making the first day of school joyful

[grandsophy]

My oldest child does not enjoy school time and her attitude is spreading to the little kids. Maybe throughout the summer we can collect some ideas about how to make that first day back to school in August a fun day.

My kids do not look forward to "Box Day" or looking at the catalog or any of that.

How do you insert joy into your schooltime?

My children are glad that they don't have to go to public school, but they are never joyful about actually doing schoolwork.

[TLCA]

We have a couple of first day of school traditions that we enjoy.....

*regular or chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast

*decorating notebook covers and previewing books for the year----getting out new supplies

*fun graphing/math activity involving something sweet (smarties, m and ms, skittles, lucky charms, fruit loops, etc.) This is by request....ever since we did the first one almost 5 years ago, she said she always wanted to do this on the first day of our new school year, and she remembered it the next year.....and still requests it.

*all about me booklet or page of favorite things----this becomes a "time capsule" of sorts to look back and see how much dd has grown/changed over time....we've done things like measure height with a string and put it in an envelope to keep, hand print, foot print (and measure both in inches---cubes when she was very little), drawing of self, photo of self, favorite books, Bible verse, songs, food, etc.

[Carrie]

grandsophy,

Since this is the HOD Board, I guess I'm just wanting to clarify if your oldest child to whom you are referring is currently using HOD? If you are underway with HOD, hopefully the further you travel on the HOD path, the more there will be to love about school. One way to make school more joyful from the perspective of the HOD Board is to use HOD!

I know this will not fix all problems, but since the purpose of our board is to help you use HOD in your own home, it is definitely a partial solution to consider! I know my kiddos do love their summers and their recesses, but they do enjoy their school days too.

It looks like you are using HOD with your little ones and hopefully that should help bring some joy to their school days. I do think that proper placement in HOD is very key. So, if you are going the HOD route, with any of your kiddos, you'll want to make sure to use the placement chart to be sure that your kiddos are accurately placed. This makes a big difference in how joyful kiddos are about their school, as we want to be sure they have the right amount of challenge without it being too much. If your older child is setting the tone for your days, as the oldest often does here too, I'd encourage you to consider HOD for him/her as well for the upcoming year if you haven't already. I'm not sure what your plan is for next year school-wise but that would make a difference in how we'd advise you.

Honestly, at my house, we've found that our first days have their share of bumps and hiccups, as I am a jump in and swim through it type person. But, by the end of the first week we've truly begun to hit our stride and after that our year in the day-to-day goes very, very well! So, this is why I tend to focus on what you'll be doing for the 35 weeks after the first day, rather than on the first day alone. We all have attitude issues to work on with our children (and within ourselves), but the selection of what you use curriculum-wise and how you use that curriculum will impact you every single day.

Without using HOD in the day-to-day for your children with whom you have the concerns, any recommendations we'd give for the first day would only help you for that first day. We desire to impact the rest of your year as well.

So, if there is any way that we can help you use HOD in your home with all of your kiddos, which will hopefully help make school more joyful, we are here to help you do that! We would love to have it bring you joy too.

Blessings,
Carrie

[HollyS]

I have a DD that isn't thrilled with school. It has gotten much better since we switched to HOD, but she still isn't fond of math. When I went to place her last year, she was between two levels. I placed her in the lower of the two (with 3Rs from the higher level), and it's been a perfect fit for her...I'm really glad we went with it! Another thing that I love with HOD is that we usually finish before lunch (unless we've had lots of interruptions). Her afternoons are spent following her own interests...lots of free reading, drawing, painting, crafts, outdoor time, etc. I don't tell her what to do, just that it has to be constructive (no tv, very little computer).

[grandsophy]

I'm not sure yet what my oldest will be using next year. The youngers will be doing HOD and I'm not sure I can cope with two different HOD curriculums at once. She always listens in on their history stories. They all enjoy those. I had hoped to have everyone working from the same guide, but after looking at placement charts I see we're not at that point yet. So many of the activies in the HOD books are more fun if you have more than one kid doing them (the silly poems, for example) and I'm not sure how to do those with just one kid.

I asked this question here because all the stories here are joyful and I simply do not have those kinds of students in my house. I guess I wondered what the trick was.

My oldest used HOD last year, but just for the schedule of history readings. We did a few poems, but perhaps I had chosen a book that was too young for her, as those were not enjoyable for her. It was hard enough to get through the core subjects (we had the WRONG math for us last year!) and I had to just focus on those.

We did a bit of HOD Drawn into the Heart of Reading this year. Dd is the kind of kid who loves to draw pictures but doesn't really want to write anything down. We're working on it. We're going to use it next year and I'm going to buy the book package so we always have the books handy.

Please understand, my kids have never been in public or private school. They don't know that this is more fun than that. My oldest sees school as an interruption to her playtime. I am praying about how to train her in matters of attitude and character.

[Heidi in AK]

I tell you what, one way to make our first day of school joyful was to start out with LHTH for my kids. We had the MOST FUN school day ever! Praying for your transition, whether to use one guide or two...