We are coming to the end of our homeschool year, and it's a great time for clearing out the old and making space for a new season of learning.
I love the feeling of finishing up a year, and the sense of relief that comes when we are done. It's so nice to focus on summer routines, and to take a mental break.
These are a few of the steps I take as I close out a year.
- Ask your children what they loved and didn’t love about the homeschool year.
- Spend a few days discussing what was learned over the course of the year. You can download our free End Year Exam pack for question examples.
- Take photos of their best work for your files.
- Record any grades, and file any needed paperwork, we keep 2-5 work samples for each subject.
- Clean out the school baskets, dispose of unneeded papers.
- Clean out the pencil boxes, return all library books, and purge the book shelves of unwanted books.
- Take a mental break to process how we felt about the year before planning the next one.
- Plan a celebration. This might be as simple as an end of the year picnic, or as elaborate as a family vacation at the beach.
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Have you already got next year planned out? This post has some great tips for planning. It's better to plan too little and then add another resource than to overplan and overwhelm yourself and your children.
I use this planner and I take time to map out a word for the year, goals for each child, and interest led learning as I plan. I also take time to reflect on the year that I am finishing up to make sure that I evaluate what worked and what didn't work. I don't want to repeat the same mistakes if I can avoid it.
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