We are headed into our 8th year homeschooling and 3rd year using Gather 'Round! I want to give some encouragement to new homeschool families and maybe even some Veteran Homeschoolers. ~You do not have to have a school room! We just moved across country this past year and into a new home in January. I gave up a beautiful custom homeschool room. It was huge and amazing and stored everything. I had hundreds of books I had to sell before we moved. You know what made that possible....Gather 'Round!! I don't need all those books now. I have a bookshelf in my hallway some built ins and we just made this space. It is my entryway. It is the only wall in my house that doesn't have huge windows so we used it to hang things and this cabinet to store all our school stuff. If it were not for Gather 'Round I would definitely need way more shelf space as we followed Charlotte Mason pretty purist before this! ~There is flexibility in start times! You don't have to start in August. We usually start after Labor Day. This year my kids asked to start 3 weeks ago. This is not normal and just because they love Gather 'Round they asked to start earlier. Unfortunately Covid put us behind. We were going to start last week, but still recovering. We will start Monday. ~You are going to have days you don't get it all done! I will be shocked if we get through our 2 units I have planned and Indigenous Peoples before Christmas season. Sick days happen, life happens, work happens, gardens need to put rest for winter, and it is all ok! It is what makes homeschool amazing and flexible. Not only that they are learning life skills with all those things. We focus on Math and Reading every day! ~Enjoy this time even with the crazy toddlers. It goes so quickly. I promise it does get easier! My oldest is 12 and we have finally found our stride. I actually have time now to just enjoy things because I do less hand holding! I hope you all have a wonderful school year!

Posted by Alexis at Gather 'Round at 2021-08-27 00:25:19 UTC