Our first week of homeschool for the 2018-2019 school year is in the books! (Can I get an “amen!”…or a glass of wine…either would be great.) After a sluggish 2017-2018 year spent growing a human, I am determined to make this a year of learning, growing and enjoying our homeschool time. We have made a ton of changes including finally finishing a dedicated school room (more on this later), switching our main curriculum to Sonlight and trying to stick to a better schedule which includes starting each day by 9 am. (So. early…)

After taking a looooong summer break, it didn’t take long before I was reminded of one of the key necessities to successful homeschooling – FLEXIBILITY.

Here are some of the ways in which I needed to be flexible and adjust this week, instead of holding fast to a particular set of expectations.

LET THE EARLY RISER RISE

My daughter loves a good plan as much as I do and was so excited to begin school this year. She happily set her alarm for 7 am without me even asking and is dressed, fed and ready to go by 7:30 each morning. The vision I had created for our year involved all three school-agers eagerly gathered around me for our quiet “morning time,” so for the first few days I kept her waiting, like a racehorse clawing the dirt, ready to bolt. By day three I realized that instead of making her wait for her slightly less enthusiastic brothers, I should just turn her loose on her individual work. Today she was completely done with her required reading before her brother even ate breakfast. Happy daughter; happy day.

TEACH TO YOUR CHILD’S NEEDS AND PACE

My sweet first grade son is excited for school this year and I think Sonlight is going to be a great switch for him from My Father’s World. Sonlight feels “more like school” to him and so far he seems to enjoy his book work very much. Sonlight Language Arts 1 has us working with a three-word spelling list in our very first week, which we spell orally, but are also supposed to write out. I had planned to focus more on handwriting this year to build up my son’s hand strength and coordination, and could tell immediately that this is where we would need to focus our efforts. I researched several “make your own handwriting pages” websites, but most were lacking. I finally found a simple one that actually worked and created multiple copies of our spelling lists for the next six weeks. These pages allow him to trace the words a few times first before writing each word on his own. While this approach isn’t necessarily focused on the spelling of each word, it’s focusing on the current needs of my learner, which is, of course, one of the primary tenants of homeschooling.

DON’T AUTOMATICALLY DISMISS YOUR KIDS’ FEEDBACK AS COMPLAINING

My oldest is my biggest challenge; it’s just how he’s wired. He pushes boundaries and buttons with the ease and skill of a much older man. (As his Momma, I trust that maturity will develop these traits into admirable strengths with time.) Not surprisingly, he was less than enthusiastic about the start of our school year and he seemed particularly unenthused with the Bible time included in our Sonlight Core E. Even though we’ve homeschooled for five years, I have never done a good job including Bible time, so not only did it seem to him like we were suddenly including a pious Sunday School component to our day, but being unfamiliar with the curriculum, I insisted on reading every. single. suggested. verse. Each time I paused to refocus my oldest on listening he would tell me that he likes “doing things” better than just reading and didn’t know why we had “so. much. reading.”

“Dear Lord, forgive my son’s hardened heart and do not hold it against his Momma. Yea though we walk through the valley…”

Okay, maybe the kid has a point and I’m not going to accomplish anything by forcing too much on him. So, as the week progressed, I’ve shortened the amount of Bible reading we do and instead focus on the kids’ Starting Strong devotional workbooks, which accompanied our package and includes Bible content written to their levels, questions to encourage application and even some stickers! Now, we’re still spending time in the Word, but I know my kids are focusing more on how God’s truths apply to their lives, which is really more the point anyway, right? What I could have initially dismissed as a bad attitude and complaining was really just my child trying to communicate his needs and deliver some honest feedback on our approach. As homeschool educators and moms, I think it’s important to humble ourselves and willingly accept feedback from our students to ensure that both their needs and our goals are being met. That’s a win-win.

Have any key learnings to share regarding your first few days/weeks of the school year? We’d love to hear! Share them in the comments below or on my Facebook page.