Gospel Centered Homeschooling: traditions

Last week was our first week of school for the new year. It is our sixth year homeschooling, and our first with all three boys in grade school. We have a 1st, 3rd and 5th grader this year! Six years ago, when it was time to send the oldest to kindergarten, I knew I was excited about homeschooling, but still unsure about what he might be "missing". All those first day traditions, riding the school bus for the first time, carrying a lunch box, meeting his sweet kindergarten teacher who would read "The Kissing Hand" or one of those other "back to school" first books. I began to search for some back to school traditions for homeschoolers - I found lots of ideas, but I'm not real crafty, so our traditions became what was realistic for me and seemed the most like "us". I also wanted it to be something pretty simple - no need to be elaborate, because it is harder to sustain elaborate. I wanted whatever we chose to be something we could do every year.

Breakfast!
We always have a fun breakfast, usually a special request from the boys or a "treat" like waffles with whipped cream and strawberries. This year it was french toast and bacon, by request.

Music!
We are a music loving family, so I usually have a song picked out to play to start our school day and call everyone to the couch to start our day with the Bible. This year our first week song was "Put on Love" from Seeds Family Worship. You can hear it here. It is a fun setting of Colossians 3:12,14a.

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience... and above all these put on Love!"

Here are the two youngest, "puttin' it on"...

School Supplies!
It's always fun to get new "stuff"... so I save the fun school supplies for a surprise.

Oh, and a little treat, too. (Pop Rocks, with an silly note!)

First Day Pictures!
Every year we take pictures by the same tree in the backyard, so we can see how the kids grow. This year, since they were going on the blog, we used some "disguises" because I decided I don't really like to post individual pics of the boys on the blog for just anyone to download.

These are all pretty simple traditions, but it is fun to at least give the school year a little bit of specialness to start off. Of course, each year has it's unique traditions too - sometimes we have a field trip the first week, sometimes a special outing or activity. This year, we ended our "first week" with a pizza party, ice cream and movie night - celebrating our accomplishment! (No one was very excited about starting up this year, so we needed to celebrate that it was a good week and not as bad as everyone expected. Some years are like that.)