That's the question that most potential or new homeschoolers ask first.  And I'm convinced that its the wrong question, because the answer to this question depends on the answer to many other questions. 

Since this is the time of year that most of us start looking toward and planning the next year and when potential homeschoolers start researching educational opportunities, I thought it would be fun to blog some of my thoughts on choosing curriculum.  This will probably take several blogs.

A better first question is "What is my vision for my child?"  Proverbs 29:18 says, " Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law."  Vision is what keeps us from floundering from on educational philosophy to another or switching curriculums every 6 months. 

Vision is knowing what kind of person we desire our child to be as a adult and willing to do our part to become that person.  I'm not saying that we have the power to determine who our adult children become, that is between them and God, but we do have the power to dramatically influence their lives.  For instance, if I desire my child to have a good work ethic as an adult, then I would not want to allow him to spend hours each day playing with his gameboy or watching tv.  Instead,  I would want to provide projects for him to work on that required diligence and hard work and reserve the gameboy and tv as a treat. 

The vision that my husband and I have for all of our children is that they desire to walk with the Lord for all the days of their lives, that they are fully servicable to the Lord, that they are willing to do whatever God calls them to do, even when its hard.  In order to see this in our children, we must first become that person.  In J.C. Ryle's sermon The Duty of Parents, he quotes John Tillotson "To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is the same as pointing out to them the way to heaven, while we take them by the hand and lead them down the road to hell."   Very sobering!

After vision comes goals - your vision is the ultimate goal, broken down into smaller goals.  These goals should be short term (a year or less), mid range (2-5 yrs) and long term (5-10 years). 

What will you child need to be the person in the vision?  What character traits does he need?  What acedemic skills will he need?  What non-acedemic skills? 

Here's some of the character traits we desire for our children, spiritually strong, a knowledge of God's Word, selfless, generous, merciful, forgiving, have an understanding of biblical submission, have a heart for the lost. 

Here's some of the acedemic skills we desire for our children, love of learning, read well, have a basic understanding math concepts.  These are the basic goals we started out with nine years ago when our first was in kindergarten.  As our children have gotten older we've included being able to write well and speak well. 

Here's some of the non-acedemic skills, be able to keep a home tidy, do laundry, cook a complete meal other than mac and cheese, do basic home repair, basic car maintenance, grow a vegetable garden, live within a budget, and the list goes on and on and gets bigger each year.

Here's the thing, our vision and goals for our children may not necessarily be your vision and goals for your children.  Our vision is based on time that we have spent asking God what He wants for our children.  So,  you can't just take what God has given us and plug it into your family.  You need to spend some time asking God what He has for your family. 

I want to encourage you to spend some time alone and with your husband (or wife if your the husband reading this blog) asking God what He desires for your children.  You might be surprised!

I'd love to hear the vision and goals that others have, so feel free to post those in the comment section. 

Part II will be  " What is my educational philosophy?"

Only by His Grace,

Angi