We have been reassessing our goals and priorities again at the beginning of this year and I have been wondering if many others have set down and developed a goal for their personal/family life or for their homeschool.

We wrote a family goal, which included a few personal goals for my husband and I.  We try to look at it each year and adjust parts of it to more closely reflect where we are and to address any shifting in priorities, that have come about over time.  We took some training a few years ago which has really helped us to clarify our overall goals.  Here are a few of the things we learned:

1.  If you don’t have a goal, then how do you know if your are achieving that goal?

2.  Writing down your goal helps to clarify it in your mind.  It also keeps it visible, to remind you.

3.  Everyone who is part of the family/group/organization needs to be involved in the development of the goal.

4.  If everyone has ownership of the goal, they are more likely to be a part of the effort to achieve the goal.

5.  Goals should be reviewed and reassessed regularly.  Circumstances may change and the goal that you wrote last year, may not reflect your life/homeschool/etc. this year.

6.  When you need to make a decision, walk through some questions to determine if the decision is leading your toward or away from your goal.  How can you reach your goal, if your decisions all lead you away from your stated goal?

7.  Remember that just because something seems to be leading your toward your goal, it may be leading you away from your overall goal in other areas.  Strive to keep balance among all the facets of your overall goal.

8.  Try to determine what indicators you may look for to determine if things are not going in the direction you want.  Be aware of these indicators and monitor them to see if changes are necessary, so you don’t get off track.

To set your goal, brainstorm what you want your situation/life/homeschool/etc. to look like in the future.  Write out the goal in sufficient detail to clarify your thoughts but not so detailed that you get bogged down in writing it.  If it is too detailed, you will obsess over how to write the goal.  Then determine the steps that you need to take to get to that goal being achieved.  Once you have identified these steps, you can start implementing actions to lead to those goals being achieved.

You can use goal setting and decision making in a number of homeschool settings:

1.  Determining whether to take part in an extra-curricular or away from home class.

2.  Career direction – ie. Does a part-time job enhance my education for the career I am planning to enter.

3.  Deciding on a college, etc.

I look forward to hearing your comments and ideas.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Is it just me, or does it take a few weeks to find your groove when you start a new school year.  Because I took the time to do more planning the week before we started, I felt that we got off to a good start and stayed on schedule the first couple of weeks.  We had a few trips (1-2 days) planned over the next couple weeks, plus a playdate with another homeschooling family, so we have had to adapt our schedule to those, but they have worked out fine and we are keeping up with the basics and have a little catching up to do in some of our secondary subjects.

I don't have a good enough (read: rigid) schedule that my laundry is always caught up, that the house is always drop-in clean or that meals are planned well in advance and on the table in a timely manner.  I am working on that.  But first, I am trying to declutter my house some more so that cleaning it will be easier for myself and the children.  Our lives have become increasingly busy in the last two years and I haven't quite adapted to this new level of activity.

This weekend my sister is coming to help with some long-put-off decorating projects that I promised my daughters and we are going to go through several totes of kids clothing that I had kept for her kids.  If she doesn't want them  then they are going to go to an outreach center that a friend's church has opened.  It will be good to get them out of my storage area, as it doesn't appear that I will be having more kids (my youngest is approaching 8 this winter).  Next project after that is to sell some of the books that are overtaking our house.

Perhaps when we are staying indoors more this winter, I will have more time to attack these projects with a vengeance.  I have the makings of a menu planning system, but have not implemented it.  My sister came up with the system and it works pretty well.  She did say that she was getting tired of the recipes she originally put into her system and is looking to expand her choices.  I have used the card system (SHE's) and Flylady, and I think that my daily routines are the thing I need to get back to using.  Hopefully, I can get back into the routine of doing those things.

Will post back on my progress, when I get a chance.

• Comments (6) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

We began homeschooling when our oldest (twins) were 2 years old.  My husband had been hearing about homeschooling on Christian talk radio and provided me with information.  I knew there was no way I could do that.  After much prayer on his part, my heart was softened and I can't imagine not homeschooling and the freedom it affords us in educating our children.  Rather than put them in a preschool program, we created one of our own.  We added our third child shortly thereafter and continued on with early learning activities until it was time to begin Kindergarten.

We used Rod and Staff Preschool series workbooks with all the children the year prior to starting Kindergarten, which are inexpensive and give a solid and comprehensive skill set.  We follow that up with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, combined with the Explode the Code series of workbooks for phonics.  After recommendations from nearly everyone we knew who homeschooled, we introduced Saxon Math to our children and have been very happy with the results.  We began handwriting instruction with A Reason for Handwriting, but have now switched all 3 children to Handwriting Without Tears.

I am very much the frugal homeschooling mom, so nearly everything we buy for school, I have been able to purchase used. 

We follow the Classical Method (ala Well Trained Mind) for our history and science studies, but prefer to have something structured within that method.  We use Story of the World as we study the 4 year history cycle and Living Learning Books for elementary science.  

We are busily trying to repaint bedrooms this summer and have moved our schoolroom into a family room in the basement.  Will add pictures when that is completed.  Hope you enjoy reading about our little Homeschool in Green Pastures. :)

• Comments (5) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link