Teach Them Tuesday: First Day Traditions for Homeschoolers

This Friday starts a new school year for our us! We sure like our little family school! It’s been quite an adventure for the last 12 years with sooo many fun memories made! One of those memories is our back-to-school tradition, and today I’d like to share with you how we make the first day of school special and a success. I have many photos from all of our first days of school, but almost all of them have my kids in them (naturally) and I don’t post photos of my children on the blog.

First of all, I had to come to realize years ago that cramming in a special breakfast, back-to-school buckets, first-day photos, notebook-making, and a full day of schoolwork in each of our subjects was setting us up for frustration and failure. Not a successful start! After the first few years, I heard another homeschooling mom share the idea of a “Pre-first-day-of-school” just for the purpose of doing the fun first-day traditions, without starting any new work.

So here’s how our Pre-First-Day-of-School goes! I schedule it for the Friday before our first full week of school, and it includes the folowing:

1)Back-to-School Buckets– The pictures below are last year’s buckets. I don’t want to post this year’s before my kids get them, so I’ll share those after this Friday. Anyway, the buckets (or some other container they can use for the school year–sometimes a pretty basket, sometimes just a Rubbermaid container) contain some basic school supplies they need like pencils, pens, notebooks, etc., but I try to pick out patterns or themes that suit their interests for that year. They also get their journal for the year and sometimes a planner. I also add some first-day snacks that I wouldn’t normally buy, and maybe a cookie mix or mug cake mix, and ALWAYS GUM because the little bit of rebels in us gets tickled over being allowed to chew gum in school, haha! Silly, I know.

If there is a need for a fresh backpack or lunchbox, or something like earbuds, I might add that in too (we don’t use backpacks and lunchboxes on a regular basis so they don’t wear out as quickly for us). But, the absolute favorite item in the bucket is the fall gift! The fall gift is just one little item to get them super-excited for fall at home such as fuzzy socks, new hot chocolate mugs, or a fall candle. As you can see in last year’s buckets, they got their comfy socks. We love being cozy and comfy while we do our schoolwork!

My oldest daughter does still get a bucket, just as she still gets a Christmas stocking and an Easter basket, but she no longer joins us for the next few activities since she’s in college now.

2) First-Day Photos– I have photos from every first day of school and it’s so cute to see how the children changed from year to year. In their younger years, my girls liked to use cute props like stuffed animals and princess wands. One year my younger daughter insisted on wearing her ballerina tutu! Nowadays I make a sign on my chalkboard for the kids to stand beside. And the kids have always insisted that the family dog has be in the first-day photos.

3) Notebooks– Once we settle back inside, our next order of business is setting up their notebooks. They have more than one notebook each year, but these are what we call their “big notebook”. It has dividers for each subject, and this is where they file all completed work once I’ve checked it. This way I have all their completed assignments, separated by subjects, to store in our records. I empty these at Christmas break and then again at the end of the school year, put big clips on the stacks, and place them in their storage box for that school year (kept in the attic).

We take plenty of time for making our big notebooks, using scrapbook paper, scissors, and glue sticks, and just enjoying it as a craft. I let them choose their scrapbook papers for the year ahead of time, something in a theme or colors they’ll enjoy looking at all year. Some years we make our journals too.

4) Mom meeting– After notebooks, I meet with each of the kids individually for just a few minutes to go over their school year and look at any new books and material together. I give them a little pep talk and also let them ask questions or voice concerns.

5) Special Lunch– Up until a few years ago, I prepared a big pancake breakfast for our pre-first-day (pink pancakes when my girls were younger!) with a very decorated table, and my husband would go into work a little late so he could join us. But when my girls got into their teen years, they lost their appetite for heavy food in the mornings and just preferred fruit or smoothies. So I moved to doing a special lunch instead– something fun like tacos or going out to a restaurant–and I just fix my son a simple breakfast just for him because he has definitely not lost his appetite for breakfast! And since we always have pizza on Friday nights, we make it a special back-to-school pizza that night!

6) Pool!— When all our morning activities and lunch are done, we head to the pool! Sometimes other homeschool friends join us too which makes it a fun back-to-school celebration for all the kids! If the weather doesn’t permit swimming, I try to do something else fun for the afternoon.

So once we’ve had our Pre-First-Day-of-School on that Friday, we are ready to start the school year with a bang on the following Monday! And again, I so wish I could share more of the sweet photos from these activities. We’ve had so much fun with this!

If you’re just starting out homeschooling, I hope this gives you some fun ideas for first-day traditions. And for my long-time homeschool friends, please share your first-day traditions in the comments!