The first week of homeschool can either be fun and exciting or a huge struggle. If you take kids straight from spending their days at the pool and playing games and expect them to finish an entire homeschool day, you’ll probably have a really tough time.
This is why I think it’s so important to ease back into homeschooling slowly. Spend some time getting into your weekly and daily routine, and you’ll thank me!
Easing Back Into Homeschooling
Why Ease Back Into Homeschooling
I think it’s really valuable to ease yourself back into homeschooling. If you go straight from time off to a full day of lessons, you’ll probably get overwhelmed, and so will your kids.
Would you run a marathon without training before hand? I’m willing to bet you wouldn’t. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it would definitely be a bad idea to do that.
If your kids have spent all summer lounging and doing whatever they’d like, it will be a complete shock to their system to be expected to jump right back into full homeschooling days. Taking the time to ease in slowly will set you up for a better homeschool year.
How to Ease Back Into Homeschooling
There are tons of ways to ease yourself back into homeschooling, so you can do whatever fits your family!
Start With Core Subjects
You can start with whatever your core subjects are. The ones you’d get done if you had to cut your homeschool day in half. For many families this is reading, writing, and math.
Start your homeschool year with only these subjects, and then add in your other subjects slowly. Maybe this looks like
- Math, reading, and writing week one.
- Adding science and history week two.
- Adding art and vocabulary week three.
- Adding foreign language and project-based learning week four.
If that doesn’t work for you, you can add a new subject each day. Whatever works for your family!
Give Each Child a “First Day”
This is an idea that I got from Jamie of The Unlikely Homeschool. She gives each of her children their very own “first day” back to homeschool, so that they all have a chance to ease back into the homeschool year.
To read more about how and why she does this, you can check out her post here.
Start Some Routines Before the First Day
This is probably my favorite tip for easing back into homeschool.
Start as many of your routines as you can before the first day of school.
If you plan to start school right after breakfast every day? Start having the kids stay at the table to listen to a story or do a puzzle. If you want to have a rest time after lunch, get them used to that ahead of time.
Any routine that you get your kids used to ahead of time will make your first few days back to school run so much smoother.
One Lesson the First Week
If you have a curriculum where you plan to complete one lesson per day, why not expand that first lesson to take your entire first week?
I know it might seem impossible. Especially since many curriculums spend the first few lessons reviewing at an incredibly slow pace.
That’s okay! Review things a handful of times if you have to.
In my opinion the first week of school should be all about easing into the daily routine. Get yourself and your kids used to doing school work and spending a big part of your day actively learning.
Easing back into your homeschooling makes for a much easier transition for you and your kids. You’ll have a lot more successful homeschool days if you take this advice!
