Ideas
Start your own not-back-to-school tradition
By Laura · Founder, Home Ed Ireland
As home educators, there’s no rule that says you have to do anything at all when the new school year rolls around. Plenty of home-ed families let it pass like any other week, and that’s a perfectly good tradition in itself. (If it’s the back-to-school wobble that’s on your mind this year, we wrote about that over here.)
But if you’d like to mark the turn of the season in your own way (something that’s yours, not a stand-in for the school run), here are ideas families around Ireland use. Borrow freely.
Go somewhere
The rest of the country is heading indoors, which is exactly why now is the loveliest time to head out.
Take an off-peak trip
Once the schools go back, everywhere empties and prices drop. Loads of families make an early-September getaway their yearly ritual, near or far, a night away or a fortnight.
Have a “first day” of your own
A beach, a forest, a mountain: somewhere that’s suddenly quiet and all yours. Pack a picnic and make a day of it.
Do the busy places while they’re calm
The playground, the pool, the museum, the city: all far more pleasant the week everyone else is back at their desks.
For plenty of families, the trip is the tradition:
We always do a back-to-school trip. Most of our daughter’s friends go to school, so around now they start talking about all the stuff they need to get ready, so we book a trip, and she has something of her own to focus on.
– Evelyn, home educating for 8 years
And part of the magic is the quiet:
For us, it’s the moment we can start going out again after hiding from the crowds. This year we’re going on a short trip, not so much because of the date but because it’ll be empty everywhere.
– Jennifer, home educating for 9 years
Start something
September’s a natural moment to begin, just on your terms, not the timetable’s.
Sign up for what’s starting now
New terms of sports, music, drama, art and clubs (chess, Scouts, swimming) mostly kick off this month, a gentle way to add rhythm and friends without a classroom.
Book in a meet-up
Reconnecting with your people after the summer is its own kind of “back to school.” Find a local group and put a date in the diary.
Pick one thing to dive into
Ask your child what they’re itching to learn or make this year, and follow it: a project, a topic, a skill. Let that be the launch.
Mark a fresh start
If a bit of ceremony feels good, make a small ritual of it.
New supplies
Fresh notebooks, a set of good pens, a pile of library books: the nice part of back-to-school shopping, none of the uniforms.
A special breakfast or day out
A first-week treat that says “here we go”: pancakes, a favourite café, a trip somewhere loved.
A family chat
Sit down together and talk about the year ahead: what everyone wants to try, learn, see and do. Write it down, even. Some families make this their whole first week.
Your own first-day photo
On a beach, up a tree, mid-adventure, your version of the front-door snap.
Bake something seasonal
An apple tart, a crumble, a “new year” cake: a warm, hands-on way to mark the turn of the season. If you’ve an apple tree in the garden, like me, all the better.
For Bárbara, back-to-school shopping is a joy, just not for uniforms:
We don’t buy uniforms, but we go shopping for all the activities we have: new ballet things, new wellies and waterproofs for Forest school, new stationery, whatever we need. We just don’t buy those boring uniforms!
– Bárbara, home educating for over 13 years
For Irina, the chat is the first week:
My almost-16-year-old is completely in his own calendar. We tend to take it easy the first week, talk about goals, interests, material preferences, the things that need a bit of extra work.
– Irina, home educating for 6 years
Or do gloriously nothing
Honestly, one of the best traditions of all.
Let it be an ordinary week
No fanfare, no fresh start, just your normal happy days, with the quiet smugness of a lie-in while the school run happens without you.
Give yourself a reset
Not for the kids, for you. Read a bit, listen to a podcast, revisit why you chose this. A wobble passes faster with a reminder of the why.
However you mark it
The point isn’t to recreate school with better snacks. It’s to notice the turn of the season in a way that feels like you, or to happily ignore it altogether.
However you do it, welcome to the loveliest, quietest, most your-own time of the year.
For even more, Twinkl has a lovely round-up of ideas for celebrating Not-Back-to-School Week.
More on the feelings side of all this in Everyone’s Going Back to School. We’re Not.