Saturday, April 5, 2008

Home Education Week--Looking Forward




Dana's prompt for today, the last day of Home Education Week asks us to look forward on our homeschool journey:





What are your goals for home education? What do you hope to instill in your children? Are you planning any changes to how you educate your children?





This week I have been really gearing up for homeschool experience. We have received some curriculum that I've ordered, and I've been developing schedules in my head (soon, I hope, to be on paper, or at least in Homeschool Tracker). On Tuesday our local homeschool group is sponsoring a Mom's Night Out, the topic of which will be resource sharing.





Yesterday, Emily Anne, Will, and I attended a Spring Fling for our local homeschool group, which included crafts, games, refreshments and a lovely setting by a lake. It was the first time my children had been around most of these home educated children, and it was a wonderful introduction for them to these new friends. We had a ball!








So, with all of these activities dealing with home education this week, it is appropriate to end the week with a reflection on my goals for children. These goals will help to build the foundation for my further homeschool planning.

  • My children will know God's Word, will know Him, and will seek to please Him with their lives.
  • My children will be so saturated with reading material and read-alouds that they will develop a life-long love of reading.
  • My children will have the freedom to explore their areas of interest and talents, developing them in order to fulfill God's purpose for their lives.
  • My children will be grounded in the basics of a classical education so that they will be rooted in the knowledge of the past in order to succeed in the future.
  • My children will be surrounded by an atmosphere of celebration of knowledge so that they will develop a life-long love of learning.

My overall arc of the homeschool experience will be classical learning, but also during these early years, we will explore unit studies, nature studies, and living books. Therefore, their all-important first exposure to learning will be a mix of classical and Charlotte Mason approaches.




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful goals! You will do a great job homeschooling.

Shari Ellen said...

You sound well prepared for homeschooling. I hope you really enjoy it and all the time you will get with your children. I've decided to add more Unit Studies with my younger girls, too. There are so many free Unit Study ideas available on the Internet. I'm even posting a Birthday Unit Study next week. We just got through all of the kids' birthdays, but I'll be ready to use it next year.