Five years later I am revisiting some of these posts and part of me is nostalgic,missing the days when I was homeschooling and my boys were younger. Another part is laughing, because they barely seem like the same kids.
Since the Home and School Mosaics site has been down for several years now, I will post these on my own blog for posterity, nostalgia, and a laugh.
I hope you enjoy this re-run of September is Not My Favorite Month.
Here in New York, most school districts begin their school year right after the Labor Day weekend.
When my boys were younger and in public school this was an extremely stressful time for them.
As the lazy days of August began to wind down, it was easy to see them growing more apprehensive.
To make matters worse, well meaning adults would begin to ask all of the usual back-to-school questions. What school did they attend? What grade were they going into? Did they know who their teacher was going to be? Were they looking forward to the first day?
In their own sweet, quirky, and endearing way, my children would try to be honest and polite when speaking with grownups. On a day before the start of first grade, Boy Two was playing the part of public relations/spokesperson for the duo when he replied, “September is not my favorite month.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. He said it with such sincerity! Now any time our summers are interrupted by questions about school we laugh and use that as our standard answer.
Thankfully, homeschooling has made that first day less loathsome, but none of us are waving the pompoms as we contemplate getting back into the daily routine of cracking open the books. Once we get started we are fine, but we do love the laid back days of summer!
It was for this reason I learned to begin gently.
We have some traditions that help us jump start each year.
These rituals are the tiny sparks that start to smolder and eventually ignite the brain cells to get back into the swing of hings.
Our favorite is “not back to school” day. When yellow buses roll out and our publicly schooled friends attend their first day of classes, we celebrate our break from this lifestyle by sleeping late, going out for lunch, and catching a movie matinee.
The next day, when we officially begin our new grade level, I make a special breakfast.
After we eat, I surprise my students with some new games, books, and clothes for the school year. We spend the first day simply checking out the new curriculum, setting up a schedule, and listing our goals.
While they don’t exactly cheer the start of each new school day, we do manage to enjoy our time together. They are bright students and I love helping them learn.
Do you have any special traditions that help kick off your school year?
