As we near our last day of school (end of April) I was wanting to do something special to celebrate that we’ve finished another school year. Do any of you do anything special when you complete a year? And we start again in June and I also wondered what you all do when you begin a new year. Hoping to get some creative ideas! Thanks!
Hmm, we don’t do too much special for the end of the year, or the beginning of a new one. Our year ended just a week and a half ago and the new one begins in May.
Want to know what we do celebrate? The first day of the loval public school year! We do Happy Homeschool Day then and always take the day off to go fun places that the public school kids can’t while in school – we may do the zoo, a park, or anything really. We make homemade cinnamon rolls and wave as the bus drives past. When possible Daddy takes the day off too. We also often share the celebration with other homeschool families near us.
I saw something in a magazine a few years ago – they were doing PS, but you could adapt the theme – they had a first day of school dinner the night before and they made a cake with shaped like a bus. You could have a big first day of school breakfast.
We meet with a close homeschool family we know for lunch or breakfast out somewhere cheap, sometimes followed by a playtime for a beg. and end of yr. celebration. Kids love it! Gina
One homeschool mom told me a couple of years ago, she and her homeschool group had their own “Back to Home School Sale.” They met at a local park pavilion on the first day the public schools went back to school, and they each brought a few books or other materials/school-related items to swap with or sell to other members. It was a very informal, picnic atmosphere, and everyone had fun getting together. We usually have a picnic at a park or a zoo day. Once, when it was a rainy first day back, we went to a local mall to window-shop, play a few arcade games (I counted skee-ball as phys. ed. for that day, tee-hee), and have lunch. The mall was pretty empty, and it was humorous how so many shop owners and customers asked the kids, “So, when do you go back to school?” (Um, always? Every day?)
There is something we do when we finish a literature book or a geography unit, but they could be combined into an end-of-year celebration as well. We plan and implement a “festival” using the theme of the book or geography unit. For example, we had a “Rascal Luncheon” when we completed Sterling North’s “Rascal,” where we made placemats out of coloring pictures of the raccoon, Rascal, that we found on the net, and we laughed as we all demonstrated how Rascal “washed” his food before eating it, offered our favorite parts of the book (good informal narration reinforcement), and so on. For geography, we are having a “South American Festival” with a lunch or dinner of various native foods, collages of people groups, customs, traditions of South American countries, maps prepared as a summary of our map drills, etc. We plan to let our imagination run wild.
LOL, if you’re planning a back-to-school dinner the evening before the public schools return, you could make a cake shaped like a house, have a clock showing 6:00 AM in one window, kids still sleeping in another window, and a yawning child outside waiting for the bus to take him/her to before-school-care…..oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t gloat, should I?
We are part of a large hs group that puts on a huge Year End party/celebration in May. It usually has a talent show/dinner/certificate of completion (signed by mom and dad) and dessert. We display art from children who wish to share in the foyer of the church building we rent. It is a lot of work to put together, but my kids would be heartbroken if they weren’t able to participate. And, sometime in May we get together and have a swap at a local gymnastics building….great fun!
Beginning of the year (usually early Aug.) same group holds a Back to School party at a local public pool. We make sure to take a group picture for the yearbook, visit with each other, and welcome new members.
At the end of our co-op season we have potluck and just let the kids play and enjoy themselves.