7 MUST DO End of Year Tasks for Homeschool Moms

Overview: Eager for summer? Tempted to throw down the books and be done? Not so fast. Here are 7 Homeschool End of Year Tasks you MUST DO to end your year right.

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If you’re following the traditional school calendar, like we are, we’ve nearly made it to the end of the school year! If you’re anything like me, you may have a tendency to feel a bit crispy around the edges as we approach May. Sometimes our homeschooling years can feel long… a bit too long even.

Before you hang up your hat for the summer, however, there are some things you should plan to do to end your year successfully.

Here are 7 MUST DO Homeschool End of Year Tasks:

1 – Celebrate

This is an easy one for some of us to skip. If we’re completely fried at the end of the year, the last things we want to do is to add something else to our calendar. However, it’s important for us to celebrate the accomplishments of our kiddos. Hopefully, they’ve worked just as hard as you have. A great way to motivate them to continue working hard in the coming years is to give them recognition for a job well done.

Have a graduation ceremony, throw a party, host an open house, consider a grandparents’ day so your kids can show off, go on a vacation or a special field trip. Try to do something memorable to commemorate the end of your homeschooling year.

Even if you continue to do some sort of schoolwork over the summer, you will want to occasionally celebrate your children’s accomplishments.

2 – Recordkeeping

Right now, you may think you will never forget what your children have done during the year. In a few years, however, I guarantee you won’t remember everything. Here are some of the things you might want to record:

• Subjects studied by each child (including grades, tests, special projects or papers written)
• Books read or listened to (including audio books)
• Movies watched
• Field trips that were taken
• Extracurricular activities
• Volunteer hours
• Special Awards

It’s even more important to keep track of your child’s accomplishments if they are in their high school years.

I like to keep track of some of this information each week such as books they are reading. If I don’t write these things down as they’re doing them, I’ll never be able to keep track of them all. For other things, such as field trips or extracurricular activities, I can simply look back over our calendar at the end of the year.

You may also want to gather some photos of different things your child has done throughout the year. These can be put into a scrapbook or simply stored on a CD or in a folder on your hard drive. It doesn’t matter as long as you know where to find them in the future.

→ Related Content: Vital Tip to Take Advantage of Summer – Utilize Grandparents

3 – Evaluate your year

What did you think about your curriculum choices? Should you continue along the same path next year or find something else which might work better? Do you need to consult with other homeschool moms or experts? Do you feel like your child is learning? Can you identify any strong or weak areas for each child?

4 – Talk to kids about what they think

Take time to talk to each of your children one-on-one. What did they think about the school year? Do they have any areas of interest they would like to further explore? Are there any changes they’d like to make next year? Are they having any struggles they’d like to discuss?

5 – Talk to your spouse

Take all of the information you have gathered and have an end of year conference with your spouse. Tell him about your hopes and fears for each child. Talk about your struggles. Ask for advice. Pray together about any changes you may need to make.

6 – Plan for next year

Using your state requirements, the interests of your children, and their learning styles, come up with a plan for each child for the coming year. You may want to get a rough idea in place at the beginning of the summer and order any materials you might need.  hen, once the next year is a bit closer and you’ve had a chance to rest, start coming up with a more detailed plan for the coming year. Don’t over-complicate it!

7. Take a break of some sort

Depending on your homeschooling schedule, you may be gearing up to take the entire summer off or you may just take a day or a week here and there throughout the year. There is no one right way to take breaks – but be sure that you take them. It’s easy to burn yourself or your kids out if you try to keep on working constantly without ever taking any time off. God created us to work on 6 days and to rest on the 7th. We shouldn’t feel guilty about taking occasional breaks.

The years can feel long for homeschooling moms, but if we complete the above 7 tasks at the end of each year, we will have the best possible opportunity to remember what has been accomplished, to evaluate learning, and to craft an amazing coming year for yourself and your kids!

Question: Do you attempt to complete each of the above tasks at the end of your homeschool year? Is there one you struggle with? Are there any other tasks you would also suggest? Please leave a comment below.