Third Grade

This week was a huge milestone.

It marked Little Buddy’s first week of third grade and the first week of our second year homeschooling. It was quiet honestly a pretty big deal around these parts. 

I knew we had a ton of wonderful stuff to cover this year and we were both excited to begin. Even though Little Buddy was already hyped up about the big day, I wanted to build it up even more. I wanted it to be a super duper big deal!  

You only start third grade once. I wanted this to be something he remembered! 

I closed off the doors to the school room and told Little Buddy I wanted him to be surprised on the first day of school. He couldn’t come in the whole week before school started back so I could get it all ready.

We went shopping for school supplies the weekend before school started back. He picked out notebooks, pencils, pens, glue, erasers, backpack, and even a few fun items for his desk. He even got to get a new mouse since his hand has gotten so much bigger over the past year. Being able to get his school supplies was such so much fun for him. I guess I’d forgotten how exciting it was for me when I was growing up.

The night before school started back, we started our back to school bedtime routine. Clothes laid out, good bath, and earlier bedtime. I was tickled that he chose a collared polo shirt and khaki shorts for our first day back to school. But when he used shampoo without my reminding him, I knew he was excited! Why do children try to wash their hair without using shampoo? I’ll never understand.

The next morning, we had a great family breakfast and of course I had to take photographs of my two favorite guys in the whole world on our big day.

And I do believe he was pretty excited to see the school room all prepped and ready for third grade! I think my trick of keeping the room off limits for the week before while I got everything ready was a pretty good one.

He was able to bring a few “snuggles” to school for the first day. I think the lamb is already taking a nap the way he’s chilling on the sofa.

But I think the biggest key to our successful week was having a daily planner. 

There were no questions of, “are we almost finished?” or “what are we doing next?” Everything was right there on the daily planner for him to see. We discussed the planner each morning before we began any of our lessons and would adjust the schedule by moving science before history or a few things like that. Just simple little tweaks to help him feel a part of the plan.

The daily planner also includes any appointments for the day, field trips, and all of his chores. I wish I had thought of it last year. As Martha says, It’s a good thing.

We’ve also been diligent about using our school room this week. At the very least, the rest of my house has stayed a lot cleaner without us strewing books and art projects all over place. It has also helped me to concentrate on school work instead of laundry, cooking, and cleaning. I can become quiet distracted even by the birds coming up to the bird feeder and get an itch to go cook if we’re at the kitchen table for a while. The school room has helped us both to concentrate on what we’ve got to get done – but mostly – it’s helped me.

Here’s hoping next week goes just as well, if not better!

What were your favorite school supplies when you were in school {or even now}?