Schultüte

2025-26 School Year–Week One

The first week of the 2025-26 school year is in the books!

We had a fun and relaxed first day:

But we also got started on our work for the year. Chickadee started her religion course, Lutheranism 101. Algebra was (thankfully) all review. She also reviewed 3-level outlines in writing. We got started in physical science by reviewing the scientific method. In history, we read about Queen Victoria, The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations and the Crystal Palace, and the Sepoy Mutiny. She started her first literature study of the year, and it’s something that’s new to even me…The Wind in the Willows. Since I couldn’t find a cookbook that went with any of our literature for the year, we decided to make recipes from the American Girl Sweet and Savory Treats Cookbook, starting with a recipe inspired by my original American Girl doll, Kirsten…Jam Twists, made with lingonberry jam from Ikea…perfect for a Swedish immigrant!

And because I really wanted to have a fun, first week field trip, we took the train downtown yesterday and went on a cool Busch Stadium 360 Tour…details to follow!

Next week we’ll fully be in our routine, but it was nice to have some fun activities this week!

First Day of School 2025

Today we kicked off the 2025-26 school year, with Chickadee in the eighth grade!!

Every year before the first day, I get my American Girl dolls, who have pride of place on on a bookshelf in our schoolroom, dressed in their school outfits:

And organize the schoolroom as best as I can:

The first order of business was also my favorite back-to-school tradition…Schultüte. It was weird only making one this year!!!

We didn’t start every subject today, but we did accomplish some traditional schoolwork.

And of course Chickadee built a Lego set…she finished the Lego botanical four seasons collection we started on the last day of last school year with the Lucky Bamboo:

I made a special treat for dessert, too. Chickadee and I are having a little book club this year, and we’re reading through the Harry Potter series. She’s reading our original, American books, but I’m reading the British versions that I received as a gift years ago. Right off the bat, I noticed that they mentioned a dessert of “Knickerbocker Glory” in mine, but not in Chickadee’s, which only had mention of chocolate ice cream. So we looked it up, and discovered that the layered dish of vanilla ice cream, strawberry sauce and chopped strawberries, and whipped cream is easy to make, and we did!

This is going to be a very different school year for me, with only one student at home, but I’m looking forward to every new moment!

Schultüte 2025

Here’s a look at this year’s version of my favorite first day of school tradition, the Schultüte!

I was really happy with the items I put together…I found a lot of fun pens and pencils, and I also added a few Pokémon things, which was a nice follow-up to our Pokémon Summer!

I think Chickadee was happy with it, too!

This continues to be one of my favorite things to do every school year!

First Day of School 2024

Today we kicked off the 2024-25 school year, Ladybug’s last year in our little homeschool. I organized the school room as best as I could so we could start fresh, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to find room for all of the books (and Lego sets!) in our collection!

As always, there were Schultüte to open first thing:

And pictures to take. Ladybug is in 12th grade this year, and Chickadee is now a junior high student in 7th grade!

We did some work this morning, but not every subject:

I had to run out to the orthodontist with Turkey before he heads back to college, so we stopped for a first day of school treat at Scooter’s…pumpkin spice season has arrived!

And then, as we usually do, we got to work building our Lego set(s). I decided that instead of a larger set, I would get the mini Disney castles we didn’t already have, so we could complete that collection. Even I got to build this year, because I still had the Sleeping Beauty castle I picked up while we were at the Mall of America this summer!

It a lovely little collection, but I don’t know what we’ll do for space if they make more castles…and at the same time, I really hope they do a replica of the castle at Disneyland Paris!

For dinner, I made one of Ladybug’s favorites…pot roast and green beans. And we enjoyed a cinnamon roll cheesecake for dessert.

It was a great kickoff to the new school year!

Schultüte 2024

Here’s a look at this year’s rendition of my favorite first day of school tradition, the Schultüte:

Our first day of school had something of a Lilo and Stitch theme, including some fun items in the cones:

Blind bag items are always super popular!

I guess next year, I’ll only have to make one of these.

Schultüte 2023

It’s the first day of school, and that means it’s time for our favorite beginning-of-the-school-year tradition…Schultüte!

This year, I wasn’t able to find Lego minifigs, and I also didn’t see any pins I liked, so I found a few new things to add to the cones…pencil toppers that are absolutely adorable (both girls got rare characters, too!), and bag charms:

The fancy pens I found were also a popular item!

I really love that we continue this tradition every year!

First Day of School 2023

I decided to do something different this year, and start the new school year on a Friday, so we could spend a day doing only the fun, first-day-of-school stuff, and not worry about diving into the work until next week. Last night, I made sure the school room was ready to go…I made a few minor changes this year, but for the most part, our setup is the same as it has been:

I also got the Schultüte assembled:

After we look through our materials for the year, pictures are always a priority:

I decided we needed a fun outing to kick things off, so we drove all the way to Livingston, IL (about 40 minutes away) to the Twistee Treat Diner at The Pink Elephant for ice cream cones. It’s on Historic Route 66, and we’ve driven by it every time we’ve gone to Chicago, and I thought the time was finally right to check it out!

Would it even be the first day of school if we didn’t build a Lego set? I decided the Disney Villains Icons set would be a nice bridge from our fairy tale themed summer school…it’s a very clever set, and the girls let me build the Sleeping Beauty part. We’ll just ignore the hard time they gave me over the VHS tape build!

A (poison) apple for the teacher!

Ladybug requested a special dinner from Lilo and Stitch: The Official Cookbook. She really wanted to try the Pelekai Sweet and Sour Pork, and it was excellent! I also made a super decadent, super chocolatey cheesecake for dessert.

I really liked starting the school year this way…it was nice not to have to immediately get started on our actual work! I think we just might do it this way again next year (which will be Ladybug’s last first day of school with me)!

First Day of School 2022

Today marks the start of my 15th year as a home educator!

We started the day with the Schultüte, as is our tradition:

I think they were a hit!

And of course I took pictures of my students…it’s still a little hard for me to believe that I’m down to two, and one of them is in her second year of high school!

We did some light schoolwork…religion, math, a read-aloud, and a bit of language arts. We’ll get into the rest of the subjects tomorrow, but the first day of school is mostly about fun, including building a new Lego set. I got something really different this year…an art set of Mickey Mouse, which was the perfect way to bridge summer school and our vacation to the new school year! And since we started school before everybody else, the rest of the children were still here to help!

It was (I think) a really fun build!

Here’s a closer look…I think I may get a second copy of this set for our last day of school, because there are alternate building instructions to make Minnie Mouse, and I would love to have a matching pair!

I think we got the school year off to the right start!

Schultüte 2022

Time for a look at my favorite first day of school tradition…the Schultüte! I enjoyed putting them together even more this year since I’ve been putting so much work into making our German/Austrian heritage a bigger part of our daily lives. I included all of the items you would expect…candies, school supplies, and a few fun things:

I wanted the fun items to reflect our vacation, so I added some Goofy blind bag pins, and some Lego Muppets minifigs:

This is always a fun beginning to the school year!

Schultüte 2021

Just because our little homeschool is down to two students doesn’t mean we’d give up our favorite first day of school tradition! As it turns out, my college students (as well as Moose, who starts back to school in person later this week) mentioned to me that they hoped they’d still qualify, so I put together five schultüte just like I always do. In addition to the standard school supplies and candies, I added a Kirby pin to each, as well as a minifig from the Lego Looney Tunes collection:

It makes me happy that this tradition has become so well-loved that no one wanted to miss out!