New School Year Q&A: Doodle Notes, Texas History, and More!
Welcome back to Making Everyday Magic! My name is Shanna, and we’re an 8-year-strong homeschooling family of four. For the 2024-2025 school year, we’re homeschooling a 7th grader and a 3rd grader. Recently, I opened the floor for questions, and here are a few of the answers! From first-day traditions to doodle notes and Texas history, let’s dive into your New School Year Q&A!
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First Day & New School Year Traditions
We love to celebrate the start of a new school year with a few simple traditions. One of our favorites is setting up everything perfectly the night before. Our house is organized, and all school supplies are prepped and ready. To mark the occasion, we enjoy a family dinner the night before—an intentional pause before the school year begins.
We don’t do anything extravagant, but this family night is special to us. At the end of the year, we like to give a small gift to recognize the achievement of completing another school year. It’s a simple way to celebrate milestones and motivate the kids for the next chapter.
Advice I Wish I Had Started With
Honestly, this entire blog is filled with the advice I wish I’d had when I first started homeschooling! I wish I had known there were more secular homeschoolers, or at least others who didn’t fit the traditional mold. Over the years, I’ve learned when to pivot and how to make confident homeschooling decisions.
One piece of wisdom I’ve found valuable is: “Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t ask for advice.” It’s easy to let others’ opinions cloud your judgment, especially from people who weren’t part of your homeschooling decision. Trust your choices, and don’t let unsolicited criticism derail your homeschool journey.
Doodle Notes: A Fun Learning Tool
Doodle notes, also known as sketch notes, have been a hit in our homeschool. We started using them to help with note-taking for subjects like chemistry and essay writing. The concept is simple: instead of writing out full notes, we focus on key concepts and illustrate them with doodles.
We don’t follow any formal template; we watched a few YouTube videos to get the idea and went from there. The kids use affordable notebooks—complete with dinosaur and princess designs—and create sections for different subjects. For example, in Texas history, they doodle significant points and facts from what they learn.
It’s not a rigid system, and it doesn’t need to be perfect. The main goal is to make learning fun and memorable without overcomplicating it!
Texas History Resources
For Texas history, we’re using Free Fun Texas History, an online resource that offers free content and field trips. While it’s great, I felt it didn’t dive deep enough into the history of the First Peoples of Texas. To supplement, we found some excellent YouTube videos, including some produced by a Deaf university that provides sign language alongside the lessons. There’s even a great playlist focusing on tribe-specific content.
This year, we’re focusing on bringing more diverse voices into our history lessons to ensure we cover all aspects of Texas history.
How We’re Fitting It All In
Our homeschool schedule has shifted this year to accommodate changes in our daily lives. I realized last year that getting places on time in the evening was a challenge, so we’ve adjusted by doing more schoolwork in the afternoons. It’s been a new approach for us, but we’re making it work.
Mondays are sacred! I like to front-load heavier schoolwork on Mondays and avoid outside commitments as much as possible. It helps me set the tone for the rest of the week.
Additionally, we’ve consolidated most of our extracurricular activities into one day. It’s a busy day packed with music lessons, fencing, and ninja, but having everything scheduled on one day has made our routine more manageable. It’s a lot easier to focus on school the rest of the week without the constant back-and-forth.
How to Find Homeschool Events & Classes
We’re fortunate to be near a major city like Houston, which offers a lot of homeschool opportunities. I’m in just about every homeschool group on Facebook in our area, and I find many events that way. From special homeschool days at museums and farms to squid dissections and SeaWorld, there are endless educational opportunities.
If you’re not near a large city, I encourage you to reach out to local venues and ask if they’ll accommodate homeschool groups. Many places are willing to work with you. And if there aren’t homeschool days in your area, be the person who organizes them!
Conclusion
Thank you for all of your wonderful questions! I hope this Q&A session was helpful. Whether you’re looking for advice on first-day traditions, doodle notes, or finding homeschool events, I hope you found some inspiration here. Feel free to drop more questions in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Homeschooling is a journey, and we’re all learning as we go. Let’s make this year one to remember!
