Putting Last Year's Homeschool to Bed

School is ovah! We had a great year, learned a ton, made great friends, have amazing memories, read the best books and wrote some amazing papers! Commence summer schedule, baby!

But before you move on to next year do a WRAP-UP from last year.

1) Evaluate how the year went.

• How did the Curriculum work for you? Did you love it, like it, tolerate it, hate it? 
• How did it work for the kids? Did it actually get used regularly enough to be beneficial?
• Were the extra-curriculars you were involved in too time-consuming, too rigorous, too expensive or a waste of time? Did they add or detract from your overall plan?
• Did social events provide healthy social interaction?
• Co-ops, on-line classes and  other outsourced programs- how did they work? Did they deliver what you expected? Were they worth the time, money, planning and effort it took to participate?
• What programs, events, activities, sports are you going to continue and which are you going to change or get rid of?

2) Sort and Organize

Sort through papers, notebooks, curriculums, books, DVD's, etc and purge. Books and curriculum you are done with- donate, sell or compost (yes, you read that right, CrunchyMomma here).
The stuff you are keeping? Clean it up and put it back on the bookshelves. The memories you want to keep? Make a scrapbook, a yearbook (Peekaboo) or blog about it.
Go through clothes, shoes and winter gear while you are at it. The kids grew at the speed of sound this year!

3) Teacher Training

Plan on a Homeschool Conference, Convention or Parent Practicum. Teacher Training Y'all. Determine an area you want to build your own copiousness in this year and make a plan for actually doing it.For me, it will continue to be Latina and Logic (Memoria Press and Jim Nance to the rescue!).Read some great books, start a book or Schole club. Don't forget to add in some fun and a break from your regularly scheduled programming so that you are refreshed and ready for what's next!

4) Look Ahead 

Make a list of curriculum and supplies you need to check out and purchase.
Overplan your coming year and then Go with the flow.

We've come to appreaciate the value of having beginning and end dates to our school year. Year-round schooling left us all feeling like we were on a never ending hamster wheel, never getting that that deeply satisfying feeling of accomplishment. These days we set a yearly academic schedule of 30 weeks, plan in breaks (Christmas/ stay or vacation, and summer school. We get more done, feel better about what we have done and look forward to what's ahead.

 

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