You’ve researched curriculum and made decisions. When the Online Purchasing System opens, you are ready to place your orders! You’ve made a list of the school supplies you need, and you’ve got some good ideas for field trips. You sat down with a calendar and got a good overview of your school year, like I suggested, right? (See Part 1 below) You’re ready!

Well, wait. You want this school year to go as smoothly as possible. You want your family to thrive and enjoy it. The right math book and enough pencils aren’t the only ingredients in that. In this article, we’re going to look at how to prepare yourself, your home, and your family for a smooth year of school. If you haven’t given this much thought yet, please read on. You can’t ignore the “home” in “homeschool.” It counts for so much!

The first person to consider in this part of the preparation is yourself. You are the engine in this vehicle. If you don’t acknowledge how you run, you are going to struggle all year. While you probably think that school is all about your kids, it’s not. You are an integral part, and if you try to run it contrary to your own personality, everybody will crash and burn. If you thrive on schedule and orderliness but school is off-the-cuff chaos, you will burn out. On the flip side, if you chaff against routine, you’d be wise to schedule in “interruptions,” with well-timed breaks for field trips or out-of-the-box activities. By its nature, certain parts of school need routine, but you can keep yourself from burning out in January if you work with your personality and find the areas that can give you space to breathe. Decide ahead of time how much chaos you are willing to endure. Do you need to find time for prep or checking over work? Consider that in your week, so you don’t always feel behind.

Next, you would be wise to spend some time considering your goals. You might want to sit down with your partner over a cup of coffee and talk over these questions:

• What are you working towards? Do you want to make sure your kids are prepared for college if they choose that route? Trade school?

• What life skills do you want to make sure they have when they are done with school?

• What character traits are important for them to demonstrate?

Remember, we are not simply educating our children by replacing the brick-and-mortar school. We are raising our kids while we teach them about the world around them and prepare them for adulthood.

Once you have considered how you yourself function best and you’ve established the goals your family is working toward, ask yourself, “What do I want our school to look like?” Are we going to read on the couch and do math on the floor and be outside as much as possible? Is the kitchen table a great place (or the only place) to sit to do work? Does your family need a designated spot to work or gather materials? Do you function best with a formal or informal style? Do you expect your kids to learn to work quietly and independently? Do you want to be involved in their work? Envision your day-to-day routine or activities and think through what you’d need to set up to make that happen.

As you think that through, give some thought to what habits you could establish to help your day run smoothly. Are there morning chores that need to be accomplished? Maybe it would help your kids to have a list posted or an email sent that they can reference as they get up and get moving. Do you want to make sure school books are put away as you switch subjects or activities? Plan to spend some time focusing on that for the first couple of weeks until it becomes automatic.

In addition to the habits you want to establish, decide whether or not you want to use some sort of motivational system. Some parents find this very helpful, some think it’s too much like “school.” What would be best for your family? My kids wear green plastic bracelets when everything is going smoothly. If they need a reminder to get focused or cooperate, I trade them for a yellow. If that’s enough of a warning to get them back on track, I give them back the green a bit later. It usually is enough. Every once in a while, the yellow is traded for a red, and a consequence is necessary. But a green bracelet at the end of the day will earn them a ticket towards a prize down the road, so they are motivated. This system gives my kids gentle reminders and prevents me from feeling like I have to spend a lot of time on minor behavioral issues. Trade bracelets, move on. Every day is a fresh day with a green bracelet and we try again!

Don’t forget to spend a little time to consider how the various systems in your home will run while you are schooling your kids. Do you need to plan and prep meals over the weekend? When and who will make sure the laundry gets done? How will you fit in cleaning? Gardening? Think through your family, your home, and realize that school takes up time and a lot of space in your brain. If your home is falling apart, it’s difficult to maintain peace and enjoyment in school. As your children get older, the workload can be shared and home economics classes like culinary arts or small engine repair can be incorporated into the school year.

The final area of your home to take a look at can be a touchy one. I want to encourage you to consider the methods and habits you and your children have regarding their behavior. If you take a hard look at your communication with them and realize that they ignore you more than they listen to you, that the absence of respect is making it hard to get even small things done, then I would strongly encourage you to think hard about what changes might be necessary in your family. If you can’t get a child to pick up their socks, how will you get a math lesson done? I don’t say this in judgement, but in exhortation to seek help—a book, a friend, something. School will be so hard if behavior is constantly a problem. But if your family can work together cooperatively most of the time (because we all have some bad days!), then you can have peace in your homeschool. It will be worth the effort to spend some time addressing this during the summer months! As school begins, you will have a plan and some new habits in place.

As you consider carefully how to best prepare your home and family for this school year, don’t forget that it’s all a learning process for you as well as your kids. Did your great idea fall flat? No problem. Try something else. Evaluate. Adjust. And while not all school is fun, plan a few fun things. Add some traditions that help your kids look forward to special days. What are you going to do for the first day of school? Last day? Will you celebrate 100 days of school? Plant a tree on Arbor Day?

We truly hope that you enjoy your children as you learn together and grow in knowledge. A well-prepared home and family is an important step to a successful year. You have a team waiting here to support you. Please reach out as you have needs and questions.

-Rebecca LaSavio