Written by Jessica Smartt of Smartter Each Day
I remember the exact moment I knew I wanted to homeschool. I was seven months pregnant with my firstborn. (What can I say? I’m a planner.)
I was reading a homeschooling manifesto by Leigh Bortins, founder of homeschooling co-op Classical Conversations. The little book had a cover about as as boring as they come, but by the first paragraph, I was hooked. Into the book, into the lifestyle.
They went skiing. They climbed mountains. They camped and fished and built stuff. They read like crazy and tinkered with tools. I read this description of active, vivacious, curious, whole-hearted living, and I wanted in.
Homeschooling was the life for us!
I am now six years into this gig, and the longing to chase waterfalls and climb mountains is still there, hard-core and marrow-deep. I wanted to homeschool for the memories, the adventures, for stimulating love of learning and love of family — and I still want to for all those reasons.
And yet.
The press of “school-ish” things is oh-so-real. Alas, some days I feel drowned in (sigh) workbooks and checklists and “please-write-more-neatly”s.
How do we stay true to the reason we chose homeschool in the first place? How do we reclaim the spark when boredom has overtaken us?
Friends, I have an answer. I am not perfect at implementing it, but I know what I’m aiming for.
That answer is traditions. Traditions are a way of making the things we value happen. I know that sounds really vague and ethereal, so I will make it hard-core practical.
Here is what traditions do for our homeschool:
- Traditions give us anchors in our day, our week, and our year to remind us what we love. We know this, of course, because that is what Christmas and weekends and meals do already. So it’s that idea, but more of it.
- Traditions punctuate the drone of monotonous life by bringing spark and joy.
- Traditions guarantee that we are spending life intentionally. We don’t just have to hope and wish —we choose what’s important, and choose how to celebrate it.
The thing I’ve discovered is that most of us have more of these already than we realize.
Talk to your kids! What do they love about your family? What are the beloved things you “always” do?
Maybe you want to add a few more? Here are other simple traditions to consider:
- Seasonal Bucket List – This is my go-to place to start. For whatever season is approaching, make a list of your top ten adventures you’d like to have as a family.
- Friday Fun Day – As the homeschool week ends, in warm weather you can explore nearby parks, or in colder months museums or plays. We have loved our Friday Fun Days!
- Morning Time — This ritual involves starting your day with “the good and the beautiful.” For us, this means singing a hymn, eating muffins and drinking tea, reading a devotion and a Christian biography.
- Nature sketch books – Take a weekly stroll outside and sketch something interesting.
- Weekly tea with poetry reading — Enjoy a beautiful book of poetry with a warm cup of tea.
- End-of-year ceremony — We do this with cousins who also homeschool to showcase the work of the year. We display artwork, perform music, showcase science projects, put on a play, recite poems. The grandparents love it!
- Weekly work days with rewards — Work is part of life, so work is a valuable tradition! We do a weekly work day on Friday, but everyone gets a reward at the end of the day. Kids get yummy kid-food and Mom and Dad have a take-in date when everyone is in bed. It is the best.
- Date With Mom or Date with Dads — Why not take time in the school day, if you can, to rotate a date with mom or dad? The irony is that while it seems superfluous, this may in fact be one of the most treasured memories of the year for your kids.
Don’t feel as if you need to do all of these things! But if you’re feeling like you want more meaning, more memories, and more celebrating in your homeschool, then traditions just may be the answer you’re looking for.
What a fun adventure it has been to write my very first book on this topic, Memory-Making Mom: Building Traditions That Breathe Life Into Your Home. (afflink)
If you’re longing for more depth and celebrating in your homeschool, I hope this book offers the spark you need:
A note from Jamie: Memory Making Mom hooked me as soon as I read Jessica’s guilt-free disclaimer on page one: “This is a book of suggestions, NOT a must-do manual.”
I loved her reminders to revel in ordinary adventures & her gentle push to try something new – a beautiful read that I was happy to endorse and to share with you!
If you found this post helpful, subscribe via email here to receive Jamie’s FREE ebook, Secrets of a Successful Homeschool Mom!
Weekend homeschool links
My mom read aloud to my brother and me everyday after school for many years. She greeted us with a snack, and we snuggled on either side of her on the couch. This continued well into middle school, when she worked hard to choose books that would hold our attention (lots of sports autobiographies!). I love reading aloud to my own children and credit her with my adoration of all things books!
I liked decorating the Christmas tree as a child.
A very important family tradition of ours is to go camping every summer at the same state park–we even stay in the same cottage (with bunk beds!). Every year the kids have grown and changed but the place remains the same. We do the same hikes every year and swim in the same lake and sing around the campfire. And every year the kids are stronger swimmers and hikers and know even more songs and nature lore. We talk about this trip all year long!!!!
My husband loves watching the Tour de France. So each July we learn about France, and enjoy a French meal on Bastille Day. Last year we made our first (AND LAST) salt dough map of France. Our other favorite family tradition is Snugglesgiving. We spend the day after Thanksgiving in our PJs all day long and lounge around watching movies, playing games and eating leftovers.
We don’t have a lot of yearly traditions other than holiday traditions. This is mostly because we have moved so much that some of the yearly traditions are hard to keep. But we DO have a lot of daily and weekly traditions, which I think are important due to the more large-scale changes we encounter due to moving frequently. Every weekday mid-morning we gather on the couch with a snack, blanket, and our current read-aloud. Every Saturday morning we make pancakes and the kids get to drink coffee.
We make a seasonal wishlist of activities we don’t want to miss out on. Always interesting to see what the kids put on the list as important- often things that I’ve forgotten all about.
I love traditions and all the ideas shared!!! Thank you bc they do mean so much to us humans:). Mine might be reading books together on the Eve and day of each holiday, related to that day & then baking/cooking something that goes with it. Big or small holidays, it just makes ordinary days special & fun!!!
Our family had five kids and a dad who worked long hours as a police officer to support us. When he had a day off, he would take us to the bakery uptown to pick out one doughnut each, then we’d walk across the street to plunk our feet in the fountain in front of the police station – while eating our doughnuts and probably making a big mess. He never complained. 🙂
We celebrate something called the stocking dinner early in December. The whole family gets together and my parents fill everyone’s stockings ( 13 people) with fun treats, tooth brushes, toys, etc… and my brother and I take turns filling my mom’s and my dad’s. We either eat a family favorite or I try some really fun new food. This year we had Indian food because we had just read all about India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Every week we had pizza night out with our family, spending time together and eating our favorite food. I do this now with my kids, every Friday is pizza movie night!
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One of our traditions is Friday night pizza night! We make homemade pizza together, and it’s something we all look forward to.
Followed both. 🙂
We do Monday night date nights with our kids. Every Monday one of the kids takes a turn staying up an extra hour and enjoying a snack while playing a game or watching a movie with us. The kids all look forward to their night and will plan what they want to do weeks in advance. It’s a huge treat for them, and having it preplanned on the calendar ensures it will happen. Doing it just one night per week makes it really doable, too.
We make dinner a time to connect. We share 2 highs and a low whenever we are all together. It helps us connect and learn about each other.
We read aloud before bed every night!
I follow both on Instagram!
We have keeping Friday’s where we paint, write letters, work in notebooks. It is a great way to reflect on the week together.
Each Friday morning, we clean the house (my kids are still young enough that they enjoy this haha) and then that evening, we have cousins over for pizza and a movie/game night 🙂
Following you both
Family Fun Night. On Friday evenings we cook a nice meal, break bread, and light candles. Then after dinner we hang out and watch a movie, play games, or draw, etc. We all look forward to it.
following you both
Some of our favorite family traditions involve the outdoors, and they’re seasonal, so we look forward to them. In the late Spring through early Fall, we hike and canoe and swim, and in the Winter, we ski!
Those are usually our Saturdays–days completely devoted to getting outside and some sort of movement, then, all pooped, Saturday nights are almost always movie nights to rest and recuperate.
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Our family has a lot of traditions that we enjoy throughout the seasons, all of which I’m thankful for as they really mean a lot to us! One timely tradition to discuss is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day! We read our St. Pat’s and Irish-themed picture books, listen to our Irish music playlist, and have potato leek soup or a vegetable stew for dinner. In years past we’ve also done things like making Irish soda bread and going for a spring hike. It’s been fun and I’m looking forward to doing it again in a few days! 🙂 Thanks so much for the giveaway and the chance to win!
On Fridays, we alternate between game night and movie night — either way it means every member of the family in the same room for an evening, and it is lovely.
I recently remembered my mom making a cherry pie for the family every president’s day, in honor of the story of George Washington chopping down a cherry tree as a youth. Makes me smile.
We have Friday night “junk night” on the few Friday nights we are home. On “junk night,” pretty much anything goes, except trashing the house of course! Ice cream for dinner? Sure! Want to sleep in your clothes? Sure! Want to sleep in your homemade box fort? Sure! I find that by giving in on this one night of the week, it’s easier to enforce all the “rules” the other says. And we aren’t actually home every Friday night so it doesn’t happen as often as my kiddo thinks it does! Win for everyone!
I love the idea of making memories/traditions with my kids that when they’re older they’ll still remember and pass on to their kids. We do Friday surprise. If the kids got up on time and were diligent all week with their school work they get a surprise on Friday (candy, milkshake, ice cream, etc.)
We love using our Question Jar at dinner time.
I love this post so much, because those things are the same reasons I was inspired to homeschool!
We do daily, weekly, and seasonal things.
Daily: Even though each day is a little different, almost every night we have a family meal together (kids are still elementary and middle school) and “Family Devotion” time every night before bed. The devotions include singing a hymn, verse memory, praying though a book of missionaries our church supports, and reading a passage from a Bible paraphrase. We’ve been able to read though the entire Bible in paraphrase in about 18 months.
Also, while the kids are cleaning the kitchen at night, I’ll read aloud to them, getting two things done at once – win/win!
Weekly: Sunday morning church as a family and meal afterwards, and – my personal favorite – a nap or rest time in the afternoon. Wednesdays when the kids go to church programs, hubby and I get a kid-free night. It’s great for us, and good for them to see us have special time together.
Friday night is pizza / movie night, and each person gets a week to pick the movie (four in the family, four weeks in a month…learning to take turns and enjoy someone else’s choice).
Seasonally: Today is one of the kids’ favorite days: they are in a spring play, and after a long day of dress rehearsal, we go get “Shamrock Shakes”, stage makeup and all. Since I focus on nutrition and we don’t each much sugar usually, they think it’s a huge treat!
We hike and bike and swim in good weather, and have an annual camp out with some family friends each July. July 4th our town has a parade and our friends have a house on the main route. We all hang together and after the parade we feast and play.
In August, for Daddy’s birthday, we go to a local waterpark as a family (for which they’ve earned tickets by daily exercise in the winter). We also have traditions for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Birthdays: too many to list here.
Another favorite random day when we are coming off a season of business and stress: I’ll schedule a “pajama day” where we don’t have to go anywhere or get anything in particular done. We can sleep in, stay in pajamas, play, read, or even watch a movie if we want. There’s no schedule. We only get 3 – 4 of these a year, so they are very special.
Another kind of tradition: Although we live in the Midwest, my husband’s family is in California, so when we visit, at least once a year, regardless of the season, this mama goes to the beach! My in-laws think I’m crazy, but there’s nothing like the salty crashing Pacific Ocean we can experience at home.
I love that if you do something once that is meaningful, the kids will say, “but we ALWAYS do it this way!” Those are the memories that stick in their heads!
Thanks again for this post!
And I’m now following both of you on Instagram!
We’re trying to incorporate more traditions into our homeschool, so this book sounds incredibly beneficial! One tradition we have is to camp in our backyard the last day of school and get donuts the first day of school.
I follow you in insta, Jamie! Under shel_1057
I follow you on insta, Jessica! Under shel_1057
We celebrate the first robin of spring with a trip out for ice cream.
So many homeschool traditions! I think our favorites are the summer bucket list and how we “homeschool” during the summer with board games and other learning games!
The first snowfall we always take off school, make cinnamon rolls and watch Night at the Musuem.
Followed both on insta. @bretandkatey
My mom would sing a good morning song to us: “Good morning, good morning, you slept the whole night through! Good morning, good morning, to you!” Then she would smile brightly and say, “Good morning, Ashley! I made (muffins, pancakes, etc.) for breakfast.” This was special because she was a night nurse; on nights when she worked, we had to wake up to alarms and poptarts. She only sang the good morning song when she was off, but she would still wake up early to make us a hot breakfast.
Family ice cream runs spur of the moment are a favorite here. 🙂
Cinnamon rolls every Sunday morning! Rainy days are for baking,listening to books on CD during car rides!
Each kids birthday is considered an official “school holiday” and we don’t homeschool that day.
Love this article! I’m always looking for new traditions to add to our days and weeks. Some things that my kids really look forward to right now are going out to eat on Saturday and hiking on Sunday.
Family movie snuggle night once a week.
Every year during strawberry season we go up the road to the shortcake stand for the first strawberry shortcake of the season. We also go to the U-pick strawberry and blueberry farms every spring when they open up.
I was already following Jamie on IG, and I just followed Jessica on there (#4500!) as well.
We love to start the day with breakfast and reading from an illustrated scripture book or spiritual magazine. It sets a peaceful tone for our day!
My family always went camping several times a year. It was a great memory making time and just a time to slow down. We are doing that now with our kids.
My dad would put on elaborate movie nights for us and make ticket stubs and buy put favorite snacks. Many times we watched old films that he grew up on but we loved them too.
I read aloud before bed every opportunity I can get.
Followed both
We always celebrate Easter Sunday at our house with extended family and friends. Dinner, an egg hunt and lamb cake!
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Every morning I light a candle and play “Clear the Stage” by Jimmy Needham. My kids know to have their bibles, breakfast, memory work and notebooks with them on the couch before the song is over. Once the song is over we begin eating, reading, drinking (tea and coffee 😉), talking and chasing rabbit holes until our beloved morning time is over.
I already follow Jamie on Instagram and I now follow Jessica as well! 😀
I have many fond memories of family traditions that center around the holidays and birthdays as I grew up! Mom would let us pick what we wanted for dinner and what cake we wanted. In my own family, we do movie and pizza night on Friday nights. We pick out the movie from the library on Wednesday. Once a month we order out for pizza. The other weeks we DIY or buy something premade.
We get outside as a family regularly. Nature always feels good and brings us together!
I am following both of you. Christmas morning is another annual tradition in my family, carrying over from my childhood.
This post is an answer to prayer for me! I heard a podcast that you were a guest on and was very encouraged. I can relate to your reasons for initially wanting to homeschool and the seeming urgency of school-y things.
One of our favorite traditions is sketching time. We walk have a sketchbook and we sketch in the evenings while listening to an audiobook.
Followed your accounts on Instagram!
When I was a child I got to cook a Christmas evening meal. This was done until I was in high school. I still am in love with meal prep and time with the family!
I freeze a carton of egg nog at Christmas time to use on the feast day of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist in June. The children love it and they know we are half way to Christmas.
We love our Mommy Dates and Daddy Days 💗
And I am excited to follow you both for more awesome homeschool ideas 💡
On Sunday afternoons, my dad would often take us on a hike or a bike ride. This was part of our homeschool week growing up. Sometimes Mom came along and sometimes it was her break. Either way, we loved it.
We have Pizza-Story Night on Friday nights, in which we eat pizza and listen to stories. We also love playing board games together.
We live doing a kid-friendly fun food dinner on Good Friday with scripture that goes with each food. We read the note and pass the food around for everyone. It’s a precious tradition and a great time of connection!
One of our most valued traditions is that we attend the same festivals in the small local towns around us. We do all the kids activities and take tons of pictures. It’s always a lot of fun and these create memories that they talk about often.
Thank you so much for this perfect post! Tears came to my eyes because these have been the exact feelings of my heart lately! I too decided to homeschool while pregnant with our first and those life-filled, warm, adventurous days called to me…but oh, the “schoolish stuff!” Which I have to say, I believe in just as much as the adventure…but how could I have both? I could never seem to strike the right balance! But this is the answer! Thank you!! I’d LOVE a copy of this book. Some of our favorite family traditions are Sunday dinner, Christmas tree cutting day, showing up for each other’s events… But I can’t wait to prayerfully establish even more!
I already follow Jamie on Instagram and now I follow Jessica too!
Striving in our busy homeschool life to make it special!
Friday night camp outs have been happening weekly for years here. My hubs and the kids camp out in a different room of the house every week and this introvert mama gets some alone time. Everyone wins!
We go to our local library on Friday mornings for storytime. It gives my littles a fun time to do songs, crafts, and stories, while providing a change in scenery for my older kids to work. Thank you for the give away!
I was homeschooled myself, and my favorite tradition was our periodic “Reading Days.” On Reading Day, my mom would make sweet treats or a picnic lunch, and we could read anything we want all day—no math! Ha! In the warmer months we would often read outside together, or in rainy weather we might all curl up in her bed. She would read aloud as well of course. Such wonderful memories!
I loved going skiing every Easter break with my family, including grandparents and cousins!
We love our Advent wreath and spreading Christmas over the full 12 days, our Lenten candles, reading through Mark ever Lent, and celebrating every Sunday during Eastertide. On a daily(ish) level, we love after-lunch read-aloud time, tea-times, and family devotions after dinner.
I would love to develop our homeschooling traditions. Next year will be our 4th year homeschooling, but just our first without a major life/family transition (hopefully!) I’m ready to build some rhythm and anticipation into our school life.
We have Breakfast with Dad on Saturday mornings. I get to rest a little while he gets all the kids and they make breakfast; then we all have the time around the table to talk about our week and what fun things we want to plan. It’s become one of our absolute favorite ways to stay connected weekly. If he will be gone, we change it to a weeknight so we don’t miss it!
My mom and I wrapped presents together and watched It’s a Wonderful Life every Christmas Eve!
I’m working on starting a consistent Morning Time with my kids.