Orientation Week

We've done something this year that has worked out great for us.

We called it....

Back to School Orientation Week.

This year will mark year #7 of homeschooling for our family. We love it, and at this point I don't think I would have it any other way. I do feel like this year has the potential to be somewhat stressful, so I tried to think of some ways to ease that stress a little bit. We have a very high maintainance 15 month old, a very busy 4 year old, a rather emotional 3rd grader, and an adolescent 7th grader this year, not to mention a MOVE! Wow! Do you harbor any hope for me? Just a small ray? Please tell me I can do this? More than once, I have been labeled OCD and that only adds to the confusion.

Anyway, in thinking of ways to make the year a little smoother, I came up with this whole 'Orientation' idea. Our official start date is Oct 24th, and we have a camping trip planned for the week before that, so we chose tuesday-friday of this week for orientation week. Here are a few of the things we did this week.

1. Got up a little earlier, and in turn went to bed a little earlier. It always takes about a week each fall to start getting used to that. We are now turning in at 9pm with relative ease, instead of the 10-10:30 that it was all summer.

2. We worked together to decorate our classroom which in our case is one corner of the girls' bedroom.

3. We looked a lesson plans, books, ect and began to get a feel for what we will be learning this year.

4. We then progressed to doing as much seat-work as was comfortable for us. Goal setting was not allowed. This way, I was able to get an idea what goals will be acheiveable. Nothing 'bums' you worse than not being able to reach your goals.

5. Took inventory of our supplies. Even though our shopping is supposed to be done, this helped us to see if there was anything I had overlooked.

6. Over the summer the little ones have gotten used to being played with all day. This helped them to realize that things will be changing and they began to re-learn the art of entertaining themselves.

7. Perhaps the most important thing orientation did was help this mom to realize that we CAN do this! I don't know if any other HSM's feel a bit of panic this time of year or not, but I sure do! You can know you are doing the right thing by your kids and still feel inadequate for the task.

8. Over all this week just helped us ease back in the groove without the pressure associated with the first official week.

I'd love to hear what you do to make your homeschool smooth and effective.