Preparing For A New School Year

We made the mistake of going to the store the weekend before public school started.  The back-to-school aisle was packed to the brim with both people and supplies.  The excitement in some of the students were in sharp contrast to the stressed countenance of the supplies list-bearing parents. We quickly abandoned that part of that store to it's rightful customers as we have the luxury of going back to school whenever we want.  My need for glitter pens for lesson planning can wait.

I remember being that kid, excited at the prospect of new school supplies but not necessarily the new school year ;-)  The yet smudge-free pages of a new notebook, the pencil that needs sharpening, the new book bag, even the new uniform. I loved the idea of new things that back-to-school requires.

Now as a homeschooling parent, I still love back-to-school. The promise of rhythm in routine comforts that part of me that requires stability.  As a Catholic homeschooler the first thing on my lesson plan is always spiritual, that is my source of stability.  Then there's the physical plan (Body Beast! is the new part of our exercise hybrid) and the home plan (really just purging and organizing the school rooms).

There are a couple of new things on my list this year inspired by the homeschool mom's retreat I attended over the weekend.  In random order, here is a sample of our spiritual plans as we prepare for a new school year:

• daily rosary - we slacked off during the Summer but we re-started a couple of weeks ago
• daily Mass
• weekly Adoration
• Consecration renewal  - we will start on September 4th in time to renew on October 7th, Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary
• novena to the patron saint of our homeschool (St. John Marie Vianney)
• go to confession
• retreat for mom - I just finished this, a blog entry is in the works

Catholic schools in our diocese open this week. We will start after Labor Day as always, that is plenty of time to pray and immerse myself once again in this virtue-maker of a vocation.  I wish you all a blessed school year.

tome for the oldest child entering seventh grade, ora pro nobis!