First Day of School!
Today is the first “official” day of school for Emma this year. I am planning on homeschooling year round. It seems like a good fit for us, being able to take time off when we need it, but also allowing for learning opportunities all year through the different seasons.
Today is also the first day of the public school’s 4 year old program. There is a little group of girls that are the children of people that I went to high school with, and they are all starting the program this year. It makes me a little sad that she won’t be having the same experience that I had in public school (I actually really enjoyed public school!), but I know this is the best choice for us.
I have a few fun things planned for us today. It will start out with a special breakfast and also will probably include a trip to the library since everyone is back in school today. I am going to take “1st day of school” pictures, of course, and do little interviews with the kids (which should be interesting with a 2 and 4 year old). I want to have the special “first day” experiences that I had growing up, and I don’t want her to miss out on anything! I foresee a lot of trips to the museum/library/beach in the coming months. All places that I would prefer to visit when they are not so crowded!
We received Emma’s new school curriculum in May, and started immediately. Who can resist new books after all We had several weeks of going strong, but then the outside started calling to us. More specifically the garden. So we put a lot of the book learning on hold in favor of learning through experience. I think that schooling all year will help us work through the seasonal rhythm that I enjoy living in New England. It will also be easier once we start reporting to the state, which we don’t need to do until Emma is 7. The portfolio review is due at the end of August each year with the letter of intent to homeschool for the next school year. I figured it would be easier to run our school year along the same lines instead of trying to start when I receive new curriculum books.
Are your kids back to school? Do you have any start of the year traditions?
I am linking to the Hip Homeschool Hop.
I started homeschooling in 1998 with my oldest and only son. He was in 10th grade at the time.
The girls then asked to be homeschooled too. So the following year I had my son in 11th, oldest daughter in 8th grade, middle daughter in 3rd and my youngest in pre-school. However, she did attend Headstart ages 3 and 4.
She is the only one that has been homeschool K- present, which is 10th grade.
I really miss having all of them.
Yea–happy beginning to the school year 🙂 There is so much experiential learning you can do and mix with book learning, so I can forsee so many great lessons coming out of your place there in ME. While at the Grand Canyon this summer, I saw a mom sitting down with her kiddos going through a work-book and it was so great to see the learning occurring while incorporating the trip! Enjoy and good luck with the weeks/months ahead. You seem to have some eager lil learners over there so I can imagine it'll be fun to teach them!
Enjoy a wonderful year! We started on Labor Day! Yes! Labor Day! We weren't doing anything special so I though "Why not?!" LOL We made a special back-to-school chocolate Oreo cookie cake. This started with my oldest first back-to-school cake in PRESCHOOL when we went to Montessori.
We also use the whole year to get our time in. This year my son wants to finish before June because we are going on a cruise and he "doesn't want to worry about finishing school after all that fun." I hope you have a great first day!
Sounds like a good day! Isn't the flexibility of homeschool nice? My kids have missed out on that back to school feeling too, so I try to make the first day fun by wrapping up their pencils and books and stuffing their backpacks/desks/whatever to make it seem special. Have a great year!
It sounds like a very exciting school day planned! Can't wait to see the pictures!
Pierce started kindergarten 2 weeks ago. And the twins have 'meet the teacher' at their preschool today. They'll be going 3 mornings a week. I hope your school year is full of fun and learning 🙂