Today’s guest post is by Celee at Miscellaneous Musings of a 5x Mom. You already know how important I think goals are in the homeschooling family. Celee gives you an opportunity to peek into her family’s list of goals and see just how easy making goals can be.
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the myriad of home school materials out there? I recently got my new CBD home school catalog in the mail and started my semi-annual tradition of bending down the corners on practically every other page. Just when I think I’ve settled on our curriculum, I go and buy something else that promises to be even better than what I was using before. This year alone I’ve tried Grammar Ace, Wordly Wise, Sequential Spelling, Horizons Vocabulary, and Lifepac for Language Arts, not including our many Handwriting books. And this is all for one subject. It seems I have a little case of wander lust. Will I never be satisfied? Not that there’s anything wrong with trying out new products, but I’ve had to take a step back and ask myself what I’m trying to get out of this. What are my home school goals? What if there is some great, yet elusive product out there that I never learn about and never implement in our home school? Is it really going to make or break us? The answer I arrived at is:
What do my husband and I want to accomplish by home schooling our children, anyway?
1. We want to mold and shape our children’s character by instilling in them a love for God and His Word first and foremost. We want our children to possess true wisdom, the ability to navigate through life making the right decisions. We want them to please God, not man. We want them to live for Him and to glorify God in all they do.
2. We want to encourage in our children a thirst for knowledge so that they will always ask questions in life and seek to have them answered. We desire to help them develop critical thinking skills so that they will not be brainwashed by the culture around them, but will carefully think through each issue they’re presented with and be able to give a defense of their beliefs.
3. We want to pass on to our children a deep respect for and love of books. I firmly believe that if our kids are inquisitive and they love books, they will never stop learning their whole lives through. If we can give them the desire to pick up a book and the tools to understand it, then the sky is the limit to what they can learn.
That’s not a very long list of goals. It was rather anticlimactic, in fact. I was a little surprised by just how simple our home school goals are.
Upon reflecting on our goals, I realized that instead of the large break front turned home school warehouse, and dining room server, also used to house our many workbooks, we could accomplish our aims with only the Bible and a steady supply of great books.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to toss out all our workbooks and I’m still going to make our kids do math, but this has certainly given me a new perspective. It’s taken a load off to realize that we don’t need every single possible product to educate our children. If we rear godly children who love the Lord, love learning, and love books, then I will consider our home school a great success. End of story.
How about you? What are your home school goals? Have you ever found yourself having to take a step back and remind yourself of why you decided to home school your children? It’s done wonders for me this week and I know it won’t be the last time!
Celee @ Miscellaneous Musings of a 5X Mom is a happily married, stay at home, homeschooling mom to 5 brilliant, adorable, and hilarious kids. Topics she loves blogging about include homeschooling, Bible study, family worship, adoption, and creation science.
Tamara aka Cheapskate Mom says
Following from Friday Follow! Love your header quote! <3 Come on by and say hello!
Simply Stacie says
Following you from the Friday Follow!
http://stacievaughansblog.blogspot.com
Let'sMakeADifference says
I have referred MANY times to the original goals that led us to homeschool. I wrote them down and put them in a safe place, (had to write down where the safe place was….you know how that is, don’t you 🙂
Deborah says
Love your blog. I found you thru Friday Follow and am your latest follower. :0)
Raven says
Yes, yes, and yes! I need to remember these goals more often. It’s so easy to get caught up the whirlwind of curriculum and check lists. I need to set my heart and mind first on the more important goals of virtue, love, and God. Thank you for the reminder!