Have you started your homeschool year already?

I have come up with a list that can help new homeschoolers, as well as experienced homeschoolers, come up with ideas on what they can do at the start of the new school year.

You may choose to do some or all of these activities in the first few days or weeks of your new homeschool year.

There are 3 things that I try to achieve at the start of each school year:

1. I make sure that we do fun activities to set the tone for the school year. I want my kids to think of school or learning to be a fun time for them.
2. I keep it light at the start. I start with subjects or topics that they like the most or where they excel and we don’t do a lot of formal lessons right away. That gives all of us time to adjust and transition from vacation mode to school mode again.
3. I make sure that we remember to offer the new school year to God. I believe that when we commit our plans to God, He will bless them.

Now, let me share a list of fun and meaningful things that you can do as the school year 2022-2023 starts.

1. Ask the help of the kids to clean and organize your homeschool supplies and area, including your bookshelves.
2. Ask the kids to help you make an inventory of the things they can reuse or recycle for the new school year. I had a storytelling session with elementary students last weekend. Around 150 students listened to me as I read one of my children’s books titled Maliit na ang Palda ni Isay. I asked the kids to think of the things they can reuse and recycle this year so that they can help their parents save money and be eco-friendly.
3. Buy new school supplies (like notebooks and pencils) and learning materials, including books and educational toys like board games.
4. Attend a Mass as a family, online or in church, whatever is feasible in your area and schedule.
5. Let the kids learn a new prayer. It can be a student prayer or any new prayer that you would like the child to include in his/her prayers this year.
6. Introduce a new Bible verse and ask the kids to memorize that verse. This could be your guiding verse for the year in your homeschool or any verse that you think will inspire your children to persevere in their studies.
7. Go on a field trip. We just had a field trip. You can read about it here.
8. Watch an educational video, documentary, or inspiring movie. One of the inspiring movies that we recently watched is October Sky. Students, especially those who like Science, will love this.
9. Play a game like Scavenger Hunt. Kids like playing games. Last year, we played Scavenger Hunt of the things they needed or usually use for school work. Let them learn while playing. We did a lot of play-based learning activities in the past years, especially when my kids were toddlers and in preschool or kinder. Now that they are bigger and older, we still like playing games. This time, we love playing board games as a family. One of our current favorites is Scrabble and most of the time, our middle child is the one who ends up winning. He is only 10 years old and even slightly dyslexic. But he defeats all of us.
10. Take a photo of the kids. Include photos of the kids doing their school work on day 1 aside from how they look (their outfit or with a paper or board telling what grade they are in).
11. Record the height, weight, and shoe size of the kids. It’s amazing how kids grow fast. If you do this annually, you’ll have a wonderful document that you and your family can go back to.
12. Read a new book. My kids are bookworms like me. Thus, I always make sure that I buy new books that they’d be excited and happy to read at the start of the new school year.
13. Learn a new song. When my kids were much younger, I taught them Math songs (skip counting) and science songs (about the planets and photosynthesis).
14. Review past lessons. I want to make sure they still remember important concepts and lessons that will be used again in the new school year.
15. Ask them to answer an activity sheet or worksheet about going back to school. I designed one last year for my kids and I updated it recently so I can ask them to answer it when we officially start next month. In it, I asked them what they liked the most from our activities last year, what they want to do more of this year, what their favorite subject is, what they want to learn this new school year, what they want to achieve or what their goals are, how they feel at the start of the school year, and what they want to be in the future. Asking the kids to answer these kinds of questions will help you plan for the new school year. It will help you gain insight into what your child likes and enjoys.
16. Ask them to share verbally or orally their answers to some of the questions in the activity or worksheet like what they want to learn this new school year and why. Or what they enjoyed the most doing last school year and what they want to do more of this year. Why did they enjoy these activities?
17. Ask them to write about their summer vacation. What did they do? What did they enjoy the most doing? What was most memorable? What did they learn? I remember when I was in elementary, this was something that we always wrote in our composition notebook every year at the start of the school year.
18. Do an arts and crafts activity and use what the kids made to decorate your study area or homeschool area.
19. Pray the Holy Rosary and offer each decade for an intention in your homeschool.
20. Last but not least, serve something special that you can eat together for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks. My kids like to eat pancakes when we are celebrating something special. So, I usually cook pancakes for breakfast at the start of the school year.

That’s it! I hope these 20 activities would help you make your first few days or weeks of this new school year fun and meaningful!