Homeschool Traditions

Welcome to the Annual NOT Back to School Blog Hop 2020 which is being hosted by the Homeschool Review Crew. Today's topic is Homeschooling Traditions.  Traditions in your homeschool can be as complex or as simple as you or your family want to make them.  My personal journey into traditions started almost 25 years ago when I wanted to know how I could create memories with my children at Christmas.

Traditions within a family are the core and foundation of your family identity.  They can be created on purpose or they can evolve over time. Traditions are special moments that happen through intentional planning.  

“Celebrations are the ritualized interruptions in the continuum of daily life which remind us who we are, where we came from and where we are going.” -Milo Shannon-Thornberry 

 

Define Tradition

• a way of thinking, behaving, or doing something that has been used by the people in a particular group, family, society, etc., for a long time
• a long-established custom
• the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation
• an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior
• cultural continuity in social attitudes, customs, and institutions

Dr. Dobson says:‘The great value of traditions comes as they give a family a sense of identity, ‘belongingness’. All of us desperately need to feel that we’re not just a cluster of people living together in a house, but we’re a family that’s conscious of its uniqueness, its personality, character and heritage, and that our special relationships of love and companionship make us a unit with identity and personality.’ 

 Traditions can take place daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.  Some are holiday specific, life changing or milestone, graduation, birthday or seasonal.

Some ideas to cultivate as a traditions

• Read a book aloud together Every Day.
• Not Back to School Party This is one that surprised me. We never set out to make it a tradition but it's one Nathaniel and his friends ask about every year.
• Celebrating Advent
• Christmas Traditions This is one I'm particularly passionate about!
• Enjoying a cup of tea together as a family before beginning your day.
• Weekly family movie night
• Favourite weekly family meal on a certain day of the week (Our family meals was macaroni and cheese and to this day it's the meal my siblings want when we get together with a particular pudding!)
• Holding hands when we pray a blessing on the meal.
• Board games night
• Attending certain annual events (for us this is Night Zoo, Christmas in Melbourne and Winter Fireworks in Docklands) 
• Eating a particular treat over the holidays which is ONLY eaten then.  We have a waffer biscuit we all enjoy and I only purchase them for eating during Advent.
• Going out once a month for a special treat (ice cream, donuts, lunch etc)
• Taking a picnic basket with a pre-packed flask on field trips. 

 Now a tradition is not a rut. A rut is doing the same things year after year because you don't have enough imagination to do anything new. A tradition is something you do once and discover a joy so deep that you do it again, Christmas after Christmas, to keep on savoring it and make it last -  Franklin Saunders (page 23 At Home in Dogwood Mudhole )

Nathaniel enjoying a ride 5 years ago at the Not Back to School Party

 Our Family Homeschool Traditions

• We start our new year each year by attending the local Not Back to School Party at  Geelong Adventure Park. We've loved doing this each year with the same group of families and watching one another's children grow in confidence and create memories together.
• Ice-Cream parties on days when things are hard or we are struggling.
• Each morning we meet in the lounge and enjoy a cup of tea together.  It's a great way to connect before we commence the new day ahead.
  

You can find more from this blog hop in the NOT Back to School Blog Hop Pinterest board or in the linky below.

 

Don't forget to see what the Crew have to share on Homeschool Traditions.