January is kind of a popular month for goal setting. And I know, lots of people love to hate on resolutions. But when it comes to homeschooling goals can help you with simplifying.
It's so easy to get overwhelmed with the unending curriculum choices out there. We all want what's best for our kids and we can get bogged down wanting to teach them every subject that every expert says our kids need to know. But we don't need to do it all. We all have different priorities, different passions, different goals.
In order to decide what to keep and what to toss (which is coming later this week), you need to know what it is that you're trying to accomplish in your homeschool. What's important to you? What do you want your children to learn this year? What do things will you teach them that you feel will best serve them in the future? Knowing the answer to these questions will help you decide what to include in your days.
Start out by writing a mission statement for your homeschool. Figure out what you think education should look like. Think about why you chose to homeschool... about what it is that you most want your children to take from their time in school. Now translate that into a mission statement that you can check in with when you're wondering what the heck it is that you're doing.
Our mission statement looks something like this:
In home educating our children, we hope to nurture their natural curiosity and cultivate a spirit of wisdom and virtue. We hope to aid them in developing a love of learning and give them the tools necessary to answer questions for themselves. We will expose them to great literature, art and music in the hopes that they will learn to love and appreciate the beauty that is all around them. We will give them ample time to explore and learn from nature. We will help them to develop skills that we feel are necessary for success including good work ethic, self-discipline, initiative and creativity. Above all, we want our children to learn to love God and serve others joyfully.
From the mission statement, I can create smaller goals or themes for the year, like:
- read aloud everyday from a variety of quality books
-encourage creativity through various art projects and lessons
- find at least one tangible way to serve others in our community each month
Of course, you can break it down even further and make specific goals for each child. For example, some of my goals for B include:
-achieve fluency in reading so she is comfortable doing so independently
- work on slowing down and doing her best work instead of rushing just to finish
-expose her to and allow her to experiment with different forms of art
When you've got these goals laid out in front of you, it's easy to see whether or not an activity or project will help you achieve them and it's easy to see what things aren't worth keeping. Things will be much simpler when you aren't filling up your schedule with frilly extras that aren't serving your purpose.
So how about you? What are your goals for your homeschool?
To see the other posts in the Simplify Your Homeschool Series, click the image below.
This series is part of the iHomeschool Network Hopscotch. Click the link below to see what series the other bloggers have up. You'll be glad you did! :)
