The first day of school is so much fun! The fresh feeling of unlimited possibilities. It can also be uncertain for students and teachers not knowing what to expect, and how it will go. This is true in traditional, Montessori, and homeschool classrooms. Plan first-day homeschool activities that make you feel prepared, create a flow, and keep enthusiasm high.
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Foodie Fun
Stopping to prep food can derail a carefully planned day. Making your food a special occasion will elevate it into a thoughtful part of the school experience. The key is to prepare ahead. Get the kids involved too! They love to be involved and food preparation is great practical life skill development!
Breakfast
A special breakfast begins the first event of homeschool. Make your morning simple by picking up baked goods from the grocery store bakery, or buying a boxed mix and bake ahead of time. Cakes, muffins, and quiche all freeze well. Just thaw the night before and warm in the microwave or oven.
- Waffles or pancakes with bacon
- French toast
- Cinnamon Rolls
- Muffins
- Coffee or pound cake
- Quiche or egg bake
- Make a donut run!
Snacks
Simple, prepared snacks keep you in the “first-day homeschool activities” flow while satisfying hungry tummies.
- Veggie Tray with hummus or dip
- Nuts and Fruit
- Hard Boiled Eggs (deviled)
- Crackers and spread
- Afternoon Tea with mini sandwiches or cookies
Lunch
- Sushi Rolls- lay out a Nori wrap, spread rice over it, and lay on smoked salmon, cream cheese, avocado, and carrot shreds. Roll it up, slice, and eat.
- Wraps and Smoothies
- Build your own salad or sandwich board
- Go out for lunch!
Flow of the Day
A little pre-planning helps you put your best foot forward in guiding your homeschool year. Set a schedule, expectations, tone, procedures, and routines. This School Day Schedule Planner is part of my FREE homeschooling workbook. Download it HERE.
Expectations and Tone Setting
Think through your expectations of your children, yourself, and the school experience. Expectations include behaviors, attitudes, lessons and assignments, breaks, jobs, and responsibilities. Write your expectations down along with a plan for sharing those expectations. Set the tone of your homeschool with expectations and the routines that support them.
Procedures and Routines
Procedures are the steps for how to do a particular task. Routines are the automatic flow for going through procedures. Procedures become routines. Think through the procedures of specific tasks you want to be done.
For example, transitioning from “home” to “school.” How do you want your children to enter the school space and start the school day? Explicitly teach that procedure by telling and demonstrating what you expect.
Next, practice those procedures every day until they become an automatic routine. This takes the guesswork out of each day, removes the pressure from you to guide every moment, and creates a lower-stress flow.
Put procedures and routines in place that guide you and your children through the day.
Routines save the day!
Daily Schedule
Put together a schedule for your first day. Go hour by hour, or leave a flexible time slot for each activity. Overplanning beats underplanning! If an activity flops, or takes 5 minutes when you planned 30, you have more content planned! If you don’t get to all the planned activities, no problem! You have more fun planned for the rest of the first week back to school!
First-Day Homeschool Activities
To Start, or Not to Start…
The curriculum, that is! The first day back to school is special. You want to create something new and engaging. You want it to be fun! You are excited about the new curriculum you chose and so are your kids.
Also, stamina may be low for concentration and focus. Hand muscles may be weak from disuse. A structured schedule takes some getting used to. In my experience, jumping full force into a rigorous curriculum feels like a shock to the system. Ease into the curriculum for better success.
Your children may be ready to go and focused. That’s great! You may decide to complete a full day of subjects in your chosen official curriculum on the first day.
Maybe, you only look through the curriculum books or materials for the year, and work a few pages, or with a few materials. Gauge your children’s interest and stamina. Keep the flow fun and not too taxing.
Alternatively, you may not do any work from curriculum books on the first day. Instead, you might plan fun activities that get the brain and body in gear for a new school year.
Whether you decide to start the official curriculum or not, here are some ideas for First Day Homeschool Activities to get you started:
First Day of School Pictures
Set up a photo booth using a sheet or blanket as a backdrop and use props if you’d like. Play some music and snap away!
Alternatively, allow your child to pick some favorite spots around the house and outdoors to take his/her first-day picture.
A small whiteboard or chalkboard noting your child’s age, grade, etc. makes a nice memory picture prop. Check the dollar store back-to-school/teacher section for picture props.
Alternatively, build a frame with wood and paint it with chalkboard paint. Write your child’s age and grade with chalk on the frame then erase for another use.
Group Meeting
Conduct a group meeting on your first day. Share your expectations. Ask your children about their expectations.
What do they want to learn this year?
What are they anxious about or not looking forward to about school?
Include your children in creating the daily schedule for the rest of the school year. Get their input on jobs and responsibilities that need attention.
Including everyone in the discussion and planning sets a tone of community and comfort and ensures personal investment in the group. You may want to start each day with a group meeting to set the daily tone.
School Supply Scavenger Hunt
Add a little movement and mystery to your morning with a scavenger hunt for school supplies. Hide pencils, erasers, books, etc. in caches around the house. Write clues from a starting point your children must solve to find the next cache supply.
Brain Starter Activities
- Tangrams
- Logic puzzles
- Brain quest
- Riddles or Trivia Questions
- Sticker by letter or number
- Conversation Cubes
- Story Telling Cubes
- Mazes
- Box Puzzles
Fine-Motor Skill Activities
These are great for the first month when children need a brain break from challenging work.
- Origami
- Cooking or baking
- Sewing
- Crocheting or knitting
- Rock Painting
- Volcano eruption (clay manipulation, scooping, and pouring)
- Science experiments
Check out this post for art, science, therapy games, and practical life activities that strengthen gross and fine motor skills while also improving executive function skills like multi-tasking, following directions, goal planning, and completion.
Learning Games
Learning games are board games or card games that have an educational element or purpose.
- Bingo- sight words, math facts, etc.
- Scrabble
- That’s a Word Spelling Game
- Fraction War
Read Aloud Books
Reading aloud to your children allows you to have downtime while still connecting as a group and doing something educational.
Choose a chapter book to begin with or several picture books. Alternatively, listen to an audiobook while you color, draw, or prepare for lunch.
Manipulative Materials
Manipulative materials engage a learner’s brain and body in a multi-sensory way and feel like playing games. Set up a shelf with a few materials. Be sure to give your child a lesson on how to use any materials they are unfamiliar with. Include task cards, recording paper, pencils, dice, and anything else to support their use.
- Play Money
- The Judy Clock
- The Montessori Bead Bars
Facts Review
Reviewing facts accesses prior knowledge, primes the brain to receive new information, and boosts confidence by revealing how much a child knows.
A quick review using math flashcards, state-capitals flashcards, songs, games, or quizzes gets a rusty brain moving again.
If you need a movement break, why not try hopscotch, jump rope, or clapping games intermixed with facts practice?
Mad Libs
Mad Libs are stories with fill-in-blank spaces. You supply words through a prompt like “a plural noun” or “a color adjective” then place the words into the story randomly. Mad Libs incite hilarious fun while practicing grammar. Choose themed stories in packets or search for free download back-to-school Mad Lib sheets.
Introduce a Unit Study
Unit studies make great family-style science explorations! Interactive and fun, they make a great first-day educational pursuit. Why not start with the grand Universe? Launch into exploration of space, planets, the sun, constellations, and black holes! (SNEAK PEEK of the new course pictured above!)
What interests you and your children?
Find a pre-made unit or put together your own by collecting books from the library, downloading free printables, accessing amazing educational sites like NASA or National Geographic Kids, and watching YouTube videos on your chosen unit topic.
Writing
Hand muscles weaken from disuse over the summer. Offering short daily handwriting practice gets the muscles warmed up. Purposeful writing activities like name writing (or tracing), address and phone number writing, and creative writing make practice a little less tedious. Put on some inspirational music, set a timer for 15 minutes, and let your children write a story, practice their name, or focus on beautiful letter writing.
Quiet Time
Some children (and parents) need a little quiet time during the workday. Schedule this time and allow your children to silently read, enjoy picture books, crochet or knit, manipulate a fidget, or create something artistic. Play some music (or not), set a timer, and enjoy a little downtime to reset.
Outdoor Time
Spending time outdoors is precious! It is so easy to stay indoors all day, but so important for the mind and body to get outdoors. Plan a walk, free playtime, or outdoor games to entice your children (and yourself) outdoors.
Make it Last
These activities make the first day special, fun, and interesting. They don’t have to end after the first day though! Many of these activities help with adjusting during the first month of school. Several benefit children (and parents) all year long!
We know things like reading aloud and having outdoor time have daily benefits. Other activities we forget about as we get into the curriculum, but they provide needed respite and review.
Keep the activities accessible throughout the year on a shelf or in baskets. Alternatively, rotate activities as you see your children need fresh brain break activities and fine motor skill practice.