Okay, who says that only children who physically go to school should have a back to school party? I think we should have one for our children that are at home as well:) To celebrate school in pajamas and days of NOT having to get up and catch the bus:) Or for the moms…..celebrating less crowded grocery stores during the day and the parks not being so busy.
Over the last year since we have moved here, we have started a small homeschooling group at our local library. Our librarian was homeschooled herself and she knows it is hard to find other families to socialize with. We started it and had two moms:) There were times it was just me and the other mom for many of our gatherings, but that is okay. We kept at it and now we have 6 families that get together and hang out. You have to start somewhere. It has been nice getting to know the moms and letting our children foster relationships with each other. Good times.
We have been talking at our weekly gatherings about things we can do for the upcoming school year. One of those ideas has been a back to school party at our local library.
Here are some ideas we will be doing…….
Since we are incorporating the library……….you need books. How hard is it to find back to school books for homeschoolers?!?!?!? There are many older children books written in chapter format about children that are homeschooled, but for those younger children, is there any books out there??
I came across this book and love it.
It is called This is My Home This Is My School by Jonathan Bean
It has great illustrations and is easy to read. I have found a few others, but they are mostly written with lots of words and I have found that they do not keep the readers attention as much. But this book has been great!
It is a fun book…..search your local library for it…it is something I will recommend to other homeschooling families to have on their bookshelves.
Some activities we have planned:
We will do an ice breaker game with M&Ms or some other small items in a bowl. For every item they take, they will have to say something about themselves. This will give them an opportunity to practice Speech skills in front of a small group. We won’t tell them what they are doing, when they take the items:)
What is a party without food?!?!? My friend Summer, came up with doing Emoji cookies for the party. Make simple round, cut out cookies and provide the children with yellow frosting, round candies, sprinkles, and candy eyes. Let them create an emoji face.
We will also play find a friend Bingo using this printable.
This will be a good conversation starter for the children as well….Would you rather…… printable
Here are some others to print off and include in a packet for them to work on at the library or to take home to do some extra pages
for the younger ones….. name boxes
a letter to mom
since we are doing the emoji cookies….we did an emoji story printable
I thought we would do a self portrait at the beginning of the year and tell the moms to save this and then we can do one at the end of the year. Something to keep to show children’s progression in drawing.
You have to have a word search for back to school
and finally a page to have them write bubble letters of their names and then fill in different characteristics about themselves
We also have huge poster size pieces of paper that Tammy is going to write an All About Me Poster for them to fill in. We did mini versions of these back in the day that I got from Oriental Trading. It has the children list their favorite foods, how old they are, favorite books, movies, how many people in their family, etc. Something that they can fill in and decorate and showcase at home. I will tell the moms to take a picture of it to hold on to for something to look back on as they are older.
Here are some other ideas to measure visual progress in your child’s learning goals.
*Do these at the beginning and at the end of your school year*
Take a photo in the same place to see how they have grown.
Have them copy a sentence to see improvement in their writing.
A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.—contains all 26 letters of the alphabet.
Do a fitness test—how many sit ups, push ups, or pull-ups can they do in 1 minute. How long does it take them to walk/run one mile?
Keep a record log on the wall of all the books they have read this year. Use foil stickers and have them “rate” the book on a scale of 1-5.
Here is a free printable–use cardstock for durability
Hope you can use some of these ideas in your own homeschool to have a mini celebration for back to school. You still have plenty of time…..enjoy those summer days:)
Have a wonderful day and remember to smile and be a joyful Momma!
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