Last week, on Aug. 10, we started our 2015-2016 homeschool year.  We are slowly getting into a routine and gradually implementing the curriculum that I prayerfully and patiently chose for this year.

We started our first day last week with some of the simple and easy new school year traditions we have been doing for several years now.  I really didn't even think my kids appreciated the traditions or took note of them until of few of them asked, "Hey Mom, we're having our cross cake right?" and "We are drawing what we did over the summer on those paper t-shirts right?" So I'm thankful they remember some of our simple, fun ways to ring in the new school year and I'm thankful the traditions are easy enough to prepare since it's the last thing I get ready before the school year starts.


My kids love to bake and decorate our traditional cross cake.  We've been doing this for several years now.  Since our homeschool is named Sacred Heart Academy, we usually decorate the cake with Jesus' Sacred Heart and a "few" sprinkles.


In the morning on the first day, I have the kids draw on their "We've had a Tee-rific Summer" paper t-shirts.  I got the pattern from a teacher resource book, but HERE is a link to a similar t-shirt pattern you can use if you would like.  As they use their creativity and draw pictures and write words about their summer fun, it's always interesting to hear some of the memories they have had over the summer.


I have the t-shirts hanging on a "clothesline" in our hallway to our homeschool room and each year as they hang their current creation up, they look back at their previous drawings that we still have hanging up behind the newer ones.  They giggle at how their artistic talent has changed and improved over the years.  :)


Around this time each summer, we also measure how much everyone has grown since last year.  Wowzer!  They each have grown so much, no wonder they are always hungry! :)  Our son grew about 3 inches, at least!  They like to compare their heights with each passing year.

Another tradition that we do (even the older kids) is write on and color the All About Me sheets.
It's neat to see how their interests have stayed the same or have changed from last year.  I then taped these sheets on their spiral bound notebooks that I am using this year for lesson planning.  More on my new lesson planning routine and our daily schedule in a post later this week...