Monthly Musings - 'Tis The Season for Back To School!

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I took a break for a couple of months, but I'm going to jump in to some Monthly Musings questions again! Holly at Pink Lady and Patty at Good Better Best co-host this monthly sharing of tips, tricks, and conversation starters. This month we're discussing Back To School! Now, you may be wondering why I'm joining in on this one since I clearly do not have school age children, which is fair! I'm not going to answer every question, but I'll take on some of them with brief answers about what we used to do, and others with what I'm doing this year as I will be teaching a high school writing class for a homeschool co-op. And I'll even save you time reading by just linking to articles from the archives of my homeschool blog, Homeschool Coffee Break, that answer the question, so you can only go there if you're curious about it!

Where do you typically shop for Back to School? Any tips?

As homeschoolers, back to school shopping wasn't much of a thing for us, other than picking up a fresh supply of notebooks and that sort of thing. I bought my curriculum from all kinds of publishers, and most of the purchases were made online.

How do you organize for Back to School?

Staying organized was always a challenge! I tried really hard to stay on top of things. See How Do You Keep Homeschool Stuff Organized? for more.

This year I'm working on updating my lesson plans for the co-op class, and need to get that organized. But! I just realized a couple days ago that I never brought the Teachers Edition of the textbook with me. Somehow I forgot that. So that will make the initial organization just a little bit harder!

Do you meal prep? Any fall recipes to share?

I don't really. I've never been very good at it, despite many attempts.

Any Back to School traditions?

First day of school photos! I didn't start doing that until my oldest two were past convincing that they should cooperate, but I have a pretty good collection of First Day photos of the younger two. Some years we had donuts for breakfast on the first day of school too, which was a special treat.

One thing that was very important to me was choosing a School Scripture each year. It was more for me than for the kids, to help remind me why we were there and about the things that were more important than test scores or school sports or neat penmanship. See School Scripture 2022-2023 for last year's and a summary of all the past School Scriptures!

Slow cooker? Instant Pot? Both? Neither? Link a recipe if you have one.

I have both but I tend to use the slow cooker more often, probably because I've had longer experience with it. I got the Instant Pot a couple of years ago and it was a nine days wonder that I used a lot, but then I kind of got over the novelty of it.

School bus? Carpool? Walk to school?

To the kitchen for coffee and breakfast and then either the dining room table or back to the desks in our rooms. A very short walk to school! We did go to co-ops and gym classes though, which was always about a half hour drive.

Start school before or after Labor Day?

Our usual plan was to start to ease into school mid-August and be at full course load after Labor Day. Some years it didn't work so well. Co-op generally starts the week following Labor Day.

Are you doing any Back to School stuff this year? How does the Back to School season affect your life? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm linking up with Monthly Musings hosted by Holly at Pink Lady and Patty at Good Better Best.

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