Our Untraditional First Day of School
We like traditions at our house. A lot! and the first official day of the new school year is by no means a minor occasion. However, this year, God completely re-made our first day, and it was ok. Here is how it happened.
Start on Monday
We usually start on a Monday. Everyone is fresh, excitement has been building over the weekend, etc. Not this time. This time the kids woke up early, excited and ready to go, and I woke up horribly sick and didn't even have the strength to get out of bed for most of the day. Amazing how pregnancy and one little unsuspecting food you eat can throw you for such a loop! Flower and Sir were greatly disappointed, but I assured them we'd start Tuesday, even if I had to teach from my bed!
Special Breakfast
We usually have a special “first day breakfast”. Cinnamon rolls, or special fruit muffins at least. Not this time. I was lucky to even be up and dressed come Tuesday morning (see #1). We had fruit and cereal instead. Maybe we'll make cinnamon rolls later in the week.
First Day Photos
This is one of our biggest traditions. We ALWAYS take a first day photo complete with name and age sign etc. Not this time. I couldn't even find the camera on Monday, and by the time I found it on Tuesday (still in a bag that hadn't been unpacked from our homeschool family vacation last week) the battery was dead. Oh, well, we'll do it tomorrow, or next week.
New School Supplies and Books
We usually get new books on the first day of school. Not this time. This year we are transitioning to a sort of year round schooling schedule and so the kids are still in the middle of several of their books. It was so hard for one of mine in particular to open the same books she'd been using the last semester while her brother opened a new one.
And we usually get several new school supplies on the first day. We did get colored pencils, crayons, erasers, notebooks. And I remembered the rulers this year, but forgot the scissors, the modeling clay, and the special spiral notebook – and my daughter cried. Must go shopping tomorrow.
Fun, Light Workload
We usually open our wonderful new school supplies and books and put them away, which we did today with joy – except for the forgotten articles. Then we'll look through our books and do a few things, which we did today with exuberance – except for the child with last year's book. We did have a lively Bible discussion as we went through the first lesson in our study of the Names of God (affiliate link). Did you know there are over 700 names and titles for God mentioned in the Bible!? And we opened some new puzzles and had fun working together to complete them.
I Learned that Breaking Tradition is OK
So, all in all, it was a very un-traditional first day of school for us. I worried about that at first. Later I overheard one of my children remark excitedly “Yeah! We get to get up early tomorrow and do school again!” I realized that even without the traditions, it had been a good first day. Why?
- We ate together
- We laughed together
- We cried together
- We worked together
- We helped each other
- We talked about our awesome God together
- We did get some school work done
- and they are excited about doing it again tomorrow!
Togetherness is a great blessing! I am so thankful for my children, and for the privilege and freedom I have to educate them in my own home and in the ways of the Lord.
How did your first day go? Do you have any special first day of school traditions you'd like to share with the rest of us? I'd love to hear them!
Shared with Hearts for Home Blog Hop and Proverbs 31 Thursdays
Lou Ann says
Oh Katie, thanks for doing this post! I think it is SO important to learn to be flexible. When things aren’t exactly perfect, they’re still fine. I get tired of seeing all these pictures of perfect kids, all smiling (not that I don’t think they’re super cute!) and studious over their books, and an apple on the desk and everything perfect, perfect. Then, the lady takes pictures through her home, and it is perfect, too–with the latest verse wall decoration and fancy, tasteful decorations. Everything is spotless. Ninety-nine percent of homeschooling mothers do well to do well, and the kids will have an excellent–though not perfect–education in the end. Thank you! Thank you! :o)
MaryBeth Chapman says
Katie,
I agree with Lou Ann! I really do enjoy reading your posts that are so practical and realistic, while still seeing your heart’s desire for the Lord and doing things His way. Praying God’s blessing for you physically, spiritually, and practically today!
Jennifer Lambert says
We are so counter-cultural and I love the freedom of homeschooling that we don’t have to be traditional. The devil tries to undermine my ideas and tell me I’m not good enough and my kids won’t have fond memories since we don’t do all the fun things that school kids do or we don’t have the same traditions. But, God redeems it all and will turn it all for good. He will reward our obedience to Him and the call to home educate. With every craft or fun thing we don’t do, we also have another opportunity to learn more about Jesus and the schools don’t get that!
Katie Hornor says
Thank you for your sweet comments ladies. God doesn’t call us to be perfect, in fact he came to die in our place because we can never be perfect. But he does call us to follow him, to be faithful, and to love and teach our children. I like seeing the “perfect” blogs because they inspire me. But the ones that admit imperfection are the ones that encourage me. So that’s my goal here: be real, be an encouragement. Thanks so much for stopping by and for taking the time to share your thoughts! YOU have blessed me today!
Michelle H. says
Thanks you for the post, I’m so glad I’m not the only one that doesn’t start out the school year “perfect”. Our tradition has always been starting out our day, on our knees in prayer. Our first day went great but as the week went on, we had a few “speed bumps”. There are some do’s & don’ts that I saw from last year homeschooling that we wanted to change, so sometimes, it takes a little bit “to iron out the wrinkles” I have discovered that my son has a reading disability and also had to have glasses, so the 1st week was a little overwhelming. As we entered into the 2nd week, things were not going as planned AT ALL! But we worked through the problems and turned tragedy into triumph. One of the days was a total disaster (on that day, a package came), it couldn’t have came at a better time! The package contained 2 trophies, one for each child. I had promised my kids last year, if they ended the school year well I would reward them with a trophy. They both finished the 2012-2013 school year with an A/B average!! So, the day that was a disaster ended up being a really good day 🙂 God has showed me so much just in the 2 weeks that we have been in school…our motto this year: “Working Together” I hope every home school mom has great school year!!!