This is the time of year that excitement starts mounting. The winter doldrums are gone, spring has sprung, the school year is almost over (and the kids actually learned something this year- phew!), and the homeschool conference is coming up next month. Woo-hoo!

Sometimes I think I enjoy my homeschool planning waaayyyy more than I should. The excitement I get from getting out The Well-Trained Mind, the Rainbow Resource catalog, the year’s homeschool magazines, Home Learning Year by Year and sitting for hours on end with thoughts of the perfect school year we’ll have next year may be a bit excessive. But I’m sure I’m not alone. (Right?)

This is the-grass-will-be-greener-next-year time; the I’m-sure-we’ll-get-to-that-next-year time; the thank-goodness-the-year-is-over-and-I-didn’t-ruin-them time.

Can I get an “Amen”?

By July I will have a list of resources, topics, field trips, books, websites, “National Whatever Month/Week/Day” schedules, and a whole host of other things. I will have the best of intentions. I will plan to do every single thing on my list. I will be highly motivated and have the utmost confidence that my children will also be highly motivated come August. They will be bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and rosy-cheeked. They will be unable to stand the waiting and will beg to begin the wonderfully organized projects and studies that I have so lovingly planned.

But of course, as it says on the cereal box, Contents May Settle.

The full schedule I make for myself and my children is an ideal that can’t be realized. The vast amount of curricula, resources, and materials that I drool over while thinking “That is definitely going on the list!” makes it impossible to realistically implement them all. While the excitement of the possibilities can lead us into the school year, eventually some things will have to go. Important things will stand the test, priorities will be readjusted, and inevitably the contents of the “box” may appear less than before.

So what is important in our homeschool come October? What has stood the test and proven itself worthy of our time and attention?

• Reading together- by far, this is the way we spend the bulk of our learning time. I have found that providing good quality literature, frequent trips to the library, reading aloud on the couch every day, and taking dictation excerpts and dictionary work from our book choices can provide nearly all of the language arts that we need. We read history and science books, biographies, poetry, classics, children’s bible stories, picture books…the list goes on and on.
• Geography- this year the US, next year the world. Games, atlases, maps all have their place.• Good quality math programs- math is one of those things that requires repetition on a daily basis. Sometimes the repetition takes the form of a game, sometimes 5 problems in a lesson, sometimes a whole worksheet, but either way when the settling happens, math stays.
• Unstructured family play time- lots of educational games, pretend play activities, building materials and puzzles are available and we allow time for them to be used.
• Discussion- we talk a lot about what we’re learning; we make connections between a history read aloud and what our government is up to now. We play word games in the car, make up songs, pray, quote bible verses, tell jokes. We enjoy our children and what they have to say!

If the mood strikes us we’ll do a project, experiment, puppet show, or art lesson. Many times all of these make their way into our week, sometimes none. But the job we have as teachers of our children isn’t to schedule every “good” thing into our schooling, but to create learners, readers, questioners, and enthusiastic contributors to God’s world.

So if the contents begin to settle, let them. You’ll then be able to fit what really matters. And you’ll keep your sanity in the process.

Christine is a homeschooling mom of four, three boys and a girl ranging in age from infant to 7 years. A musician by trade, she desires to help other homeschoolers find the beauty and simplicity in teaching the arts to their children. Visit her blog at Fruit in Season.