Getting ready for a new homeschool year is something that I look forward to doing every year. Getting new supplies, placing orders for materials, organizing our bookshelves, cleaning and organizing the house – it all gets me revved up and excited for the new school year.
Whether this is your first year to homeschool or your 31st year as it is for me, we all need to do many of the same things to get ready. In this post, I am going to share how I get ready for a new homeschool year.
Inventory What You Already Own
Even if this is your first year of homeschooling, you likely already have many materials in your house that you can use for homeschooling. The first step in getting ready is to take an inventory of what you own and pull it together in an easy to access area. Gather and organize your pencils, rulers, crayons, scissors, books such as dictionaries and thesauruses, literature books you own, and any other educational items.
This will help you to know if you have to order a copy of Oliver Twist or purchase markers for the new school year.
Make a Comprehensive List of What You Need
After I’ve gone through my materials and gotten them organized, I grab my list of resources (books, art supplies, lunch box, and such) that I will need for the upcoming school year. I make a comprehensive list that includes the retail price of each item. I want the pricing so that I know a deal when I find one.
Buy Used, Barter, or Borrow First
Once I have my list of books and supplies with the prices created, then I begin shopping. I always start my search at local used curriculum sales or online selling sites like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or Amazon. I ask in my Facebook homeschooling groups if anyone has the item or items that I need. Sometimes folks will just give you the item you need. Other times they may be willing to barter with you for something they need. Once a friend and I traded items. She got homeschool curriculum and I got a basketball hoop! Facebook Buy Nothing groups are another place you may find something for free.
Your local library also may have an item you want. Yes, there are limits to how long you can keep the item, but when your time period expires, you can have a family member reserve the book on their library card, thus allowing you to use it that much longer.
Once you’ve exhausted the free and inexpensive places, then look at a curriculum supplier such as Rainbow Resource or Christian Book Distributors. The advantage of purchasing from these types of suppliers is that you can get a variety of materials from one source and if the amount you spend is high enough you will often get free shipping.
Organize and Clean Your Home
Getting ready for a new homeschool year also means getting my home ready. I don’t do spring cleaning but I do like to organize and clean my home before we start up a new school year. It’s much easier to do school when the house isn’t cluttered. Once the school year starts I don’t have as much time for organizing or deep cleaning projects, so I like to do these activities in the summer. An organized house is easier to maintain and saves time because you know where things are and don’t spend precious minutes looking for needed items.
I also get rid of anything we aren’t using or no longer need during the summer. I sell items that are salable and donate items that are too bulky or time-consuming to sell. Another bonus to selling items is being able to use the money on items I do need.
Organize Your Calendar
When I’m getting ready for our new homeschool year, I get my calendar ready too.
In my house the calendar is one of our best and most used tools. Anything we are doing gets entered into our shared Google calendar and is color-coded. I put all of the non-negotiable activities on the calendar and then fill in with our academics. This may seem like an odd way to schedule school, but the reason that I do this is because if we schedule school first, we will miss out on park days, social meet ups, and other homeschooling activities that normally occur during typical school hours. I also put in the start and end dates of our school year, winter break, spring break, and any other planned days off in the calendar.
Meal Planning
In my previous post, 4 Habits for Homeschool Success, I mention that meal planning is essential to homeschooling success. While you may be able to wing it with meals from time to time, I find that lack of planning creates frazzled parents and hangry kids make unhappy students. Any sort of planning beats no planning. So, you don’t necessarily need to cook up a month’s worth of meals and fill your freezer to make getting meals on the table easier unless you want to do that. Just creating a menu each week and making sure you have the ingredients will be a big help.
Once you have these six steps of getting ready for a new homeschool year completed, all you have to do is enjoy the rest of your summer! Happy Homeschooling!
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