Our First Week {and Three Tips for a Simple Start}

Week Number One. I think it’s the most intimidating week of the year for me. At least at the beginning of the year it is (but when February rolls along, I’ll probably say that every week). Nevertheless, always at the close of our first week, there exists this sense of accomplishment, regardless of what actually happened during the week.

So, even though it was a week of our children seemingly forgetting everything that I’ve taught them in the past (as evidenced by their blank stares and puzzled looks), and…

…even though it was a week of constantly pep-talking our 8th grade student that, yes, he actually really can write a 5-paragraph essay in one week, and

…even though I stumbled through my first week of using Spell to Write and Read (which is actually such a good program that I wish I had stumbled through it years ago instead of avoiding it like the plague)

…we made it! Not only that, it was a lovely week, and I am once again immensely thankful for God’s goodness and faithfulness.

As we start our year, I wanted to take a few moments to share our beginning-of-the-school-year reality because, although we may have grandiose plans and aim really-very high, none of us are ever meant to do it all. (Honestly, I’ve learned to hold our plans loosely because I never know exactly what God has in store for us.) Over time, I’ve discovered ways to make the beginning of our school year so much more enjoyable, so I thought I’d share those ideas so that you don’t get this false sense that we hit the ground running our homeschool-year marathon at a full-out sprint. Here’s the bona fide truth: We don’t. Here’s what we actually do…

Three Tips for a Simple Start

1. Taper into the school year. We started our school year this week simply because our oldest was beginning his homeschool tutorial class. Even though Stephen started with his full course load, the younger two boys (younger three boys, if you count the toddler scribbling on random pieces of paper) started with just our core work, which consists of Bible, math, and Spell to Write and Read (SWR). (Independent reading and family read-alouds continue throughout the summer, so that’s not really considered part of our school days.) Our elementary homeschool community program doesn’t begin for another two weeks, so this gives us three weeks to get into the swing of things. Next week we may add some history or one of our loop schedules, which brings me to…
2. Use a loop schedule for anything outside of the core daily work. Instead of worrying about staying on a strict schedule of completing such-and-such task on such-and-such day, loop scheduling allows us to cycle through subjects in a loop instead of doing them on a certain day each week. For example, in a normal block schedule, I can set aside Wednesday afternoons for poetry study, Thursday afternoons for composer study, and Friday afternoons for art projects. But… if our schedule is interrupted due to unforeseen circumstances, we will either totally miss what we planned to do for a particular subject that week or have to double up the next week to “catch up.” If instead I use a poetry-composer study-art loop, we can cycle through those tasks without worrying about totally missing out on Art Friday, for example. If we don’t get around to art on Friday, we’ll just do it on Monday or whenever we can next fit it in. Even though on our reading plan we have assigned tasks for poetry, composer study, and art study each week, we often fall “behind schedule” because of things like illness, drama rehearsals, field trips, or Distractible Mom Syndrome. In this case, we just pick up where we left off the next day and don’t worry about not getting it finished on a particular day. You can find out more about our loop schedules on this post. Click here to check out our various sample loop plans. You can download a sample loop schedule along with a blank loop template for you to organize your own loop schedule:  Loop Schedules PDF | Loop Schedules XLS
3. Start with something fun and make it a family tradition. Each year we’ve started our first day of school with Monkey Bread. It’s the only time during the entire year that I make Monkey Bread. (This may seem a bit odd, but it’s just our special beginning-of-the-year thing.) This year I wanted to add in a beauty or wonder element, so we ended our first week with some Van Gogh inspired painting. Our children are always up for making a mess, so this was a great way to bookend our week: super-sweet stuff at the front end, and super-messy stuff on the back end.

Note:  I boldly announced we would be painting in the style of Van Gogh using acrylic paints before I checked our art supplies. In the end, the only light color we had was bright yellow. All the other light-colored paints had turned into rubber. (This ended up also being a lesson on improvising.)

A few other memories from our week:

Before we started, I told David that I was going to need him to help me learn how to teach SWR, a calling which he took pretty seriously. Once I explained to him how it was supposed to go, he would not let me mess up on the spelling dictation. I’m actually thrilled about his enthusiasm because he is needing some spelling remediation – and I am needing the extra practice!

I decided to drop manuscript (printing) practice for our 7-year-old (Levi) and just focus on cursive this year (again using SWR – along with the Script-n-Scribe Roller Coaster Writer and Poetry Penmanship & Memorization). I am utterly amazed at how different his writing looks after just four days of cursive practice! In addition to this, Isaac has started imitating his brothers who are memorizing the phonograms. The boys get such a kick out of him making random sounds and then bending over a sheet of paper to scribble something. In conclusion, the dreaded Spell to Write and Read program has actually been a joy to learn this week! I attended SWR training at the end of July and am so glad that I had the focused, in-depth training. I’m hoping to help other parents who wish to use this program through this initial process of figuring out how to get started. {MID-YEAR UPDATE: While we enjoy the techniques in SWR, I also find many of the mastery approaches and practice exercises of All About Spelling to be incredibly helpful. Although Spell to Write and Read is a fantastic, cost effective alternative and encompasses all aspects of language arts (reading, spelling, English grammar, sentence composition, etc.), All About Spelling and All About Reading still remain my favorite programs for teaching reading and spelling.}

Something that continues year round for us is our family read aloud time. This summer we’ve read some fantastic books: Beneath the Cat’s Claw, Rebel on the Path, and The Hiding Place, and we are currently finishing up George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol’s Orphans. (<— These are affiliate links.) I find it ironic (but fully part of God’s provision) that we are reading a book about a man who lived by tremendous faith in the midst of whatever circumstances and touched the lives of thousands of children for the glory of God. The thing is… homeschooling takes a tremendous amount of faith in the midst of whatever circumstances and touches the lives of children for the glory of God. In the words of C.S. Lewis: