A Slice of Smith Life: bulletin board

We've had a "Tee-rific" Summer!! Another (Home) School Year Begins...

I always like to start each of our homeschool years at least a week before traditional school begins. That way during my birthday week I'm not completely overwhelmed and can relax a little to enjoy my birthday. Since my birthday (August 24) usually falls on the first week of public/private school in my area, I started schooling my children this week and we are gradually getting into a routine as I ease into our schedules.

One of our new school year traditions is to make and decorate a cross-shaped cake the night before school starts. So our family had fun this past Sunday night baking, decorating and eating our colorful and yummy cross creation. You can see other cakes I have made for my "cupcakes" here.

Before decorating...

During decorating...

After decorating!

Sometimes little fingers don't like the messy side of decorating as you can see from my 2 year olds reaction

Then on Monday morning we did an activity that I did last year with the children. We talked about all our fun adventures over the summer and our favorite parts of the summer. Then my children drew and colored on their paper t-shirts about some things that represented their summer fun. I got my t-shirt copies from the book, The MAILBOX: Bulletin Boards For Busy Teachers book for Fall, Winter, Spring, Anytime.

Here is a link to a free t-shirt printout that is similar to The Mailbox version that I used. Click here for the printable t-shirt.

After they decorated and colored their t-shirts, they cut them out and "hung" their t-shirts on the clothesline with clothespins that I made on our bulletin board that is hanging in the hallway outside our classroom.

The simple and fun "Tee-rific" t-shirt activity has been a great way for us to transition into our homeschool days!
I hope to blog soon about how I am getting used to our Workbaskets + Workboxes = Works for 4 (children) organization system.

I have also made new chore charts for my children that are working so far so stay tuned for future posts on these ideas that I hope will be helpful for others!

If you homeschool are there activities that you do on the first day of school with your children to get the year going?

If so, leave a comment! I always like hearing new ideas!

May God grant all our families a fun and successful 2010-2011 school year in whatever school setting is best for your family!