As a homeschool family, we plan for the coming school year in different ways than most families. While you may be out shopping for school wardrobes and backpacks, this Mommy is already taking personal study breaks and making sure her home library is overflowing with a year’s worth of books for her inquisitive and eager young minds to devour.

I can venture to guess, though, that we have one thing in common when getting our kids ready for classroom learning – stocking up on school and art supplies. One of my favorite parts of beginning a new school year is sitting with my kiddos on the floor in my living room, as we fix up our binders with crisp lined paper, sharpen our new pencils, and open our new boxes of crayons.

This seems relaxing to me, in a way; a sense of escape from my own back-to-school stress and jitters. Being a homeschooling mommy can be very overwhelming and many things go through my mind as we near the first days of a new school year… Am I prepared? Do I have everything I need? What if I’m not ready? Did we not take enough time for summer fun? Did we take too much time?

I have to say that in the midst of my back-to-school jitters, I feel blessed, as both my children’s mother and teacher, to have an extra advantage as we start our lessons after our little break. I know exactly what my kiddos did over the summer, what concepts need to be refreshed, and that we can skip the lessons on light refraction and move straight to review because they learned all about rainbows during their summer play in the sprinklers.

You and I may prepare in different ways, or have different concerns about the upcoming school year, but maybe we all need to shake the jitters and enjoy these last few weeks of summertime. After all, our kiddos are only young once.

Lots of us are gearing up for school – an exciting, fun and sometimes, hectic time. Hallmark has put together a great resource to help you calm the butterflies and build your kids’ confidence. Just for joining the conversation you’ll be entered to win a $500 back to school package – Check it out.

GIVEAWAY!
You can also win a $100 Visa gift card, for your back to school supplies, right here at From Dates to Diapers! Just leave a comment here about how you and your kiddos prepare for heading back to school. I would love to hear about any fun traditions you may have, or even your fond memories. You may receive additional entries (up to one per day) by tweeting a link to this giveaway, using the hashtag #Hallmark. Be sure you leave me a separate comment for each tweet. A winner will be chosen, and contacted via email, on August 15th.

This post and giveaway are sponsored by Hallmark. The views and opinions are mine.

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