low key.

Whatever your style, get some first day of school pictures and do something that celebrates the milestone of starting another year, and makes it a fun and positive experience.