Wouldn’t it be great if there was a Back to School Survival Manual?
It has been a busy time for families preparing for back to school. Back to school time usually takes a huge amount of energy for any teacher and homeschooling mom around the world. It is the time when the homeschooling market is very busy as there are usually more and more families that decide to start homeschooling.
It’s not just new to homeschool families! You also have current homeschooling families trying to implement new curriculum, new ideas and new methods to improve what they have done. While this usually takes place between July to September yearly for the public and the private schools. For homeschooling families, there is a freedom to choose their back to school tradition and some families choose not to have this event at all. There are even plenty of families starting school in January at the same time of the international new year.
In our homeschooling, before our first back to school day is always the time when I work hard to manage the new schooling year. There is never an absolutely correct way to prepare the back to school event for each family member. I always try to improve our homeschooling from year to year – to find out the best way to meet the expectation of our vision and mission.
The Back to School Survival Manual
I was very happy to find Alicia Michelle’s latest book: Back to School Survival Manual: A Girlfriend’s Guide to an Organized and Successful Homeschool Year.
While we had started our homeschooling in July every year, usually. However, I was already looking forward to reading this book. For me, back to school can be started and done anytime since we have the authority to control our homeschooling. It’s never too late to improve what we have done! Therefore, I recommend this book to any homeschooling mom whenever you are – whether you want to start a new school year or you want to renew your homeschooling year.
Everyone Needs Survival Gear. Especially Homeschool Moms. No matter if it’s your first or your fourteenth year as a homeschooler, preparing for a new school year can be daunting and overwhelming. What do you do first? Where do you start? That’s why the Back to School Survival Manual: A Girlfriend’s Guide to an Organized and Successful Homeschool Year is such an amazing resource.
Full of expert advice from a ten-year homeschool veteran, this casual, conversational book is like chatting with a girlfriend about how to: –build self-confidence in your homeschool’s purpose and vision –determine what supplies you have (and what you really need) –learn practical tips for managing daily homeschool chaos and clutter –discover how to create a realistic learning rhythm –get powerful tips for daily homeschool success The book also contains 30 pages of reproducible 8.5 x 11 inch checklists, charts and planning activities to use year after year!
Starting a new academic year can be something exciting, but it also can make people overwhelmed and nervous. This book will help a homeschooling mom make a successful homeschooling academic year in more logical and organized ways.
- This book considers homeschooling an adventure.
- There are some ways to get ready for unexpected things in the homeschooling years.
- Some realistic and wise set of methods and processes to create a strong foundation for the learning year.
- Some sets of reusable forms homeschooling moms can use to build a basic system as the right start in the homeschooling year.
- This book reveals how to create a strong foundation to have a great homeschooling year.
Contents of The Back to School Survival Manual
There are 4 parts in Back to School Survival Manual: A Girlfriend’s Guide to an Organized and Successful Homeschool Year with 9 chapters in all:
Part 1: Laying a Firm Foundation
Chapter 1: Mama, This Is Your School (and No One Else’s)!
Chapter 2: Why Are You Doing This, Anyway?
Part 2: Clean Out and Set Up
Chapter 3: Conquering the Chaos and Clutter
Chapter 4: What Do You Have and What Do You Need?
Part 3: Build Rhythm and Learning Plans
Chapter 5: Rhythms Not Schedules: An Intro to Rhythm-Based Homeschooling
Chapter 6: How to Create a Living Subject Plan
Chapter 7: Basic Tips for Daily Success
Part 4: Time to Get Started!
Chapter 8: Traditions and Trials: Your First Few Days
Chapter 9: The Most Important Thing I Want to Tell You
After those chapters, the appendix shares some activities and printables for homeschooling mom to use over and over. You can reprint and reuse these printable anytime you need them.
- Back to School Checklist
- Developing Your “Why” Journaling Prompts
- Taking Inventory Charts: What Do You Have and What Do You Need?
- General School Supply Needs
- School Needs by Subject
- List of Needs for Entire Homeschool
- “Pillars and Boundaries” and “Goals with Grace” Worksheets
- Pillars and Boundaries Worksheet
- Goals with Grace Worksheet
- The Learning Resource Grid
- Learning Resource Grid
- Reading Grids
- Family Read Aloud Reading List Chart
- Grade Level Reading List Chart (Fiction)
- Grade Level Reading List Chart (Non-Fiction)
- Subject Plan Worksheet
- Subject Plan
- Other Helpful Resources
The hardest part for me is that while we love the fact that we homeschool year round normally, it is somehow difficult to process into WHAT is the next year. We often move up to a new math book, or next years spelling study at various points through out the year, so for us the “new school year” seems anticlimactic. We do usually take the first week of Public School as field trip week but it just doesn’t have that excitement or feeling of transition.
Can’t wait to read this!
Scheduling in the hardest part of organizing for back to school. How much can we expect to get done each day/week with all of the extra-curricular activities (church, music, sports)?
Scheduling and figuring out what /how to teach is awful. I can never seem to get it right.
The hardest part of going back to school is constant stress about assignments
Keeping in mind a 6th graders pace. I struggled with that as a PS teacher as well. In my mind, if you just “get it done” then you’re free to do other stuff, but alas, that isn’t really learning, is it? So, basically, overcoming the “get-r-done” mindset.
I have a hard time getting from the big picture to daily work.
Daily schedules and picking curriculum.