Back to School is Just Not That Big a Deal…

So local schools begin in January and overseas friends were getting back into their school rhythm after their winter break my inbox literally exploded with “Help we are headed back to school and I can’t cope emails.” I have to say it was the first time ever that I noticed one question get asked over and over again – without pause the emails just rolled in. I couldn’t reply to all of them… I was overwhelmed.

se7en-03-Feb-14-IMG_2276.jpg

Overwhelmed is exactly how many of our readers were feeling, some of you are homeschooling for the first time and some of you are beginning a school year for the tenth time… Either way the sudden change in routine from chilled out summer days, or snuggly winter days, to back into the steadier routine of school is enough to make anybody a little daunted.

Se7en + 1 Words of Encouragement

  1. You Totally Can Do It:
  2. There is little exciting and more daunting than a fresh pile of schoolbooks. The thing is you are on a long journey with your children, they are not going to University within the week… slow and steady will win the race. The bigger challenge is to remember that creating memories and relationships is far more important in the scheme of life. Work on those memories and your slow and steady chip at the school pile will eventually pay off.

    DSC_0025

  3. Enjoy Your Kids and Let Them Know It:
  4. One of the huge differences between mom friends that are homeschooling and those that are not: The “nots” are kind of relieved that school is back and they can “get back to their lives…” but I was a little alarmed at the number of homeschool moms who were really dreading the whole “back to school” thing. Honestly, if you aren’t enjoying your homeschool journey, you have the power to change it.

    Stop and take stock of what is working and what isn’t… really just stop worrying about all the things that you “should” be doing and do the stuff you know you and your kids need to do to have a fabulous school experience. I can assure you that an extra workbook or sitting at the table for one more “really good educational experience” isn’t going to make your school a better place – having a challenge to get outdoors every single day, whatever the weather may well be the sort of adventure that you and your kids will enjoy together. And will do incredible things for everyone’s mental health and suddenly school will be something to look forward to.

    DSC_0678

  5. It Takes Time:
  6. I know when you follow our blog it all looks so easy. I can hear you saying that… yeah right her perfect kids just slid back into school mode on Monday and never looked back. Not exactly. But consider this: 11 years (for hood #1) + 9 years (for hood#2)+ 7 years + 5years+4years + 2 years + 1year… adds up to a collective 39 years of schooling. I have been around the homeschooling block, I have found my way so to speak and it is a journey. My younger children do not remember a time when we didn’t spend a portion of the year in school… the look forward to it eagerly. There is a far bigger chance of a morning snack if we are in school, someone is always declaring baking their lesson of the day.

    You will find your way, but it takes time. I must be honest there were years when my intentions for back to school compared to the reality of back to school have been so far apart as to only be described as a galactic fail. That doesn’t mean that we were failing, just that our expectations were a little ambitious, if not ridiculous. Now the further we go in our homeschool journey the less and less our school looks like school at home and more it looks like we are just living and learning is just part of our lifestyle. The transition from not schooling to school is in fact barely visible.

    se7en-05-Feb-14-DSC_0254.jpg

  7. Commit to it:
  8. Some folks like to say, “we will see how it goes” for me it just works better to know there is no alternative. For us homeschooling is a commitment, there is no alternative (just the thought of getting eight kids to countless schools in the morning and packing lunch for them everyday has me recoiling in terror). Homeschooling has to work and I have to persist at it. This is not some educational experiment to see how things turn out. We are committed to making this work. There are plenty of days when I have wanted to throw in the towel before breakfast time, let alone lunchtime… but that has a whole lot to do with my attitude, rather than our schooling!!!

    DSC_0108

  9. Just Start: You do not have to have all your ducks in a row to start school. Honestly I haven’t even ordered books for this year yet… we have enough to go on. There are plenty of things on our shelves right now that our kids can work through and call school… nothing like a couple of Usborne books and a pile of DK books from the library and we really are good to study a couple of topics. We have a few books from our previous year that we didn’t quite finish and it is more than enough. Basically I make sure that we are reading a fabulous book together as a family, something historical, or something geographical, or something scientific for everyone and we are pretty much good to go. While we use the local library I let my kids roam free and they naturally gravitate to the books that intrigue them. Passions are always a good place to start.
  10. se7en-05-Feb-14-DSC_0252.jpg

  11. Find What Works for You: Before we began homeschooling, I spent a year researching a number of curriculums, local and overseas – I tackled it as a research project, as one does. I attended every single talk, event, webinar, determined to find the curriculum that was best for us. Apparently there is no perfect curriculum, but you should be able to find bits and pieces that are perfect for you. You have to find what you are comfortable with. Sonlight for us is the golden globe award of homeschooling… the fab thing is that you can teach multiple kids at once. A lot of people say it is pricey – nothing compared to school fees and for us we only have to buy new books for our first kid each year and the a couple of workbooks for the rest – for us it is actually economical – even when we add in the cost of shipping. The fact that it all comes in one box with a file and schedule sheets… I don’t have to source my own material and I don’t have to wait for a book to be “in” the library… just unpack the box and start… the price of the time that I would spend away from actually teaching my kids is just not worth being able to open a schedule and go.
  12. se7en-05-Feb-14-DSC_0258.jpg

  13. What About the Three R’s: Keep in mind that homeschooling is not school at home, you have taken the leap to drastically change how your children learn. For so many folk there picture of school is entirely: math and grammar and spelling… well I don’t bother with spelling – the better they read they better they spell… concentrate on reading to them. Grammar, well the more good language they hear the better they understand the grammar – read good books to them… and math – play a couple of boardgames or cards and they will out strip their peers without batting an eye. What about learning to write and doing all those other totally vital skills… they will get them, just let them live along side you. Trust me when your kids need to know something, nothing on earth will stop them from finding out about it. That being said we have powered our way through tons of math and grammar over the years, but that is not the centre stage of our school and is just a small part of all the learning we have done.
  14. DSC_0097

    And the se7en + 1th …

  15. Your Kids Will Learn Despite You:
  16. You really don’t need special equipment or books… you can just begin… and some of my kids would be labeled hideously at school, some of them have taken years to learn to read proficiently and others have learnt as toddlers. All children are different and learn at their own rate. Some of them are exceptionally good at some topics and well not so good at others. The joy of homeschooling is you can cater for individual kids. Everything takes time, lots of it and it is hard to see any results in the day to day, especially when you feel like you are stuck in the mire of frantic domestic chores and getting things done. Just keep at it and over the months and years your kids will learn.

se7en-04-Feb-14-IMG_2337.jpg

I am all about getting off to a good start, but your entire school year does not depend on the first day of school or even the first week. There have been years when our first day of school consisted entirely of baking cupcakes and reading a pile of picture books… those tend to be good years.

All this talk about back to school and our kids declared this week as back to school round here. Now our school ended somewhat abruptly at the end of last year and we pretty much went from one day we were doing school to the next day – not. Our books were exactly as we had left them. I never got round to packing away work that was completed, I never got round to a whole lot of preparation for school that I normally do. On Monday morning my kids were ready, enthusiastic and they plonked themselves at the table eager to learn. I hadn’t really planned anything, I hadn’t prepared lists of things for each child to do, no schedules, and no lists to tick. We simply carried on where we left off. This year our first day of school meant plotting and planning our calendar and a walk on the beach… off to a good start, I think so!!!

19 Replies to “Back to School is Just Not That Big a Deal…”

  1. Even though I don’t homeschool I still ENJOY your words of encouragement and love!!! :):) You could replace homeschool with LIFE— you words ring true for any goal! :):):) Hope you have the most fantastic school year ahead. I look forward to seeing them all learn and grow! xoxoxoox

  2. Hay Katherine Marie, Thank you… you leave the best comments. We just received your card, in real life – thank you so very much, how special is that!!! Can you believe how fast all these kids are growing up – too weird I tell you!!! Hope you all have a fun weekend!!!

  3. Hi se7en!! I just had to comment on this post! We have been h/schooling for 5 years now and to be honest, I really only feel like I am starting to find my own personal groove now! I am sure many reading this just starting out will feel so daunted by this comment. The thing is: for the majority of us, there has never been another option besides “school”. To be one of those brave enough to step off the well-worn path requires courage you may not feel! I think you said it well in your post, but it bears repeating — we are not ‘doing school’ with our kids, we are Living Life!! In a culture that is very good at handing our kids over to others, it can be a bit of a journey to figure out how to actually live alongside and with these small people! Especially to do it and enjoy it!!! I love your freedom and encouragement! Xx

  4. I really needed some encouragement after our first week of back to homeschool. Just having the 2 kids and only one of them doing school work, I felt a little like I have neglected the little one….. well anyway, I needed some encouragement. Homeschooling is NOT the easy option. It really is investing in your children, and I love what you say about developing a relationship with your kids, and kids just want to learn so really, that is not the hard part. The hard part for me is overcoming my own selfishness and stuff.

  5. Hay Mlisska, You are so right… it took me forever to find my homeschool groove… because one’s school is constantly changing. Just as you think you have arrived your kids grow up in a leap and bound overnight and they are ready for new and interesting ideas… and I think as hoeschool moms we are constantly reading and learning and coming up with new ideas… yes our school is constantly in motion – there is no set “this year is for this plan” – different kids and different plans!!! Thank you for the lovely comment and I hope you have a fabulous weekend!!!

  6. Hi Paula, Thank you for your very true comment, I am planning on a follow up post nest week. You are so right, the panic is not so much about having eager and enthusiastic students and it is a lot about us being ready and prepared for them. There is indeed a lot to overcome!!! Meanwhile I hope you are having a fabulous weekend!!!

  7. Se7en, since we (my seven children and I) found you we have pored over your previous posts and received so much encouragement and inspiration! I love to read through and discover that you are on a journey too — and it is so wonderful to see how you are becoming more and more relaxed and also focused on what is truly important (though that is a theme that has rung true throughout all your posts!). I am in a stage now where we have decided to be more disciplined and establish some routines with the vision that one day we might run all the “have-to’s” on autopilot and become as relaxed as you are! As always, I leave your post feeling uplifted and ready to continue the “race set before us,” knowing that we’ll get there but also enjoying the process in the meantime. Thank you and God bless you!

  8. Love this post! May I make a request? A post on what each of the Hoods is doing for Sonlight/ school this year? Thanks!

  9. love your homeschool posts, they are the reason I fell in lve with your blog …and the crafts! Thank you!

  10. And how/where you find interesting thing to print out and add to journals and expand on learning? How and when do you get organised? ..ok I will stop now. X

  11. Hay Lecia, Thank you for your lovely comment I really enjoyed reading it!!! Hopefully we will be bringing you lots more homeschool posts in the near future… Wishing you all the best on your homeschool journey!!!

  12. Ha Lillian – I know that is the post you want to read… and I will pop it into my “we have been boxed” post. Hoping to press the “order” button any day now!!! Hope you have the most brilliant day and thank you for faithfully reading away at our posts!!!

  13. Yes Tammy, that post is coming… I am just getting it into a “Se7en + 1” format for you… I tell you the truth, you are the font of ideas for “homeschooling posts” keep on asking for posts!!! Have a fabulous week!!!

  14. We’re “back to school” this week, and I’m really enjoying re-reading your school posts for inspiration. This one especially gave me such an encouraging boost, this reminder to keep in perspective what is really truly important. Thank you again — may you be refreshed and doubly blessed! Hope your family is all feeling better now as well!

  15. Lecia, Thank you so much… I am so thrilled to know that you are enjoying stepping back in time… and so thrilled that you find encouragement there… Wishing you all the very best with your new school year… hope you have tons of fun!!!

  16. Hay Melanie… Happy to help, there are so many things one feels compelled to learn when you are getting started… in retrospect, that was a passing phase and we quickly settled and moved on to a daily rhythm. Wishing you all the best of luck on your homeschooling journey!!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *