Over the weekend, I noticed myself getting caught up in everyone’s ‘Back to School’ dramas. I have friends who are running around trying to grab last-minute teacher gifts, clothes, classroom supply list items, healthy lunch box goodies and the perfect first-day-of-school outfit. As Monday approached, I woke up in a state of panic and my inner dialogue went something like this, “I haven’t even started school shopping, where was our “classroom needs list” (we should have 3), crap I forgot to do laundry over the weekend, I need to get plastic lunchbox stuff and forget the perfect teacher gift, I can’t even remember to school shop for my own kids. I need to check my bank account. Did I remember to call my mom this week? Oh my gosh, have I talked to my mother-in-law recently? What day is it? Why am I waking up at 7:00 if the kids have to be at school at 7:20? Ugh…how can I be this unprepared?”
And then I remembered… We Homeschool!
Ah, I breathed a sigh of relief, sipped my coffee and plopped back down on the bed for another 30 minutes of snooze time. But we do want to make a big deal about starting our new school year. I want to take pictures at the beginning, middle and end of our school year, fill out our little questionnaires about who they are and what their favorite things are right now, draw a picture on the first day and compare it to the picture we will draw on the last day of school.
I want to buy pencils to sharpen and decorative character erasers, crisp clean notebook paper, three-ring binders and brand new intact crayons. It’s the little things that seem to complete the whole routine of preparing for an exciting school year ahead. We have some awesome plans for the school year, which I believe will stretch our perspectives, abilities and challenge our version of ‘normal’.
We hope to take our lid off and step outside our comfort zones and experience learning not only through materials and books, but through living. And I believe I should concentrate my efforts on locating the perfect teacher gift. I’m getting started on that pronto!
