I wouldn’t call it a New Year’s resolution per say, just a new way of approaching the school year. Since the homeschooling laws in my state are quite lax, I am able to school my children in a way that works for my family. After giving it a tremendous amount of prayer, thought and discussion with my husband we decided to begin our school year in January and have each child finish up the “grade” they are in by the end of November. This gives us the freedom to take plenty of breaks throughout the year whether it is because of a new baby, a family missions trip or to entertain expected (or unexpected) houseguests. (We had a man who was unicycling around the world unexpectedly stay with us this past year. True story!) This type of scheduling has worked well for us the past three years so this January will be our fourth year of year-round schooling!

One of my favorite aspects of beginning the new school year in January is ordering curriculum in November and December. It might seem a bit crazy during a seemingly stressful time of year but honestly, it helps calm me. While packages are arriving for my kids to save until Christmas, packages filled with shiny new books and curriculum are coming for me to use in the new year. Think about the deals at this time as well. Most of the time companies are offering free shipping or are holding super awesome Black Friday deals. This year, I noticed many of the deals lasted well into the middle of December, so I was able to snag some amazing prices on materials for the new year. It’s wonderful to be able to “treat myself” to these goodies at a time that might otherwise suck me dry.

I get excited about finding new activities, programs and books to try with the kids and starting fresh and new this time of year helps to liven things up when things might look dreary outside. It seems that this is the time of year that my kids need a change of pace as well. I try not to set unrealistic goals but I do set forth attainable goals such as a certain amount of book reports I want my children to get done in the upcoming year or what math facts I hope for them to master. Last year I had my sixth grader write a persuasive paper, a biography report, a mystery (thanks to the Rainbow Resource Summer Writing Contest!) and an oral report. For this coming year I have a few other genres of papers up my sleeve for him. I also plan on having my rising fifth grader begin having more structured writing assignments as well.

As far as establishing a new routine goes, I try to keep this simple as well. I try not to initiate a pile of new concepts to our day as it might cause too much resistance. What I have noticed is by keeping new practices to about ten to fifteen minutes each keeps it tolerable. For example, last year we started implementing Duolingo to our school day. Each child is required to do at least fifteen minutes of Spanish practice each school day. This has worked well for them and they have learned a great deal of Spanish this way. Bible is another tricky thing to keep going on a daily basis but we have finally found a way to make it work. Over the years we have tried to have each child read on their own in the mornings or together as a family at night, even though we still aim for family Bible reading at night what we have found to be the most effective is reading the Bible together at the beginning of our school day. When we sit down to “do school” together, before anything else, we pray, read a chapter out of the Bible (in order- starting in Genesis) and we sing one worship song. We keep it simple and to the point. Of course I would love to go longer but this is what works for the age range of my children. I even have my three year old sit still for these three aspects of the school day before he can go off and play.

If you are considering year-round schooling, I highly recommend trying it out! If not, but you still are planning on implementing new curriculum this year, I encourage you to go slow, go small and go steady!