I love the first five years of my childrens' lives.  From tiny infanthood to independent four-year-old, my kids are cute and sweet and willful and interesting.  I love the teaching moments:  showing Baby how to clap. Blowing saliva bubbles together. Playing "This Little Piggy" with tiny toes.  Singing. Dancing. Learning to use the potty chair.  Teaching my little ones that "No" means No. Learning to eat by themselves and dress themselves and do simple chores and to apologize when they are wrong.  Teaching them about Jesus and how much He loves them and that they can trust Mommy and Daddy and that people don't bite when they are angry. Showing them how to hold a real book without tearing the pages and how to put crayons back  when they are finished with them and how to make their beds and to keep their mouths closed when there is food inside.

I don't need a goal to know what to teach my babies and toddlers. It seems to come naturally to moms to know when and how to teach these little ones to be nice and not throw food and to share and not take things that don't belong to them and don't hit and pick up your toys and "Hold my hand when we are crossing the street" and don't run down the road nudie and the garden hose shouldn't be stuck thru the living room window when it's running and showing the "train wreck" in your mouth while you are eating might be funny at home but it isn't good to do at Nana's house.

Nah. That first five years comes naturally.

But the older the children get, the less natural the road of teaching and directing and guiding and leading gets.

There seems to be a natrual division of learning abilities in children that span about five years.  The first five years, our children are learning the basics of how to talk and walk and interact with their world and in their relationships.  This is when we parents learn who this little person is...compliant, strong willed, creative, destructive, energetic, quiet, physical, emotional, cerebral, people oriented, things oriented, etc.

The second five years, from about the ages of five to around ten, our children begin to learn things that are a bit beyond their own personal perpective and experiences. They learn to read and manipulate numbers. They begin to learn about their faith on a more complex level. They learn to do things they may not want to do but it needs to be done anyway.  They begin to set up value systems and they begin to develop their view of who they are in their world, to God, to their parents, to all others. 

From ages ten to about age 15, life begins to take on more discipline and interest for them.  Their ability to think abstractly has jumped and the subjects at school become a bit more intense. They are learning to push themselves, motivate themselves, beyond what they previously thought possible...or necessary.  They begin to question their faith and their parents and their world as they adjust their values system to fit their understanding.  Life is no longer about strict obedience, but more about growing and figuring things out and thinking things through, not always to a logical conclusion, but hey! they are still learning.

Then from the ages of about fifteen to about twenty, they are shifing from dependence to independence.  This is a fairly scary time for parents, but it's an exciting tho sometimes daunting time for our kids.  This is where they finish up their high school years and take all the things they learned in the first fifteen years and start to apply it to the rest of their life.  This is often the time when all the things they learned from their parents about God and other people goes thru The Grinder Test...and hopefully our child comes out the other end believing and living the things they were taught by their parents. But it won't be because the parents taught them these things. It will be because the child tested them and they were good and the child has chosen to keep these things because now they finally belong to the child.  To this new adult.

We don't need to make goals for the first five years. Like I said before, these things seem to happen naturally with mother and child.

But it wouldn't hurt to learn to make goals for the other three age groups.  It will help you keep your sanity. It will keep you from suffering burnout.  It will keep you directed and moving along at a steady pace.  It will keep you from comparing yourself to other parents and other homeschools.  It will keep you from that panicked "Am I doing enough? What have I missed?"  It will keep you from believing some of those lies I wrote about in an earlier entry.

What kind of goals? How does one write goals? How do I know if my goals are the right ones?

Later.