Educational Goals

It is around this time of year that I begin to think about the next school year. What do I like about what we are currently doing? What isn't working? What would I like to see the kids do/learn next school year? What would they like to learn/do next year? What do they think is going well or is not going well? As I ponder these questions I begin to receive curriculum sales flyers in the mail which make me giddy. Even as a child new school books and supplies were always a favorite part of my schooling experience. (Although these feelings quickly waned as I would have to work through the books and find that almost all of them were boring.) But the hope and suspense of each new school year was exciting.

When I homeschooled the first time years and years ago I bought a book titled: 101 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy. I loved the book. When I decided to pull the kids out of school to begin homeschooling them last year I purchased the book again and used its resources and information to make my curriculum picks for last year. I found out a couple of months ago that Cathy actually had just released an updated version of her first book titled: 102 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum. I had to have it and purchased it immediately. I was not disappointed by the updated version at all. In the book Cathy not only highlights what she deems as the best curriculum, but also talks about the different learning styles of children, different teaching styles of adults, different homeschool styles (and there a ton!), and finally, my favorite part, a question and answer section that allows a person to work through all of the information presented in a way that one can personalize a curriculum for her/his own family.

One of the sections that particularly seemed of importance to me was the section regarding priorities in homeschooling. I relabeled the term priorities and deemed them as educational goals. After coming up with my list I presented it to Bob and he added a couple of things that he thought were of utmost importance too.

Here is our list:

We want our children to...

1.)  Learn to think for themselves.
2.)  Develop a love of learning.
3.)  Become voracious readers.
4.)  Learn how to speak and write well.
5.)  Be prepared and organized.
6.)  Know who they are and what their interests are.
7.)  Be able to function well in society.
8.) Learn time management.
9.) Develop discipline and a strong work ethic.

We feel that this list, if accomplished, will allow our children to become very successful adults (even if our version of success looks much different than mainstream society).

So now what my job is is to determine (with input from my kids and Bob) how we can best accomplish this. Is this best accomplished with book work? Is this best accomplished with volunteer work? Is this best accomplished with chores and tasks here at home? Is this best accomplished with child led learning? Is this best accomplished with distance learning?

I don't have the answers right now, but my goal is to have them soon. In the meantime we will continue on with our school year as we have been and enjoy our learning adventures as we have been.