How did you do it?

My little one is going to start kindergarten this summer, and I want to make her first day special. Did you do something to mark the day? Any ideas for me?

I am a beginning home school mother as well, but I am hoping to make the first day of school special for my kids every year with a first day activity.  I have heard of a variety of ideas.  I always looked forward to having all the new supplies that were needed for the first day of school.  Make a list of special items (crayons, ruler, pencils,etc.) and have your child shop with you for them or present them in a fun basket or case on the first day of school.  Make a special breakfast or have a unique back-to-school dessert for after your evening meal.  Family Fun magazine has some great Back-To-School ideas available online that can be used even by homeschoolers.

After nine years of homeschooling, we still like the "first day of school" to feel significant.  I try to get our school room in the basement all spiffy looking--it gets rather cluttered over the year.  I make "Wecome to 8th grade" signs and hang them around the room, with other notes like "I love you!"  If some of our school supplies are worn (as in the numbers are rubbed off the plastic ruler and all the pencils are little nubs), I try to set up new ones for my daughter to find on the table in the morning.

We don't do a full load of school work on the first day.  I don't want my student to burn out on day one!  When my daughter was younger, we would declare a recess after lunch and head out to the local playground.  (If we were lucky, we could find a friend to meet us there.)    (I always scheduled too many subjects in a day, anyway.  I found out later--much later--that I needed to get more realistice with my daily schoolwork expectations.)

My son and I go out to lunch and have a fun "date" and discuss plans and goals for the year.  We school year-round, though, so it's hard to pick a day.  We typically choose the day that my daughter goes back to PS, or when the local PS kids start (different district).   We call it our "not back to school" lunch.  Our local HS group always has a huge not-back-to-school picnic and play date at the park with inflatable games and all sorts of stuff.  It's a great way for new HS'ers to meet others, and for the kids to feel "safe" in their new HS'ing world.

JC