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Get Ready For A New Homeschool Year With These 5 Ridiculously Easy Tips

It’s about that time again! Here are 5 ridiculously easy ways to help you get ready for a new homeschool year.


In just about one month, we will be starting our tenth year learning at home.

In some weird way, it makes me feel old just typing that… like when the young mom talks about how her toddler gets into all the kitchen cabinets, and I sigh and remember those days.

Homeschooling is kinda like that for me too – a mix of sighs and remembering where we started.

getting ready for a new homeschool year
Photo credit to Samantha Ballard and her little guy.

Get Ready For A New Homeschool Year!

I remember the days when it was brand new – I was filled with the anticipation and all the promise and possibility.

I remember ten years ago, carefully prepping the carefully selected curriculum, and carefully reading through every single teacher’s manual. I had no idea how to get ready for a new homeschool year, but I sure was excited to try.

I remember setting up our schedule for the day, and reminding my children that we were three days away… two days away… one day away from starting our new school year.

I remember ringing the bell (I am completely serious, I rang a school bell to get us started that first year – never mind that my son has massive sensory issues related to sound and hated that stinking bell every single day… it was time for school!).

I remember ringing that bell, taking a deep breath, and jumping in.

get ready for a new homeschool year

Ten years later, and I am one month away from our new school year – the last year of homeschooling for my oldest son.

Ten years of fighting the good fight, giving up completely and researching special needs private schools in the area, remembering why we decided to do this in the first place, deciding to try again and again and again, realizing that this is more about how they learn, than it is about how I teach, realizing this is more about raising functional, loving, contributing adults, than it is about SAT scores, realizing that this is the best job I have ever had and the hardest one I have ever had, all at the same time – these years have changed me.

And, they’ve completely changed how I get ready for a new homeschool year.

This year, my planning and preparation looks completely different from it did back then. I guess you could say that I am learning just as much, if not more, than my boys. We can all use a few homeschool tips, no matter how long we have been homeschooling!

5 Ridiculously Easy Ways To Get Ready For A New Homeschool Year

1. Get Inspired

Rather than researching curriculum and spending endless amounts of time downloading worksheets and placement tests from online sites, I have spent time listening to other moms talk about real life homeschooling.

I listen to The Homeschool Sisters and my friend Colleen on the Raising Lifelong Learner’s Podcast to get inspired!

I also plan to attend the Kindred Collective Homeschool Conference every summer. It’s like a dose of homeschool adrenaline, right when I need it most.

I love hearing what works for other moms, but with one caveat…

2. Do NOT Compare

I have learned that it does no one any good, not my children and especially not me, to wistfully look at what other moms are doing to set up their school year. This includes banishing all jealousy over the writing class that one mom signed her kids up for (and her kids are actually excited about it – I have never known this), ignoring the pang of longing I feel when I see the shiny, new curriculum that another mom just received in the mail, or the  strong desire to somehow create a home school room when I know that no one would ever be in it except me.

On a much more serious note, this also includes letting go of the fact that my son’s friends are all starting to read chapter books and write book reports on the their own, while mine still struggles with basic reading. It means ignoring all the ways the high school homeschoolers are getting ready for college almost as a right of passage, and instead focusing on helping my son figure out what path is best for him.

It means looking straight ahead, at the ones I love and what they need, and not around me.

3. Make Money to Spend Money

I have learned, the hard way, NOT to buy all the things. Because I love the idea of new, fresh curriculum, every single year I would buy them.

My children however? Not so much. In fact, the longer  I have homeschooled, the more I have learned that a boxed learning program in and of itself is never, ever going to work with my out of the box kids.

So, I finally let go of my “homeschool library”. Not the boys’ library – they have more books than the actual small town library down the street from us – my library. The one with all the binders and teachers manuals and reading lists and workbooks… it’s gone.

The good news? I sold most of it on Amazon and used the money to buy the boys a few books I knew they would love, and a whole bunch of fidgets and games.  I actually ended up with enough money left to buy myself a few books, so everyone wins.

Get Ready For A New Homeschool Year
Purchased at a fish store, to test water. Looks like chemistry to me!

4. Pick One New Thing

For each of my boys, I have a pretty consistent learning goal. Learn to read for one, work on daily living for the other. There are many, many steps that we take each day to help them get closer to these goals.

Because I do not want to lose sight of these goals, I am just picking one new thing for each of them to start this year. For my youngest, this one thing is starting science classes (with reading accommodations) one day a week. For my oldest, it’s signing his name, consistently in cursive. Both are simple, but new goals.

New can mean complicated for my kids. I have learned that less is more, and slow is fast around here. Once we master these, there will be one more new thing for each of them. And then another and then another. But only one new thing at a time.

5. Pray, A Lot

I have learned that the most important thing I can do for my children, and their education, is to pray. Pray for my boys, pray for me, pray for my husband, pray for wisdom, pray for patience, pray for creativity, pray for progress, pray for rest, pray he learns to read, pray he learns to cope, pray for fun. Prayer is now the most important part of how I prepare for a new year. And, I have found it to be the most effective.

I know now that no amount of preparation and planning, is going to make this go exactly the way I think it should.

I also know now that there is a good chance this year, like all the others, will be messy, and fun, and frustrating, and interesting, and loving, and ugly, and good, and my boys will learn.

And I think that just may be the point.


For More Homeschooling Resources, Support and Encouragement:

Homeschooling when your child has additional needs

Why Is My Child So Explosive About School?

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10 Comments

  1. Again I feel that I must thank you for this post. I have been homeschooling James for 2 years and I’ve spent most of that time beating myself up over it. I realised (when reading your post) that I am going about it the wrong way! I have to cater to James’ special needs. Not what I think a child of 10 should be doing.

    I will never send him to school again. He absolutely hated it to the point that it made him sick. So what if it takes him a whole week to do one task. Who is timing him? As long as he learns and is comfortable that is all that should matter. No more comparisons.

    1. Hi Shelley!
      I do exactly the same thing – still. I can completely identify with the comparing his progress to what a ten year old “should be doing”. We are homeschooling because we can determine the pace and the order of learning. I have no idea why I struggle to remember that!
      Thank you for your comment.
      Shawna

  2. No — wait! YOU inspire ME!! Seriously, though, sometimes, when I read your words, I feel a calm come over me, like I’m talking to a friend. And Cait is so awesome too! I’m so grateful for the internet! And your kind words. And hooray for real, messy homeschooling!! 🙂

    1. Well said, sweet momma. Hooray for real and messy!

    2. I was away last week and Silly Phone wouldn’t let me comment here. I am honored to be included here, Shawna, because you inspire me. So does Kara. In fact, and no joke, I woke up to read Kara’s Full Stop and your Mama Guilt posts this morning because it’s been One Of Those Weeks – those real, messy, ugly weeks- and I need to shift gears before the kids get up.

      Can you just IMAGINE what homeschooling asynchronous kids would have been like WITHOUT the internet? I’m so thankful for you.

      1. Yes!!! Thank goodness for the sense of belonging that the internet can bring.

        🙂 Shawna

  3. Shawna, thank you so much for sharing this. I appreciate so much hearing other Moms honestly express what is going on in their homeschooling days and life, rather than making it look like a glossy magazine ad! Because most children are not going to fit into that mold, as we well know.

    My children are younger (8 and 6) and the youngest has a host of special issues. I started homeschooling the oldest in preschool, because I felt led to do it even though I often think I’m super-unqualified. Then, the youngest came along. We tried our district’s special ed preschool and it was a disaster! I know in my heart that this is the right decision for my children and our family, even when I feel we are getting nowhere and the youngest is completely resistant to learning.

    I’ve never bought a curriculum, and was always glad I didn’t. I found various workbooks at yard sales, thrift stores and through our library and sort of made up my own, focusing on the basics — reading, writing, math. The kids have amazed me at what they’ve learned even when I don’t think they’re listening! Concepts instead of memorization, for instance — when they can do something in their head because they understand the “why” of it. I am often humbled by what they have shown me.

    This year, we are doing 4th and 2nd grade. I have so many plans of what I want to accomplish. Reading about all the presidents, one a week. (I should probably just throw that under the bus now, lol!). Two monthly field trips. An outside class weekly (that one’s actually easy around here). I’m sure by Christmas I’ll be rolling my eyes at my first-of-the-year enthusiasm 🙂

    I will continue looking up your blog. Thanks again for being real!!!!

  4. I think you sound enthusiastic and realistic about this new year. I had all the enthusiasm that first year, but very little reality. 🙂 Praying for you and yours.
    Here’s to a great year!
    Love,
    Shawna

  5. We are headed into year 11 of home educating. Such good reminders for the journey. It took me a long time to let go and do things out of the box. I watched for years as my friends completed their workbooks on time and had these well kept schedules. Ha, so not my world. I still get those pangs of comparison and when they hit I have to remind myself that this is our life with HFA and it is just different.

  6. I love what I read here! So good! I especially loved the quote, “Realizing that this is more about how they learn, than it is about how I teach.” GREAT reminder as we start our new school year in a couple of weeks. I, too, have a high functioning son on the autism spectrum, more Asperger’s. And on his heels is a smarty pants girl. It can certainly be tough, but they balance each other well. I have to remember, and always seem to forget, that they learn SO DIFFERENTLY! And that is MORE than okay. Thank you for the inspiration this morning!!! Blessings on your new school year.

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