“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” ~Ecclesiastes 7:8

Few things bring as much excitement as the end of the homeschool year.

There’s so much anticipation and, for homeschool families, a temptation to just wrap it up no matter where it stands and get on with vacation!

We believe there’s a better way than just dropping all the school work to be picked up again when the beginning of the next school year rolls around. We’ll outline our process and show you how it will create a nice pattern by establishing chapters to your entire homeschool journey, provide closure to each school year, and give an empowering sense of accomplishment and confidence for both parents and children.

This process begins a few months before the end date of the school year and is worthy of investing in the time and energy it takes to be sure the tracks are laid for the homeschool train to pull into the station.

We like to call it “Inventory Time” as it’s a chance to reflect on the current progress made, to look at how much more there is to accomplish, and then decide on how plans may need adjusting to get there. The time you have between the inventory and the chosen year-end date will give you an idea of how your plans need to be amended to end where you’d like.

To get started, grab your homeschool planning book to take a look at where you stand as of now. Don’t worry if the lesson plan book is not up to date or entirely a hot mess…that’s precisely why this time is needed. 

Know that if the time comes to establish a fresh way to plan, we’ve got resources that will help. Our blog article How to Plan Your Homeschool Year has concrete and applicable ideas and samples. Listen to the complimentary podcast for even more details on planning here. And in our membership side of our website, we’ve created multiple classes and resources with a step-by-step planning guide and printable schedules to be customized to each homeschool need. One-on-one monthly online meetings can be scheduled with us to get specific needs met, and we have live community calls for open Q & A. You’ll get the help you need to get it all in line.

For now, you’re reading this to end your current year well, so let’s get back to Inventory Time.

Here are five homeschool tips for finishing up well

1. Ending your homeschool year: Where are you now? Where do you want to go? And how will you get there? 

Look at this in all of your subject, enrichment, and extracurricular areas. Shift, amend, and/or get rid of things in the schedule and consider which areas can be most easily wrapped up nicely. Then accept the fact there will be others that simply need to end where they are simply because of time constraints.

For example: Every year in our house, when our weekly co-op meetings ended in April, I knew we’d have extra time to work on book work we hadn’t gotten to and get our 4 H record-keeping binders shored up. If it looked like we wouldn't have enough time to do both, the book work requirement would be lessened because, the fact is, publishers put much MORE in their content than what can reasonable be accomplished in a school year. We kept some curriculum books for multiple years actually, because they were good quality, and we didn't want to miss out on everything in there.

2. Homeschool plans for celebrations: Decide on culminating showcases/open house/performances.

Build these show-off events into your school schedule. Whether it’s through, for example, private music lessons or a sport team, or an open-house related even to one of the history topics you loved best (even if it's something you’re going to create just for your own family to attend) find a way for your kids to wrap up the year. These count as educational activities and go a long way toward nurturing a love of learning and providing closure to the year.

3. Decide on your evaluation type for state homeschool requirements: What kind of evaluation will be chosen? 

In our state of residence which is Florida, there are 5 options to choose from, and we used several different ones throughout our journey. Find out what options are available where you live, and see which one would be best for you and your family at this season of your homeschool journey. 

We can’t stress enough that it’s worth the time to go to the source and do your own research on this. If it’s difficult to find, call your county department of education and ask them what your state requires for evaluation and then go to the website to look at it yourself. This is foundational information that should NOT BE LEARNED from a comment on social media or from a friend who homeschools. Know your state requirement, first hand! If this task is too much of a demand, perhaps homeschooling is not the choice for your family at this time. That may seem harsh but, that's how important it is.

The evaluation method chosen will drive some of the plans you need to make and may require changes in your schedule. Consider this evaluation opportunity as a benefit in character building and a chance to SHOW OFF all the amazing attributes of the beautiful journey you and your family are creating.

4. Homeschool organization: How will portfolios be stored? 

If holding onto lesson plans and work samples is a requirement of the state you reside in, portfolios are a great way to empower and build that confidence we mentioned earlier. For us, our homeschool year accomplishments were tangible because we literally lined them up along the floor at the end of every year and took pictures with them. We had everything out and ready for evaluators, and our constitution was bolstered by such a collection of achievements.

Then we stacked them up, rubber-banded the report card, evaluation sheet, and any summaries we had done, and put it all in a tub to be housed in our hallway closet on the top shelf. Honestly, I'm one year done homeschooling and I still can’t get rid of all the contents of those tubs. Such sweet memories I love to reflect on.

Another example of a more random but equally as powerful portfolio we made was our daughter’s high school accomplishments. This collection started as her 4 H binder, a few inches thick but with just one year of records left space for us…mostly me…to continually shove any records I thought would help when it came time to apply for college -- something she wasn’t entirely set upon when she entered high school. 

You can imagine over the years, my girl’s teen angst flaring as I printed off emails of various communications, saved certificates, programs, and the like to create what would become a basket containing the original binder, but it was buried by all the things I’d saved. Now imagine that same girl coming to me with such gratitude for this basket of paper trails that she found so useful when she started applying for colleges she came to yearn to attend.

5. End of year Homeschool Party: How will you CELEBRATE?!

Don’t skip this, please! Your kids and YOU have worked so hard for so long. Even if there's no plan to take a break between ending a school year and beginning another one CELEBRATE the transition. It doesn’t have to be a big, expensive undertaking….have a dance party in your backyard and make s'mores. Just find a way to pat each other on the back and reflect on all you learned and all the ways your family came together for the purpose of a most beautiful educational journey.

We’re Here to Help

We're cheering you on as you make difficult decisions on what to shift and how to navigate the year's end. We know these ideas will help smooth the way of what can be an intimidating and stressful time in a homeschool. You're doing a fantastic job! Now take stock of all your work and get ready to celebrate it -- then rest up a bit for the next season.😉

📋Want a FREE portfolio checklist to help you organize? ⤵️

>> Download and look at a portfolio sample <<