Tips on setting up beginning of school year routines that help kids get to school and work through the school day stress free.
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Setting Up School Year Routines
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This year I have half of my kids in our local public school and half at home. We’re three weeks into the new school year, and I’m happy to see everyone settling into beginning of school year routines. My public school kids get up and pack their own lunches using this system. My homeschool kids know wake up, eat breakfast, and pull out their school piles. Some days they are super efficient, and some days are painful, but so far we’re making good progress. It helps that my 12-year-old is working with some amazing curriculum this year thanks to Timberdoodle.
I’ll post my 9-year-old’s curriculum soon. She loves hands-on learning, and products like the Science Expeditions Subscription that she is working on in the photo above make a world of difference. Lily LOVES babies, and I agreed to watch a baby 20 hours a week this fall in part so that she would be highly motivated to get her work done before the baby shows up (there were of course other reasons, too. Baby watching is a big commitment!) So far Lily gets up early to finish all her work every morning. She’s a pretty awesome baby care giving assistant once the baby is here, too.
Beginning of School Year Fun
Back to school isn’t only about work! We celebrated the first of my two summer birthday kids’ birthdays this weekend. 12-year-old Emma spent two days making all of these adorable unicorns. If you want to give fondant a go, we highly recommend Satin Ice fondant. It’s super easy to work with, and even tastes pretty good. I discovered the brand earlier this year at Creativation. These guys were a huge hit with all the kids at the party, and a great creative experience for Emma. I’ll update this post with her tutorial on how to make these cupcakes once she publishes it over at her blog, Maker Emma.
Monthly Goals
I love setting monthly goals to focus on personal priorities and create a focus for the month.
How did August Go?
August goals kept us busy last month! Emma returned from her hike a little early due to wildfire smoke, but she still had an amazing experience. The kids are, thankfully, settling in nicely to the beginning of a new school year. We’ve had a few bumps, but nothing major so far. Lily’s had a sleepover this weekend for her birthday. It was a hit with her and her friends, and now she wants many more sleepovers. Anna’s bird birthday party is happening at the end of September. Please do send over any fun ideas for a bunch of 5- and 6-year-old girls!
So far the eighth grade curriculum Timberdoodle sent us is a huge hit with Emma. I hope her enthusiasm lasts, because it sure makes homeschool easy! Anna is making some real progress with All About Reading. She isn’t a fluent reader yet, but she has gotten pretty good at sounding out words. The homeschool conference we attended was a HUGE hit with all four kids. I’ll write more about that soon!
September Goals
August was all about settling the kids into a new school year. September I’m hoping to work make some serious blog related progress!
- Fix old blog posts and make new landing pages to organize this site better. I’m working my way through the Learn to Blog Dominate course to help with this project.
- Schedule at least one blog post on Top Toy Finds and Great Family Reads. Blogging in general took a back seat all summer, including last month. I’m ready to start up again. I have huge lists of things I want to write about for both of these sites; now to write the posts!
- Enjoy a family reunion weekend with some of Mike’s relatives.
- Celebrate Anna’s birthday with her bird-themed party. Emma has some adorable cupcakes planned for this party, too.
- Write up at least two posts from our summer trip.
- Blog about the homeschool conference we went to last month.
- Write a simplified version of my weighted blanket tutorial. It’s my most popular post of all time, but sometimes people need a short version they can read through quickly! I have images for this post nearly done, so may get it published this next week even!
That feels pretty ambitious to me, so I’m leaving it at that.
What are your beginning of school year routines? My friend Cassie has another approach to school lunch menus in her goals post for this month. What are your goals for September 2018?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Updating old posts and making landing pages is sooooo much work. I’ve been working at that for ages, and once I get things all figured out, I realize there was something I missed.
At least you can go edit it back in! I feel like I put off the landing pages and put them off and then it’s not really that bad once I tackle it, but it’s so hard to make myself start for some reason. I really love having the landing page for my own personal use once I get it done, though!
20 hours a week is a huge commitment! I am impressed that Lily can follow through on that. I hope that all your kids will thrive in school this year!
I can’t believe that you have the time to watch a baby for 20 hours a week! It sounds fun though! What do you think of the Learn to Blog Dominate tutorial? I’d love to hear more about that on your blog.