If you recall, in May I started the “Homeschooling as Supplement” series (2 installments left so stay tuned) because of a question that was posed to me by a reader. I became increasingly interested in the topic as the articles unfolded because I was considering sending Aaron to a preschool (for reasons I’ll discuss in a later post). This would mean that I would be homeschooling Aaron as a supplement by choice. It also meant I not only had to think about the school year itself, but what the Back to School season would like for us.
Since the Back to School season is here, you can’t help but feel the rush. In New York, school will be in session in 2 weeks, which means parents are still scrambling for supplies, backpacks, lunch boxes, new clothing, new foot wear and classroom specific items (i.e. box of wipes, box of tissues etc).
So how do you get ready?
One of the best pieces of advice I can think of is from Mrs. Nicole Venters of Half Mom Half Amazing: Keep it Simple. I say one of the best because I’m sort of Type A and analytical (maybe they are one and the same) and “simple” sometimes sounds like farfetched idea. I’m thinking of how to fit homeschooling into his schedule, what things to cover and practice at home, how it will fit into what he’s learning at school, how to organize his space, and how to keep preschool and homeschool items together but separate.
One thing that is indicative about the Back to School season is that our kids need to be prepared. With that said let’s focus our Back to School for the Homeschooler on the prep. Having all the supplies they need and feeling ready sets a tone and mindset for learning. Also, having the workspace prepped and papers organized does the same for teachers (in our case, we the parents). But again the idea is to keep it simple.
STEP 1: REVIEW
Do a quick review of your child’s strengths and weaknesses and practice making those weak areas much stronger. For Aaron, its holding a pair of scissors on his own. Aaron doesn’t use one very often, which means we need to revisit that. Creating your review list shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes. Using the same activities to build your child’s weaknesses into strengths should make it even easier. That sounds quick and simple to me.
STEP 2: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
Pre-Organization: writing, tools, arts and crafts materials, fun tools piled into one basket
I don’t know about you, but I feel a lot more centered and ready to focus when I have gotten rid of the old stuff and made space for the new things. Right now, I use 5 storage cubes similar to these to store Aaron’s toys and 1 plastic filing cabinet similar to this to store past projects, arts and crafts and paperwork.
Arts and Crafts: I will be keeping all of the arts and crafts materials because they are so versatile and I don’t feel like going through each item to decide what we would not use. The seasons are the same each year and we can always recycle. Look around your house to see what you can recycle.
Toys/Learning Tools: All of the toys Aaron no longer takes an interest in and all the ones we have used to teach concepts that he has mastered will be stored away.
Paperwork: You can also shred unwanted paper work and file away the ones that will be useful for the upcoming year. I didn’t really accumulate paperwork, but I did accumulate a load of notes because of the informal way that I chose to homeschool this past year. That tiny journal will be stay put for future reference still leaving room for the new journaling notebook.
Since Aaron is starting preschool outside of the home, I anticipate a lot of paperwork. The registration process alone was a lot to handle. I can only imagine, what kind of notes, announcements, forms and so on that will be coming my way.
Books: We rented a lot of our books from the library this past year. It made reading more fun as we explored all of the options. We love Sandra Boynton books, but Aaron’s taste in reading is changing. We may be moving on to a log character based books (i.e. Paw Patrol), Mo Willems books and anything subject-based.
STEP 3: CHOOSE YOUR SCHEDULE
Consider all the trips you want to take, the extracurriculars you want to enroll your children in and anything that may cause a shift in the way you conduct your day this year. Schedule your homeschooling in the midst of all of that. Don’t forget to include holidays and vacations (if you desire).
This part is easy for me to simplify this year as I know that homeschooling outside of the brick-walled school will consist of lots of visits to the library and reading a lot more. This will create opportunities for me to ask Aaron a lot of questions, engage the text with him and help build his reading comprehension. That doesn’t sound too complicated right? I think I’m doing good so far with this simple thing.
STEP 4: CHOOSE YOUR CURRICULUM
Whether you chose to unschool, use online tools or purchase one, be sure that you have done your research on what fits best.
STEP 5: GET ORGANIZED
I say, whatever makes you feel sane, go with it. I took advantage of some of the back to school sales with that very thought and came on top cost-wise. The calendar will be to reference days of the week with Aaron to start the day. The clock will be used to help connect breakfast and brushing teeth time with an actual time of day. As mentioned earlier, the notebook will be used for journaling activities as they align with his areas of interest.
I can be very anal and go as far as color coding, but staying in the vein of keeping it simple, I toned it down a bit.
Individual file storage for dumping papers. I’m thinking of colorful sharpies to decorate…
…Or not. The colorful sharpie idea on black was an epic fail.
Filing folders to organize school work and paper work by subject and matter (it’s where all the papers in the individual file storage should end up)
A pencil case for storing all of Aaron’s writing tools
Looks like we need another pencil case
The rest of the items include very minimal things from the preschool: box of tissues, box of wipes, 1 notebook, lunch box and change of clothes (very simple).
If you really want brownie points on getting organized, create a morning to do list you can check off each morning so you don’t forget anything.
Keep it simple, keep mommy happy, keep mommy sane.
Happy Trails!
Wife to an amazing husband, mother to an exploring toddler and an MPA graduate aspiring to impact the world with encouragement in mothering and in social entrepreneurship.
